nona1

Pal that was a disgusting thing to say about Flanner's family.

Maria_H

My grandma (who lived in a cobbled street not unlike Coronation Street) did all her shopping at the local Co-op. Regular shoppers got their "divvy" (dividend) as a bonus based on the amount they spent there. I believe at one point they had a membership number and book to record the amount spent. Later this was replaced by stamps - you got so many stamps for every pound spent which were stuck into savings books. You could cash in full books for goods. I don't know if you got your divvy on a funeral though!

Cholmondley_Warner

I get my lunch most days from the coop (it's the only shop for miles in any direction) and I have a divi card and twice a year I get my divi.

It's usually enough for a bottle of single malt.

Cholmondley_Warner

I frequently walk through the cemetery near my workplace. If there is no parking anywhere nearby, and the crowd is huge, it is pretty certain that the departed is a member of the Irish community.>>>>

Don't they have West Indians in Portsmouth? They too have massive funerals that go on for days.

zippo

Those who are still coop members get a discount on their funeral!
Might be worth remembering.

Maria_H

I hadn't realised that the divvy was still ongoing. The large Co-op store in the town centre is pretty dowdy and I rarely visit it.

MissPrism

I can still remember my mother's Co-Op number.

Where I lived, the Co-Op was into cultural things and ran choirs and brass bands.
I haven't seem a Co-Op shop for years.
Perhaps in the present economic climate, they may make a come-back

MissPrism

The English, whether they be idle or hard-working, tend not to make such nasty comments.

Most of them are part-Irish, anyway.

Or in my case related by marriage three times.

Maria_H

I think some of the stores operate under different names. The big Co-op department store in Stockport has been known as Chestergate department store and now (I think) Sunwin House - but it's still basically the Co-op.

Padraig

MissPrism wrote: "Or in my case related by marriage three times."

I think we can count you as a colony. We don't take a place over in one fell swoop, but progress incrementally.

chartley

The Co-op was always very big in Portsmouth. There was a big department store, and shops, dairies, bakers and butchers all over the place. They delivered bread and milk to the door. You could have a Co-op wedding reception if you wanted, as well as a funeral.

Various members of my family worked for the Co-op. One aunt worked in the check office. Every time a Co-op member bought something, a record was created and sent to the check office. These checks were entered into a ledger and the check office added up how much each customer spent over the year so that the dividend could be calculated. At one time, this was one shilling and eightpence in the pound - the equivalent of 8%. Much better than you can get now from a loyalty card. The staffing costs of running the system must have been enormous. Nowadays the job would be done by computer.

The Co-op was a progressive organisation. It was the first to introduce self-service stores in the 1950s, and had thriving educational and social projects.

And I can also still remember my mother's number.

MissPrism

I think we can count you as a colony. We don't take a place over in one fell swoop, but progress incrementally.


Exactly. I have just acquired a small grand-daughter who is half Irish, a quarter Scottish and a quarter English.

PalenQ

Nona1 - try to appreciate sarcasm once in a while dear

bilboburgler

The amazing thing is the coop is still the UK's biggest bottler of wine. Not grower, bottler

leverton1

in my town you still get divvy points at the co-op which works out well for xmas.

chartley

A good example of the Irish take-over of parts of Britain is this report from today's Daily Telegraph about the funeral of a grandmother attended by her 172 grandchildren - http://tinyurl.com/5cf4js. She came from Galway to Salford in 1963.

billbarr

Thanks Chartley, your description of how large the Co-Op was in Portsmouth is exactly how I remember it in the town my family moved to when I was a kid. As far as I recall they operated the butchers, bakers, grocery, chemist, clothes and shoe shops etc.

Then of course, they had the magic things that helped persuade us kids to stop screaming the place down to escape. Our Co-Op grocery had little metal boxes connected to wires that transported customers’ payments to the cash office up above the main grocery floor then returned with the receipt plus change. As a kid, it fascinated me and if I made enough noise I got the chance to pull the wire that sent the box off on its adventure.

Much later, it was all converted to a vacuum tube transporter thing.

That wasn’t as much fun.

Bill

PatrickLondon

Oh goodness, the pull-the-chain cash systems. I can just remember those in a number of old department stores, like Gamages.

Now, Gamages - that'd be a whole new thread of its own....

alanRow

Just heard a story today of some man who can't pick up his granny from the nursing home in his 2nd hand hearse.

MissPrism

Oh my goodness.
A woman used to sit in a little box quite high up to receive those flying cash boxes. In some cases, they used to come flying in through a hole in the wall.
Some shops had sort of suction tubes.
They weren't much fun.
There were chairs by the counter where the customer could sit while she was being served. "Rich" people might drop off an order or telephone and a boy would deliver the order on a bike with a big basket on the front.
I suppose that we have returned to that in a way. I send an order to the supermarket and it is delivered in a van rather than by a lad on a bike.