We all use to buy our stuff from the corner shops, but before long those gleaming supermarkets would be forming all over town, and they were cheaper, if you excluded the cost of buying the car to get there and back, or the bus and taxis. But we really changed our ways of shopping in the 1970’s, not just in supermarkets but other high street shops.

How many of these do you remember, as these have all gone to shop heaven now.

FINE FARE these were everywhere in the 1970’s, I should know as I worked in many of them. They had a strange logo based on the FF, and they really were a great forward thinking supermarket retailer, who were responsible for buying out smaller competitions, before being gobbled up themselves.

Macfisheries were a middle market supermarket, who once taken over by Unilever in the 1970’s could not compete as well, they struggled because of huge cost cutting on the high street, and eventually rolled over in 1979 to International stores.

INTERNATIONAL stores themselves were a better and leaner organisation, but they got eaten by Gateway. I think they were giving Green Shield Stamps out, that was a sort of savings card that my mum loved, but honestly really was a waste of time and money, don’t tell her I told you that.

Brentford Nylons were on TV everywhere, and the voice of Alan Freeman was always associated with them, but they went too.

Other that have gone , that were the mainstay of 1970’s high streets include Rumbelows, Woolworths, Kayes, Littlewoods, Radio Rentals was a big one, my dad always insisted on renting a TV as the price for the average man to buy was not possible, although you ended up paying for it twice in the end.

Do you remember Wendys Burger House? What about Mr Byrite? Or the electrical shop Tandy and the Redifussion shops? Sorry guys these are all gone now, yet their names and the logos are still in our memories.

Andys records and a host of vinyl shops have like vinyl just been eaten up by the digital revolution, no more holding record sleeves and reading, now its an MP3 download with the sound all equalised and managed , so you just cannot hear it in the same way.

So it is not just the products that have gone, but the very place us baby boomers purchased them from are no longer there. It happens so slowly we do not see it, and sometimes our memories play tricks on us, but guys the 70’s may be gone, but we must not forget.