Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

Think you mean No 6 Margaret.

I've still got a couple of books of Green Shield stamps somewhere!

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

I recall a popular green grocery cum fuiterers store at the junction of Broadway with Whalley Road. That was before Broadway was pedestrianised. I believe it was called Catlows and run as a family affair by two brothers.

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

First 'supermarket' I went in was Tescos on Union St. I seem to remember a bit of chaos - stack 'em hi sell 'em cheap?

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

Tesco had stores at either end of Union Street, long before they were the Tesco Chain that we know today.

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

A long long time ago when I went to school most of us boys and girls wore clogs. Boys clogs had irons on the bottom,girls had rubber pieces,It was great to run down the street and make sparks from the irons,but also helped to wear them away.
You could go to the Co-op shoe shop and buy new irons for 1 shilling and fit them youself or your dad,but the best way was to go into the cloggers no appointment just straight in after school and hope no one had got there before you, or then you had to sit on a wooden form and wait your turn which cut down playing out time.
When it was your turn he always asked your name,and then he got the last (which is a metal form to put the clogs on) between his knees took your clogs one at a time pulled the old broken irons off then he would knock little wooden sticks in to the old nail holes before fitting the new irons,and he would do the same with the heels,about 20 minutes work.
He would make you put the clogs on and jump up and down,then he wrote the money to pay on a piece of paper and sealed it up so you could not see the cost, until you got to the counter in the shop to pay,the lady would say how much it was to pay,if you had not enough she would write a note to give to your mum to pay later.
When I grew older I remember asking my dad about why the clogger always asked your name,he said that the clogger new nearly everyone in the top end of Clayton and who were the poor familys thats why he sealed the prices to hide the different charges that he made.

You could not get away with that now. And I'm told things have got better?

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

Correct, and before that the Catlows fruit & veg was at the bottom of Infant St at its junction with Peel St, in an old wooden building.
Retlaw.

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

So yeh learnt me summat there walter, can remember the Fruit @ Veg in the Green painted wooden building bottom of Infant St, but never knew twas Catlows, cheers fer that un.:)

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

Yes there was a stall in there selling dress materials too...can't for the life of me think of the name of it though.

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

No it was back in the late 50s and 60s that coupons were in their prime, can't remember why they stopped including coupons though,

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

Think they were the first to include coupons if I remember rightly

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

You know Margaret I seem to remember wooden tables in there with bric-a-brac and small tools and bits of stuff you might find at a car boot sale.

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

Could have been inflation. Do you remember when that guy had saved up enough books to get a Ford Cortina and when he went to claim it he found out it had gone up by hundreds of books!!!!! Long walk home with wheelbarrows full of Green Shield Stamps!!

Re: Buying stuff way back!!! How things have changed!!!
 

I remember buying ribbed clogs from a shop on Blackburn road Army and Navy shop. These clogs were made ribbed or a corrugated type of leather. We wore these down the pit at Huncoat. I remember getting up at 04.30 in the morning to get ready. My mam had put up my bait the night before. If I was lucky I would get 1 egg or potted beef spread on 8 slices of bread. We saved up green shield stamps. I think it worked out you had to spend so many pounds to fill 1 book. Proud as hell I managed to save for a flask to take my tea in. First day taking it to work, Broke it getting off the train at Huncoat station. Heart broken. Never even tasted the tea.