Features no longer at the supermarket/shops

[Candodad]

For me I remembered today there was always a “cash only” till due to transactions with cheque/card taking longer.

I remember my parents using those carbon copy cc machines and being excited if the cashier let me pull the copier bit over.

I also remember when Bejam opened. My mum was so excited dad went out and bought a chest freezer for the garage specifically for the Bejam shop. And then a microwave, to defrost stuff from Bejam before cooking it....that must have been 85/86.

Department stores used to have huge rolls of brown paper on the counters for wrapping everything.

And don't forget the uniformed lift attendants.

@AWeaponCalledTheWorld

Penguins and freezer shop vaguely rings a bell from the 1960s, probably south of England somewhere?

@ariela

yep, posh essex!

i remember them being there when i was little and i’m a 1973 vintage so might have been the same place. the penguins always looked miserable, but maybe penguins just do, i dunno. i don’t think the summer of ‘76 was any fun for them...

When I was very small (aeons ago) a few shops still had a system where the counter assistant put your money into a little brass thing with your bill, off it whizzed somewhere, and shortly came whizzing back with your change.

Miserable rings a bell, there weren't many there either. Probably late 60s

I have a vague memory of Green Shield stamps from the Co Op, then being allowed to lick and paste them in a soggy book as a treat.

Buy one get one free no longer seems to be a thing, it was huge in Morrisons years ago.

KwikSave used to have a chilled section that had big plastic strips hanging over the entrance and exit.
Open freezers. I used to lean over to smell the ice.

I worked in retail early 90s. Those price gun machines were really expensive, squirting out their bright yellow stickers. So expensive that they used to have a man come round to service them all rather than get new ones. The big machines which squirted out the big "price reduced" stickers were even more expensive!

The plastic charity collection boxes which were waist height and looked like a helter skelter for coins - always chained to the railing on the floor.

I have a vague memory of Green Shield stamps from the Co Op
Some co-ops (they are regional) had their own stamps instead of the old co-op 'divi'.
A dividend paid according to how much you had spent there.

The plastic charity collection boxes which were waist height and looked like a helter skelter for coins - always chained to the railing on the floor.

And the ones shaped like a disabled boy, guide dog or Paddington.

Sure some of you remember this....In the 80's I worked in C&A, when someone paid by credit card we had to place the card on a swiper machine with a 3 carbon copy paper so the CC number transferred to the paper, then add in the amount. If it was over £50 we had to ring up for authorisation.
Such a faff when you look back!

I remember working in Asda late 80's where if you wanted to pay by card you had to go to customer services to get the slip authorised before shopping. And I had to pack the shopping into another trolley whilst scanning everything.

I had forgotten those manual credit card machines with carbon paper and that Safeway used paper bags, not plastic ones. And yes you don't see scales any more. I used to use them regularly, and then they just went.

@HowlsMovingBungalow & @InTheShadowOfTheMushroomCloud Sorry, I have to ask - Just what are your usernames all about pls?! If you don't mind me asking??

Just found this site OP? www.sainsburyarchive.org.uk

The menacing revolving cameras in department stores: black spheres hanging from the ceiling, with cameras pointing in all directions.

Pyramid displays of cans; which discouraged shoppers from taking a can for fear of collapsing the pyramid. Also Mr Clumsy, who took a can. Not a can from the top of the pile. Oh no, not Mr Clumsy!

In Sainsbury's, if the checkout worker needed help, the distinctive "doorbell" sound, followed by the till number flashing.

When things didn't scan properly (perhaps when barcodes were relatively new), and the assistant would have to type the barcode in. I know that still happens occasionally, but probably not as often as in the 1980s.

Cashiers entering the price of every item by hand on the till, each item had a sticker with the price on, including half pence.
Asda in the 70's had toilet rolls stacked in cages up to the ceiling. As packs were removed from the base, the remainder came tumbling down.

When you could buy fridges and freezers from Iceland

Was it Tesco that had a basic range packaged in plain yellow?

And those brown paper carrier bags with handles not like the US ones, that you got in Sainsbury’s

I remember when I was little we would get our fresh stuff from International, which went on to become Gateway, then Somerfield which was then bought out by Kwik Save; and our tinned stuff from Kwik Save. If we had been well behaved, then we were allowed to pick up a Booty Bag just before we went through the till.
I remember that, for a short time in the 90's Iceland printed a catalogue of all its frozen food. My mum would have me pick one up, and we would do a shopping list and once a month she would send me to the next town over to fill the chest freezer.
I also recall that Tesco used to lay on a free bus service when they opened new stores, so that people in smaller towns and villages could travel for free, do their shopping and get dropped back. First bus in was at 9.15 and last bus back was at 3.15, so people who had to use the bus for work couldn't use it for free travel.

@wanderings yes I remember those security cameras! Very Dr Who-esque.

I remember Boots of all places used to sell computer games consoles and had a demo station with Nintendo, Sega etc set up to play. I used to crave going there and playing on that A LOT.