Metropol

We just call our local co-op the co-op. Its in a rural area and is a pain in the ass to try and park anywhere near it. And if you live opposite it, you will never be able to park outside your house unless you nick a couple of police bollards to place outside the front door. ( i'll get a pic for you soon).
I used to work there as a Saturday girl when i was at school. It's been threatened with closure for the last 20 years but has somehow survived.
When i worked there all cheques were to be made out to CRSSE.

WillPS wrote: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.

Whereabouts was the Sunwin House in Sheffield? I'm aware of the other Co-op near Castle Square

In Huddersfield the department store was a 'Co-Op Living' meaning they were presumably not part of the Yorkshire co-op which used the Sunwin brand

There is one of those Westgate department stores in Harrogate, which is odd as it is nowhere near the Anglia region.

WillPS wrote: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.

I can't remember those things as I only went in there once or twice. It's a shame there don't appear to be any interior photographs on the internet.

There's still a Co-op department store in Ilkeston, but it doesn't have as much character:

http://www.ilkcam.com/2006/060806/06080604.jpg

Another building I've always liked is the old Elite Cinema building just down the road from the Nottingham Co-op:

http://www.nottingham21.co.uk/build_elite_2.htm

Also turned into shops, offices, restaurants and a nightclub, sadly. Thankfully it's grade II* listed.

Andrew wrote:

WillPS wrote: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.

Whereabouts was the Sunwin House in Sheffield? I'm aware of the other Co-op near Castle Square

In Huddersfield the department store was a 'Co-Op Living' meaning they were presumably not part of the Yorkshire co-op which used the Sunwin brand

There is one of those Westgate department stores in Harrogate, which is odd as it is nowhere near the Anglia region.

SCS used the brand 'Co-Op home' with the weird slogan "a part of living, a part of life".

The UCS Sunwin House is on Furnival Gate (opposite Currys at the top of The Moor), and was most recently used as a temporary store for TK Maxx. There's some recent interior photos here, anything red is TJX's fault . It's not terribly impressive, very 80s. Castle House is much better, definitely one of the better developments of the 60s. Concrete-licious.

The nationwide Co-Op have been disinterested in department stores for quite a while, effectively writing the whole thing off as an unprofitable antiquated enterprise (despite that fact many stores in towns were still earning their keep). This let ARCS purchase all the Department Stores which were still profitable at a snip... they clearly wanted to give them a face lift and the Anglia brand is completely irrelevant for most of the chain, so Westgate is used.

It's not unknown for Co-op societies to stretch beyond their home turf... I know a branch of the Channel Islands society opened a branch in Wantage, Oxfordshire under the catchy brand "Norman's". This was sold to Sainsbury's in the late-90s.

Chie wrote:

WillPS wrote: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.

I can't remember those things as I only went in there once or twice. It's a shame there don't appear to be any interior photographs on the internet.

There's still a Co-op department store in Ilkeston, but it doesn't have as much character:

http://www.ilkcam.com/2006/060806/06080604.jpg

Another building I've always liked is the old Elite Cinema building just down the road from the Nottingham Co-op:

http://www.nottingham21.co.uk/build_elite_2.htm

Also turned into shops, offices, restaurants and a nightclub, sadly. Thankfully it's grade II* listed.

Ilkeston Co-op was a seperate society to GNCS and Midlands Co-Op. Ilkeston Co-Op Travel is legendary in the East Midlands, but yeah their department store is pretty naff. Perhaps I'm biased, I happen to have a very low opinion of that town altogether.

The Elite is a fab building.

Here we have the East of England Cooperative but now the sites which were formerly Somerfield are being branded in the national "Co-operative food" cack. As a result, our local Somerfield 24/7 garage has just been spruced up to fit in and as bad as the national co-op branding is, it looks a hell of a lot slicker than Somerfield.

nodnirG kraM wrote:The Co-operative fuel. I am genuinely excited.

Don't get ahead of yourself: Looks like THEY'RE OUT OF DIESEL.

So is my local Somerfield (which, by the way, is shite) going to change to a Co-operative soon?

I love how they have their fingers in so many pies. Anyone else got a Co-Operative Funeral Services near to them?

How about the

* Co op Bank?
* Co op Travel office
* Co op chemist

I have them all near me

Nope it's an actual Somerfield near me (although I can't believe it's still going, it always seems empty). Are they all changing to The Co-operative?

Yes, unless there is an existing co-op nearby that means it has to close due to competition reasons.

Hymagumba wrote:Yes, unless there is an existing co-op nearby that means it has to close due to competition reasons.

Not necessarily so. In Sherwood, Nottingham there is now two Co-operative Food branches within 150m of each other on the same road. The old Co-op has longer licensing hours and the ability to open longer on Sundays, whilst the old Somerfield offers a Car Park and larger store.

Up the hill in Mapperley, a former Somerfield/Texaco Petrol outlet is now a Co-operative Food/Texaco Petrol outlet, again with a large old CoOp store just over the way.