Corner shops.

[Richard1978]

Re: Corner shops.

I remember a few newsagents had a shelf or 2 of videos to hire.

There was one that lasted until the mid 1990s by renting out games & consoles to play them on, as well as trading in 2nd hand games & consoles.

[sf1378]

Re: Corner shops.

We had a whole street full of nice independent shops as a child. Oxford Road, Reading. On the far corner was a nice West Indian shop run by a middle aged couple. my parents got to know them well over the years, then there was a newsagents next to it, run by a brother and sister who were middle aged. The West Indian shop sold fruit and veg, sweets, canned foods etc and was painted blue outside, in particular they also sold tropical fruits and veg. The old man died, the woman didn't really get over it and she eventually retired as her kids didn't want to run the shop. The newsagents sold all the usual things but also lots of nice pocket money toys. I remember before I went into hospital for an operation at the age of 4, a few days before Dad, my sister and I went in and I was allowed to choose a toy, I chose a cheapo garage set that had a green plastic car and an orange one with black dumbell style wheels clipped onto the body, they easily broke . There was also a figure molded in blue plastic and a set of blue petrol pumps with white/pink/black stickers and I also think a circular petrol logo on a stand...Memories. I got the set after I was discharged from hospital - Dad gave it to me on the day I was to come home! Anyhow, sadly as the mid 80's came alone thugs came to the newsagents and did a smash and grab raid, they assaulted the old lady there, and bruised her face badly in the robbery. It even made the local paper. By that time her brother had also died so she never got over the robbery/assault and sold up....The rest of the parade had other shops, we used to sometimes get the odd thing or two from the nearby Halal shop too run by Mr Latif...

I must say, and this has been something I've thought of saying on this thread and I don't want to offend, but even though I'm Sri Lankan Asian I do ascribe to my parents musings that after a lot of the corner shops and newsagents were bought up by Pakistani, Bangaladeshi and Indian people even the quality of the shops went down hill...well they did in my area...thats not being racist, its based on manners, their lack of customer service and the prices. True, prices have to be a bit up to justify expenditure on stock but it was different as a child...I oddly felt shops run by White people were far friendlier, mannerly,...Now newsagents seem to try and stock everything and gone are the days of each shop having a character of their own...and then theres the fact that the individual English Butchers, Bakers, Grocers etc are gone...True also, we as consumers are to blame...supermarkets became the norm due to our 'ooh its all the more convenient under one roof' so they expanded...we stopped visiting the butcher, the baker and green grocer etc for the likes of Tesco's, Sainsbury's, M & S etc...well, especially Tesco's and Sainsbury's as their prices were predominantly cheaper compared to the luxuriant M & S and Waitrose's....perhaps I'm illustrating my prejudices, but we all have those but mass consumerism destroyed individual small businesses really....It would be nice if more cottage industries rise up and slowly draw away customers from the strangleholds the giants have on us now...life is circular so it may slowly happen but being circular it will also mean the return of the giants of such industries over time....one things for sure, I don't like how Tesco's is involved in everything...they make me sick.

[sweep]

Re: Corner shops.

Couldn agree more about the big supermarkets we have seven within a twelve mile radius as a result the town centers are full of pound shops,charity shops and very little else even the local market for so long the heart of the town is now on its knees

[jb7]

Re: Corner shops.

I remember a three, well two were opposite each other and I used to pop into on way home from school, woulda gotta a proper glass bottle of coke round that time too, and their mini pies were lovely. I even remember in the other one getting glass bottles of Crusha Raspberry or Banana milkshake.

but the most regular I went to was just five min walk away, round the corner, it was a great wee corner shop back then cause it was a bit 'thrown together' in that the Counter was old, with newspapers all over it, along the side and down the back was some foods and a public phone (LOL), all the sweeties at like what 22p back then, displayed up behind the people who served, and a big glass display unit with likes of chew sweets like Pacers, gum, etc just by the door. And in the other side when you walked through was all VHS movies you could rent (haha I can still remember the 80s covers!), and cards, and comics, etc. It wasnt all bright and 'perfect' like today's shops, it was great back then. hehe.

[Richard1978]

Re: Corner shops.

There are 3 corner shops near not too different, though none with any videos or DVD's to rent.

[Trickyvee]

Re: Corner shops.

We also had a shop run by Pakastanis that was at the other end of the road from the main group of shops so I didn't often go there, but when I did it always seemed to have a better range than the other general dealers nearby. Our usual general dealers had what to my mind were the 'boring staples' but the Pakistanis had the staples and more hard to find goodies, like toffee pops!

[darren]

Re: Corner shops.

thing is with corner shops they where not just shops they where like meeting places where people could meet up and have a chat.
they where great for the local community.
supermarkets have ruined thiss.
its all about money these days

[Trickyvee]

Re: Corner shops.

Very true. I knew all the shop keepers at our shops and no trip was complete without a catch up on the gossip. My mother could spend hours there!

[Hooper68]

Re: Corner shops.

I always remember that if you bought a block of Ice cream from our local shop they would wrap it up in newspaper.

[darren]

Re: Corner shops.

Very true. I knew all the shop keepers at our shops and no trip was complete without a catch up on the gossip. My mother could spend hours there!

no need for newspapers u heard it all from the shopkeepers.

but its so sad these shops are mostly gone.
thing was it was a goof way for people to get to know each other.

[Fatboy]

Re: Corner shops.

In my area we had a corner shop at either end of my street, both were run by English people. I can remember one of the shops had a problem with the floor, and when you went in through the door, the floor ran quite steeply towards the counter, you felt like you were running towards the counter. The shop used to have boxes of sweets, chews on the window ledge, I can remember in summer, the sweets used to have ants crawling over them

[battyrat]

Re: Corner shops.

The top of our road in the 70's was a small co-op.Used to get the stamps from there.I still have a token somewhere from that place.Always had the best crisps around,Horror bags of my fav,Bones,or fangs.Splicers that used to break your teeth and spangles.Always had the basics that you needed in stock and never ran out.Shop keepers were so friendly.Then across the field and down another road,there was the papershop that sold so many interesting things including matchbox models,comics,books,nick naks,and all those wonderful sweets,10p got a hell of a lot of sweeties.That is where I spend my whole 5p pocket money,later raised to 10p.There were so many small shops in our area,all long gone now,including several small post offices which also doubled up as shops.
The newer shops all seem to be fags,boose,and cat food.Never have what you actually need,no basic stuff,high prices and staff that don't care if you get served or not while they gossip the day away.

[darren]

Re: Corner shops.

problem with shops now its all about money.
yes shops have more things u need and more variety.


allcorner shops in my town are gone.
only one that is still around is mackles.

its family run and when the original owners passed away there kids took it over.

it still sells sweets in those big clear screw top plastic containers.

you can still order buythe quarter pound etc.

it still does as much business as it ever did.

[80sChav]

Re: Corner shops.

problem with shops now its all about money.
yes shops have more things u need and more variety.

I think I will have to disagree with you about Shop's having more thing's and variety Darren, sorry. I wish thing's was like they used to be,like when I was young you could get any Football Mag you wanted really from any Shop - as well as big places like WH Smiths (I don't know if you have them in Ireland or an equilvlent may-be!!? - now it's all the same nearly where-ever you go corner Shop or not!

I think it is the same with Supermarkets too - they "make out" they have better choice or a different choice but they don't really I think. I recall well smaller Supermarkets, lke ones that sold more frozen food's and you could get real unusual flavoured thing's like differing Cheescakes etc. Asda, Morrisons, Sainbury's and Tesco don't offer this like small Town "type corner shops" or even corner shop's did I feel sadly.

Sadly times have changed and for the worse I think. Corner Shops also created a Market Town feeling too ..... well they did in the Small Town and Small Village I was brought up in - you could walk from one end of the High Street to the other on the Market Day's their and it'd take about an hour/hour and half to do - looking in the small shop's and Market! You still can do this now, but the fun has gone and the timescale reduced due to there not being as many and pace of life being faster etc!!

[sweep]

Re: Corner shops.

I have very fond memories of our local shops. but in reality how many of us would swap the convenience and variety of a modern supermarket for the daily trudge to the market or shop. they only died out because we stopped using them.