Old Lad

I used to enjoy doing “the big shop” when the family were growing up. We would all go together and combine it with snacks in the supermarket cafe. But as the family grew and children left home it became more of a necessary chore. And as I have got older its become a much more impersonal experience with the advent of self scanning and self checkouts. I recently shopped at Lidl. What is it about the two businesses Aldi and Lidl that make them train their checkout operators to compete for who can rush items through at high speed and overwhelm the customer! But I digress.

I grew up in a small industrial town in Lancashire called Tyldesley. In the 1950s the dominant retailer was the Co-op, and we were a Co-op family. Tyldesley had its own cooperative society and boasted 13 grocery shops, a mobile shop that visited areas in the town, a Fashion store with bespoke tailoring, Butchers, a bakery, a furniture store and its own undertaking business. The “big shop” didn’t really exist largely because many households did not possess a fridge or freezer and foods like meats, bread or vegetables would be bought fresh on the day. Its interesting nowadays to see the introduction of supermarket loyalty cards and home delivery services. The Co-op had these in the 1950s. Anyone who was not able to carry their groceries home could have them packed into a recycled cardboard box and have them delivered. And of course the Co-op pioneered the system of sharing its profits with its members (the customers) in the form of a quarterly dividend payment. The “Divi” as it was called was eagerly awaited by families and could be quite substantial. Customers received a small cheque with each purchase and these were collected on a gummed sheet at home until “Divi day”. The pay-out depended on how profitable the quarter had been but could be as much as 10p for every pound spent (Two shillings in old money). We were definitely a Co-op family. Its goods were good quality especially own brands with the CWS label. My first long trouser suit was tailored at the Co-op by a kindly man called Mr. Thompson. When I became a student I had a holiday job as a relief van driver for the Co-op and used to deliver goods from the whare-house to the shops as well as doing home delivery runs. I even got to do a round with the electric bread van. I even got to get behind the wheel of the hearse – admittedly only moving it around the garage and empty but an experience! The Co-op model was a socialist experiment that worked and because customers were members they had a loyalty to the business. Sadly the model did not survive the relentless march of the big supermarket chains and although the Co-op as a business still exists it has lost its localism

Now as I get older I like doing shopping in the old way and fortunately I now live near the small market town of Cockermouth. Although it has a branch of Sainsburys in the town centre it still has a good selection of small food shops – butchers, green grocers, bakery, fishmonger -and joy of joys a re-opened Jennings Brewery. Free range eggs can be bought from a local farm. By shopping locally we are preserving the high street. The other thing about shopping as we get older is that for many people doing the daily shop is an incentive to leave home and interact with people -important for staving off depression and dementia. Its a shame we can’t bring back the old Co-op though!