Monday 20 June 2011

WOOLWORTH IN MURRAYGATE

I can remember Woolies in the 60's when they still had the original old wooden counters, but around the beginning of the 70's the store was modernised and got itself some new open plan style rack shelving.
The ad here is from 1973 and mentions how "up to date" it is as part of the sales pitch.
One of the relics from the old store they kept going, however, was the huge weighing machine tucked away in the corner beside the photo booth. A big red & silver thing it was, a penny a go.
Another memory from the 70's I always associate with Woolies were the budget priced "Top Of The Pops" albums with glamour girls on the LP covers. 12 chart hits for 60p or something. For that price though you didn't get the original artists, oh no, these were 2nd rate rogues imitating our favourite pop groups. The work of session musicians in fact, and they were mince!
Oh yes, and get this, I was once thrown out of Woolies when aged around 12/13. I was in the Murraygate store just having a look around, probably been there for 15/20 minutes, when this frumpy middle aged wifie (the floor-walker) came over to me and escorted me to the door.
Was I stealing? No.
Causing a scene with a shop assistant? Nope. 
My crime, she told me on the way out, was "being in the shop too long". What the...??!!!
The photo was taken one winter's day in 1982.
Then the Murraygate store closed in 1983 and John Menzies took over the premises.

6 comments:

  1. There is a photo from the 70's of Woolies in the Murraygate here...
    http://www.100thbirthday.co.uk/images/StoreGallery/pages/0174Dundee-1970s.htm

    Just don't stay on their website too long!

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  2. While not asked to leave the store, I was once "tutted" at (or more of a "eh-hem!"), at around the same age, by a sales assistant for apparently reading a magazine for too long in a store not too dissimilar to Woolies (I can't remember if it was Menzies or WH Smiths). When I was a little older, I worked in a Spar shop which had a tiny magazine rack - I got hauled into the manager's office one day for putting certain magazines in the wrong place!!! I never knew how much the layout of magazines could cause so much distress...

    Also interesting to note that the website you link to mentions the store in Lochee, but makes no reference to the Woolies store in the Ferry!

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  3. Didn't they always have a photobooth? i'm sure many a time we all got into trouble for trying to switch places in between flashes. Floorwalkers !!!!! yip they had a few, always hung about you and your pals when you were hoverin' around the "pick & mix" :)

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  4. I'm sure the photo booth and the weighing machine were outside the shop at one stage. In that wee corner area on the left. Don't ask me if it was in the 60's or 70's though!

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  5. 'We'll cut through Woolies,' was a welcome statement by my mum, coming at the end of a joyless eternity of staring at rolls of fabric in Smith and Horner's.

    I don't think sometimes we even stopped in Woolies as we 'cut through' on our way to the bus - in the Murraygate entrance, through the shop, up the wee stair and out the back door into the court, then through the pend to Albert Square.

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  6. Put me in mind o Woolies in lochee slang we wully lows!!!

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