Britain lost a beautiful part of its culture and heritage with the loss of Woolworths. My parents and grandparents had such fond memories of that store, and the joy and value for money it gave people on a tight budget. And as a young woman in the 1980 and '90s it was my first port of call for the festive essentials - sparkling decorations, pretty wrapping paper, chocolates and sweets, records, and all manner of exciting gifts that didn't break the bank. The first family Christmas tree I recall as a child in the 'Seventies, was a huge, silver tinsel one my mum and dad had bought from Woolworths in the 'sixties. I always felt a Christmas tree should be silver, as a result! To my innocent young eyes that towering, metallic tree was magical, every time we got it out of the attic, and spent the day decorating it for another Christmas. I can still feel that thrill of excitement and anticipation even now, looking back on that family ritual. Hanging our treasured, multi-coloured glass baubles on each glittering branch, knowing that one by one, mysterious, brightly wrapped gifts would start appearing, stacked underneath them, as the glorious 25th of December loomed ever closer... We had that artificial Woolies tree for 20 years or more, and I loved it. I wouldn't give you a thank you for a real tree - That silver monster that towered over the room WAS Christmas to me. Even as its branches got thinner and thinner with the years, we just wound more tinsel on it to disguise the balding patches. Christmas without out Woolies tree was unthinkable! If ever a store deserved to survive every economic downturn, it was Woolies. Why is the soulless, overpriced 'WH Smith' still going strong??? What a joke! Thanks so much for the video Steve. Merry Christmas! XXX 🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐
You're welcome! Always a pleasure. We had the same artificial tree for years too until it wore out (a green one though). The first year we got a real tree, well I just have memories of constant hoovering and pine needles sticking in my bum on Christmas morning round a threadbare tree. Never bothered with real again.
Woolworths was everyone's go to store , and magical. I used to look at the corgi cars, but my mother simply gave that look it's time to go and could never afford to buy one for me. I used to see my mother being told to put food back at local shops because she didn't have the 80p extra at times. I simply browsed at Woolworths, fast forward 40 odd years, I still miss it as a store. The irony now, I can buy any corgi toy car, but Woolworths is gone forever.
Bitter-sweet. You just reminded me of a memory. I must have been about 4 or so; in a toy shop with my mum and she said we couldn't afford the toy I was eyeing up. I said, "just write a cheque." I actually thought you could make your own money by writing how much you wanted on a bank cheque! 🤣
As a kid I remember the Woolworths Christmas advert being a big deal. Waiting to see which celebrities were in it. Miss the pick and mix and going in to buy singles back in the early 1980s.
It's funny how things get so much more valuable as we get older. I have a Rubik's cube that my dad got me ( after constant nagging from me) in 1981 from someone selling them out of a suitcase. I can remember it as clear as day even now much like you can with your Ghostbusters
The fact that an entire ad break was one Woolies advert used to be impressive, and we used to look forward each year to seeing it. I was disappointed when they finally stopped doing that.
I always hated Rubiks cubes 'cause I could never do it! I love them now though, since learning how to solve one as an adult. Great way to feel like a smart**se! 🤣
I always find it sad that Google Street View only started in late 2008, so any time you look back your local High Street, all you can see is Woolies with store closing signs plastered all over them.
Great video, thank you for a great look back at an old favourite, losing woolies was like losing a limb. Did anyone ever buy pic n mix or try before you don't buy. I felt towards the end, it had lost its way, was sad, I agree re the vulture comment, plenty of those who were in the shops, probably hadn't been in in years
The lost it's way thing .. I agree. Towards the end I bought less games, music & stuff from there. The prices inflated noticeably in the final years, eg. they were selling video games at full RRP when all the other shops (even in the same shopping centre) had them at £5 to £10 cheaper.
@@RetroSpectives Interesting they didn't book the full set of 'Goodies', isn't it? Bill Oddie did have a reputation for being difficult. A friend of mine knew the late Tim Brooke-Taylor well, and said he was a really lovely guy.
An interesting look into the history of Woolworths and their Christmas ads. I still have Christmas decorations on our tree that I purchased back in 87 😂 I bought albums and singles from there in the nineties. I also remember sneakily buying pick n mix to take in the cinema. Merry Christmas 🎄 Thank you Steve.
You are very welcome. All our decs came from Woolies back then, too. Sadly all gone now - what was left of the old decorations stayed at my mum's house and she's thrown them all away since.
So many memories . First games console, Phillips videopac. First album, dire straits money for nothing. Met my first girlfriend in Woolworths and managed to buy an Xbox 360's for my friend's little boy at Christmas. My best Woolworths year was 1982!
So many memories of stuff I bought over the years, but the most endearing has to be when I was ten, my Mum bought me a Ghostbusters logo pendant from Woolworths while I was ill in hospital. I still have it, (minus the neck chain.)
I had to pause this after just a few seconds... It's gonna be a tearjerker for sure. As a kid of the 80s/90s, our local shopping centre had a Woolies and a John Menzies just across from each other. Christmas was a magical time back then.
I always wonder if my son gets the same feels I did as a child whilst walking around at Xmas time. It was just magical in the 80s and 90s, especially the TV programmes and adverts which made it double incredible.
Kids probably do, but in a different way as it's now a different world. I did find it delightful when my little granddaughter showed us what she wanted in the Smyths toy catalogue this year by holding up the page to the camera on a whatsapp call - she'd put a circle around the toy she wanted! 🥹
You're welcome. I remember always having those type of plimsoles for PE lessons at school in the 70s & 80s, and those waterproof drawstring PVC school bags, too.
God I loved Woolies. Toys and VHS/CDs/Cassettes and stuff were awesome in there. One of my exs (I have had many) worked in Woolies and using her discount at Xmas was mega!
OMG - Thank You! LINK: ua-cam.com/video/zuWQitNlvf0/v-deo.htmlsi=BN6YEhYywQ81YW5t I just looked it up, I had totally forgotten that pop video filmed in Woolies, though the song is as clear in my head as it was in 1982. I bet I bought my copy in Woolworths too, as I did most of my singles back then - sheer nostalgia! I don't mind telling you, seeing lead singer Dave Gahan looking about 15 years old (he was actually 20), brought a tear to my eye. Where did all the years go?!
I have very fond memories growing up of Woolworths, especially at Christmas time where it seemed a magical place to visit. What's very telling is that where my favourite Woolworths used to be is now a Tesco Express. 13:53 that's a proper tin of Quality Street! Not like the half-filled micro-tubs you get nowadays.
I had a bit of a nostalgic tear in my eye after that 🥲Woolie's Christmas ads were just full of excitement, especially as a kid. In the 70s my poor mum turned her back on my then 3 year old brother for less than half a minute, and he had disappeared. He was found in the basement of the Chester branch munching a pack of ' Cheesy Wotsits'. He was a button pusher too😂
Loved Woolworths. You could get all your Xmas presents there, so only had to visit one shop! Suppose the public are to blame for it shutting too, for not going there
We still buy a TV or Radio Times at Christmas. Don't really read it, though - it just looks nice and Christmassy on the coffee table! 🤣 Which issue we buy depends entirely on which cover looks more Christmassy.
…..By the way I loved getting my 7” singles from woolies! Didn’t always do it cos their prices could be a bit high, but I was sick of getting the shit jukebox copies off the market without the centre in them and no picture sleeve! So it was always a treat to get something like The Pet Shop Boys “Surbubia” in Woolworths, cos you got it with the picture sleeve and with the small spindle hole, properly for the home market and not bloody dinked for a jukebox!!!!
I remember getting a couple of records with the middle missing and not being able to play them. I only found out years later they were meant for jukeboxes, and that there was an adaptor I could have bought.
I have a strong mental image now of toddler Steve standing staring at the stop button on the escalator like Dougal in the Christmas special of _Father Ted_ , unable to not touch the giant red button in the aeroplane cockpit labelled "Do Not Touch". 😆 I can't believe there were more than 1,100 shops at their peak - that feels like maybe they stretched themselves too thin, but then it was something you'd expect every high street to have. Their "Big W" stores probably were a step too far, though - huge warehouse-y places in out-of-town retail parks - as by that point supermarkets had started very much to eat their lunch, and I don't think they were ever likely to turn that trend around.
I think the Father Ted scene you've described is pretty much it, only I remember going in faster. No hesitation there! 🤣 As for the decline of Woolies, although it was a number of factors that led to it, I think the growth of supermarkets was probably the thing that inevitably tightened the noose.
@@RetroSpectives Yeah, it's what I'd put my money on, too. They've been doing other stuff a long time - I can clearly remember buying 7-inch singles in Asda in 1989/1990 - but they've gradually increased their range over the years, and when it's already a place you _need_ to go to regularly for groceries, then many people won't bother going anywhere else. RIP Woolworths, killed by convenience.
She wasn’t daft the young lady with the red beret on that woolies ad! None of that chart shite for her, it was straight to the sections to pick out “Raw Power” by Iggy And The Stooges!! Because even 80’s hipsters weren’t too cool to shop at Woolworths! What did she get for her birthday I wonder? “The Velvet Underground And Nico” by any chance?! Or “Transformer” by Lou Reed!!!!
She might have been buying that for dad!? 😄 On the subject of that lass .. it's been bugging me, she looks really familiar but I can't remember anything else I've seen her in. Must be one of those actors that pops up in general.
Quite the line-up of celebrities in those old Woolies ads - Leslie Crowther, Windsor Davies, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Kenny Everett (like Woolies, someone I only truly appreciated after they were gone), Stirling Moss, Geoff Capes, Eric Bristow, Daley Thompson (and, like the turd in the punch bowl, Tony Blackburn, because they didn't want to seem _too_ appealing, maybe? 😛🤣) - they used to go all-out, didn't they? It felt like they got a bit more generic as time went on, though I don't know if that was a sign of their dwindling fortunes or just the trend in advertising, as so much of it is so milquetoast nowadays.
@@RetroSpectives Oh yes. But I'm personally captivated by the similarly gloriously-bad hair-do he's sporting: I think he must have nicked it off of one of those life-size Lego mini-figures you often see in toy departments and toy shops 😂
Britain lost a beautiful part of its culture and heritage with the loss of Woolworths. My parents and grandparents had such fond memories of that store, and the joy and value for money it gave people on a tight budget. And as a young woman in the 1980 and '90s it was my first port of call for the festive essentials - sparkling decorations, pretty wrapping paper, chocolates and sweets, records, and all manner of exciting gifts that didn't break the bank.
The first family Christmas tree I recall as a child in the 'Seventies, was a huge, silver tinsel one my mum and dad had bought from Woolworths in the 'sixties. I always felt a Christmas tree should be silver, as a result! To my innocent young eyes that towering, metallic tree was magical, every time we got it out of the attic, and spent the day decorating it for another Christmas.
I can still feel that thrill of excitement and anticipation even now, looking back on that family ritual. Hanging our treasured, multi-coloured glass baubles on each glittering branch, knowing that one by one, mysterious, brightly wrapped gifts would start appearing, stacked underneath them, as the glorious 25th of December loomed ever closer...
We had that artificial Woolies tree for 20 years or more, and I loved it. I wouldn't give you a thank you for a real tree - That silver monster that towered over the room WAS Christmas to me. Even as its branches got thinner and thinner with the years, we just wound more tinsel on it to disguise the balding patches. Christmas without out Woolies tree was unthinkable!
If ever a store deserved to survive every economic downturn, it was Woolies. Why is the soulless, overpriced 'WH Smith' still going strong??? What a joke!
Thanks so much for the video Steve. Merry Christmas! XXX 🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐🎄🎈⭐
You're welcome! Always a pleasure. We had the same artificial tree for years too until it wore out (a green one though). The first year we got a real tree, well I just have memories of constant hoovering and pine needles sticking in my bum on Christmas morning round a threadbare tree. Never bothered with real again.
Great Video Woolworths Loved the shop had everything just another example of a great business failing into the wrong hands and changing times . 👍
I can't believe how sad and emotional I feel after digging up these old feelings. Silly, really.
sadly missed but never forgotten
😢
Woolworths was everyone's go to store , and magical. I used to look at the corgi cars, but my mother simply gave that look it's time to go and could never afford to buy one for me. I used to see my mother being told to put food back at local shops because she didn't have the 80p extra at times. I simply browsed at Woolworths, fast forward 40 odd years, I still miss it as a store. The irony now, I can buy any corgi toy car, but Woolworths is gone forever.
Bitter-sweet. You just reminded me of a memory. I must have been about 4 or so; in a toy shop with my mum and she said we couldn't afford the toy I was eyeing up. I said, "just write a cheque." I actually thought you could make your own money by writing how much you wanted on a bank cheque! 🤣
As a kid I remember the Woolworths Christmas advert being a big deal. Waiting to see which celebrities were in it. Miss the pick and mix and going in to buy singles back in the early 1980s.
It's funny how things get so much more valuable as we get older. I have a Rubik's cube that my dad got me ( after constant nagging from me) in 1981 from someone selling them out of a suitcase. I can remember it as clear as day even now much like you can with your Ghostbusters
The fact that an entire ad break was one Woolies advert used to be impressive, and we used to look forward each year to seeing it. I was disappointed when they finally stopped doing that.
I always hated Rubiks cubes 'cause I could never do it! I love them now though, since learning how to solve one as an adult. Great way to feel like a smart**se! 🤣
I used to buy singles in the 70's.
I always find it sad that Google Street View only started in late 2008, so any time you look back your local High Street, all you can see is Woolies with store closing signs plastered all over them.
After reading your comment I was going to go have a look, but that amount of emotion might tip me over the edge. 🥹😆
Great video, thank you for a great look back at an old favourite, losing woolies was like losing a limb. Did anyone ever buy pic n mix or try before you don't buy. I felt towards the end, it had lost its way, was sad, I agree re the vulture comment, plenty of those who were in the shops, probably hadn't been in in years
The lost it's way thing .. I agree. Towards the end I bought less games, music & stuff from there. The prices inflated noticeably in the final years, eg. they were selling video games at full RRP when all the other shops (even in the same shopping centre) had them at £5 to £10 cheaper.
I know - you know. Never the same again.
Every year, Yeah, we'll have Bill and Tim, Graeme Garden, nah just Bill and Tim.
Makes you wonder if they had a falling out or something.
@@RetroSpectives Interesting they didn't book the full set of 'Goodies', isn't it? Bill Oddie did have a reputation for being difficult. A friend of mine knew the late Tim Brooke-Taylor well, and said he was a really lovely guy.
An interesting look into the history of Woolworths and their Christmas ads. I still have Christmas decorations on our tree that I purchased back in 87 😂 I bought albums and singles from there in the nineties. I also remember sneakily buying pick n mix to take in the cinema. Merry Christmas 🎄 Thank you Steve.
You are very welcome. All our decs came from Woolies back then, too. Sadly all gone now - what was left of the old decorations stayed at my mum's house and she's thrown them all away since.
Tears fell so many beautiful memories
🎄🥹
Nice 😊
Thanks 😊
So many memories . First games console, Phillips videopac. First album, dire straits money for nothing. Met my first girlfriend in Woolworths and managed to buy an Xbox 360's for my friend's little boy at Christmas.
My best Woolworths year was 1982!
So many memories of stuff I bought over the years, but the most endearing has to be when I was ten, my Mum bought me a Ghostbusters logo pendant from Woolworths while I was ill in hospital. I still have it, (minus the neck chain.)
I had to pause this after just a few seconds... It's gonna be a tearjerker for sure. As a kid of the 80s/90s, our local shopping centre had a Woolies and a John Menzies just across from each other. Christmas was a magical time back then.
I know what you mean .. I end up feeling emotional when I watch it back, and I was the one that edited it! 😭
I always wonder if my son gets the same feels I did as a child whilst walking around at Xmas time. It was just magical in the 80s and 90s, especially the TV programmes and adverts which made it double incredible.
Kids probably do, but in a different way as it's now a different world. I did find it delightful when my little granddaughter showed us what she wanted in the Smyths toy catalogue this year by holding up the page to the camera on a whatsapp call - she'd put a circle around the toy she wanted! 🥹
Great vid
Cheers. 🙂
❤Thank you mentioning me, I really miss Woolies and their beautiful black slip on pe Pumps. Fantastic video, Merry Xmas
You're welcome. I remember always having those type of plimsoles for PE lessons at school in the 70s & 80s, and those waterproof drawstring PVC school bags, too.
@@RetroSpectives Oh yeah, good old pe, I still wear black slip on pe Pumps
God I loved Woolies. Toys and VHS/CDs/Cassettes and stuff were awesome in there. One of my exs (I have had many) worked in Woolies and using her discount at Xmas was mega!
I always used to buy my blank cassettes from Woolies. It's weird watching the old ads now & seeing the same packs I used to buy.
I loved woolworths! It was the first shop I found my favourite board game of my childhood atmosfear!
Oh! Was that the VHS-based game? I remember the adverts for that. Never played it though.
@RetroSpectives yes! It was you should play it, it's an amazing game!
I'm pretty sure I've seen someone demoing it in a UA-cam video. I'll look that up again to remind myself.
@@RetroSpectives cool! Enjoy!
Great vid . I miss wollies soo much it was the start of the death of the high street .
Me too, the dog that featured on some of the kids lines towards the end was cute!
It's frightening to see how much the high street has changed, and how it's going.
I think there was a sheep and a dog wasn't there? Wool and Worth.
@@RetroSpectives i have the worth toy big version and wollie and worth key rings .
Happy times, broght a tear to my eye
Glad I'm not the only one. 🥹
My favourite Woolworths Christmas ad is the 1982 ad.
Check out the music video for Depeche mode "see you" [They basically wander around Woolworths]
I'll have to look that up.
OMG - Thank You! LINK: ua-cam.com/video/zuWQitNlvf0/v-deo.htmlsi=BN6YEhYywQ81YW5t
I just looked it up, I had totally forgotten that pop video filmed in Woolies, though the song is as clear in my head as it was in 1982. I bet I bought my copy in Woolworths too, as I did most of my singles back then - sheer nostalgia!
I don't mind telling you, seeing lead singer Dave Gahan looking about 15 years old (he was actually 20), brought a tear to my eye. Where did all the years go?!
I just watched it for the first time yesterday. I did think he looked a bit on the 'young' side. 😂
I have very fond memories growing up of Woolworths, especially at Christmas time where it seemed a magical place to visit. What's very telling is that where my favourite Woolworths used to be is now a Tesco Express. 13:53 that's a proper tin of Quality Street! Not like the half-filled micro-tubs you get nowadays.
My old Woolworths was split into two shops. One is now a River Island. The other I forget but it's another clothing shop.
I had a bit of a nostalgic tear in my eye after that 🥲Woolie's Christmas ads were just full of excitement, especially as a kid. In the 70s my poor mum turned her back on my then 3 year old brother for less than half a minute, and he had disappeared. He was found in the basement of the Chester branch munching a pack of ' Cheesy Wotsits'. He was a button pusher too😂
Some kids .. you just can't do a thing about them! 🤭
I pressed the red button too in Woolworths..lol
🤣🤣
When I was a child my mum worked on the Woolworths biscuits counter in Hartlepool for a while. ❤
Closest thing to Woolies recently was Wilko, I think, and that's gone now too.
Loved Woolworths. You could get all your Xmas presents there, so only had to visit one shop! Suppose the public are to blame for it shutting too, for not going there
Ironically, it was only having to go to one shop (the supermarket) that kind of killed off Woolies.
I wonder if in 20 years' time, will people talk about Wilko like this?
Hmm.. you never know.
worked one xmas at my local Woolworths. ill never forget refilling the pick n mix and sweets :)
When you say 'refilling' .. did that include your tummy? 😉👍
Two things meant Christmas was here. Woolworths adverts and the Christmas editions of the TV and Radio Times. Beautiful memories.
We still buy a TV or Radio Times at Christmas. Don't really read it, though - it just looks nice and Christmassy on the coffee table! 🤣 Which issue we buy depends entirely on which cover looks more Christmassy.
@@RetroSpectives I left the UK ten years ago but a friend sent me a PDF of Radio Times this year for Xmas. I loved it.
I don't know if you can get the Readly (magazine reading app) over there, but it allows access to international magazines. Might be worth a look.
That woman at the start in the Woolies advert was excited over a copy of Iggy And The Stooges-Raw Power!!! Utterly bizarre!
Horses for courses, I guess.
…..By the way I loved getting my 7” singles from woolies! Didn’t always do it cos their prices could be a bit high, but I was sick of getting the shit jukebox copies off the market without the centre in them and no picture sleeve! So it was always a treat to get something like The Pet Shop Boys “Surbubia” in Woolworths, cos you got it with the picture sleeve and with the small spindle hole, properly for the home market and not bloody dinked for a jukebox!!!!
I remember getting a couple of records with the middle missing and not being able to play them. I only found out years later they were meant for jukeboxes, and that there was an adaptor I could have bought.
I have a strong mental image now of toddler Steve standing staring at the stop button on the escalator like Dougal in the Christmas special of _Father Ted_ , unable to not touch the giant red button in the aeroplane cockpit labelled "Do Not Touch". 😆
I can't believe there were more than 1,100 shops at their peak - that feels like maybe they stretched themselves too thin, but then it was something you'd expect every high street to have. Their "Big W" stores probably were a step too far, though - huge warehouse-y places in out-of-town retail parks - as by that point supermarkets had started very much to eat their lunch, and I don't think they were ever likely to turn that trend around.
I think the Father Ted scene you've described is pretty much it, only I remember going in faster. No hesitation there! 🤣 As for the decline of Woolies, although it was a number of factors that led to it, I think the growth of supermarkets was probably the thing that inevitably tightened the noose.
@@RetroSpectives Yeah, it's what I'd put my money on, too. They've been doing other stuff a long time - I can clearly remember buying 7-inch singles in Asda in 1989/1990 - but they've gradually increased their range over the years, and when it's already a place you _need_ to go to regularly for groceries, then many people won't bother going anywhere else. RIP Woolworths, killed by convenience.
She wasn’t daft the young lady with the red beret on that woolies ad! None of that chart shite for her, it was straight to the sections to pick out “Raw Power” by Iggy And The Stooges!! Because even 80’s hipsters weren’t too cool to shop at Woolworths! What did she get for her birthday I wonder? “The Velvet Underground And Nico” by any chance?! Or “Transformer” by Lou Reed!!!!
She might have been buying that for dad!? 😄 On the subject of that lass .. it's been bugging me, she looks really familiar but I can't remember anything else I've seen her in. Must be one of those actors that pops up in general.
The UK got to keep Woolworths 12 years longer than the US.
Funny really, considering it originated in the States.
Quite the line-up of celebrities in those old Woolies ads - Leslie Crowther, Windsor Davies, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, Kenny Everett (like Woolies, someone I only truly appreciated after they were gone), Stirling Moss, Geoff Capes, Eric Bristow, Daley Thompson (and, like the turd in the punch bowl, Tony Blackburn, because they didn't want to seem _too_ appealing, maybe? 😛🤣) - they used to go all-out, didn't they? It felt like they got a bit more generic as time went on, though I don't know if that was a sign of their dwindling fortunes or just the trend in advertising, as so much of it is so milquetoast nowadays.
I just love the pure awkwardness of Tony Blackburn's attempt at acting. It's gloriously bad! 🤣
@@RetroSpectives Oh yes. But I'm personally captivated by the similarly gloriously-bad hair-do he's sporting: I think he must have nicked it off of one of those life-size Lego mini-figures you often see in toy departments and toy shops 😂