Metropol

Alexia wrote:Haven't we had this discussion before? Like, recently?

Yes.

Please wake me up when it's over.

I think the sign has recently been changed to 'The Co-operative' but I still call it the Co-op Late Shop.

steddenm wrote:Coventry & East Mercia Co-Op which became the Heart of England Co-Op, and is now Co-Operative in the village I was bought up in...

Balsall Common is Heart of England Co-Op but inside has Cooperative branding.

I can't remember where I was at the time, it may have been Derby, but I'm surprised that some places still have Co-Op Department stores.

All the ones in Yorkshire were closed down years ago I believe.

Andrew wrote:I can't remember where I was at the time, it may have been Derby, but I'm surprised that some places still have Co-Op Department stores.

All the ones in Yorkshire were closed down years ago I believe.

That's right, there's one in Derby near the Westfield. There's also one in Chesterfield.

Andrew wrote:I can't remember where I was at the time, it may have been Derby, but I'm surprised that some places still have Co-Op Department stores.

All the ones in Yorkshire were closed down years ago I believe.

The one in Nottingham was sold and split up into offices, a bar and a Chinese restaurant a few years ago.



The grand staircase inside was absolutely beautiful. I dread to think what's happened to it. Hopefully it's remained entact, but I doubt the public will ever get the chance to see it again.

The Co-Op dept store in Newcastle had the most stunning interior. The whole thing was 1920s faux-Egyptian art deco and the staircase banister had it's metal rail held by little men holding it up on their shoulders.
http://www.timmonet.co.uk/html/newcastle_co-op.htm

I bought my first CD mini-system from the co-op dept store in Ashington on my 9th birthday. £100 it cost. It's bizzare to think you can get the same thing for £18 these days.

My Co-op Department store is no longer with us. What was a Co-op department store is now a Virgo Store. The Food Store there is still a Co-op food store, but nothing else.

We too have a Somerfield, which opened opposite a Co-op, about a week before they bought Somerfield

Also, are you a Virgo VIP?

Hopefully this supermarket thread is generic enough to talk about a newcomer on the block, Haldanes.

Has anyone been to any stores of this little regional chain before? I'm tempted to find one just so I can report back here on quality of in-store branding. And food.

oooh I was going to mention that, they've bought the Kelso branch of Templetons Uptons Presto Safeway Morrisons Somerfield that the co-op was needing to sell off.

The rumour that had been going around was that waitrose had been considering them but I think they're too small and in Kelso at least the looming threat of big Sainsburys / Big Tesco on the bypass might have put them off.

I notice too that the Somerfield leaflet I get shoved through my door weekly despite being nowhere near one has been full of co-operative own brand products recently and has a weird multi-ethnic lesbian creepy couple on the front in badly fitting shirts to demonstrate the merger. How tacky.

Chie wrote:

Andrew wrote:I can't remember where I was at the time, it may have been Derby, but I'm surprised that some places still have Co-Op Department stores.

All the ones in Yorkshire were closed down years ago I believe.

The one in Nottingham was sold and split up into offices, a bar and a Chinese restaurant a few years ago.



The grand staircase inside was absolutely beautiful. I dread to think what's happened to it. Hopefully it's remained entact, but I doubt the public will ever get the chance to see it again.

And the gorgeous brass lifts which were conductor operated right up until the late-90s. It also had a wonderful toy department with a permanent grotto (which had its gates shut most of the year). Happy, happy memories. They store shut to little fanfare in late-2000, and stood in limbo for about 5 years before the council let somebody totally destroy the soul of the place.

There was also a department store in the Broadmarsh Centre, which became an Alders somewhere around 1997 (now TKMaxx), and another in Clifton, which shut even earlier. The last one remaining was in Mansfield, and was sold to Anglia Regional Co-operative Society who have rebranded it as 'Westgate Department Store'.

Greater Nottingham Cooperative Society was merged into the main group in the late-80s following a period of rationalisation, and has followed the corporate line since, so that was Co-op 'welcome' up until the mid-00s and now The co-operative food. Strangely, one branch carries the modern branding with 'The' replaced by 'A' - - the interior hasn't been touched since the early 90s; it's a very rough shop.

Until very recently, Sheffield had 3 or 4 department stores, with Sheffield Co-operative Society (SCS) competing directly against United Co-op who traded as Sunwin. Sheffield Co-op was merged into United Co-op in 2006 (with the promise of 0 SCS job losses) who then merged with the national Co-op (who proceded to sack any SCS staff they could). The department stores finally closed in early 2008, leaving only the Food Hall, Post Office, Pharmacy and Travel agents open (awkwardly in different parts of the store). I imagine the days of these are now numbered, seeing as there are Somerfields ripe for rebranding close to each of them.