The Hard Sell

Advertising: the rattling of a stick in a swill-bucket? Welcome to the show where the stick rattles back: The Hard Sell. Adverts from history, treated with the respect they deserve.
This episode: Shops you can no longer go down!
Every little fish gets absorbed by the bigger ones eventually. Here's a few of them, from the Scots austerity of Wm Low to the bourgeois nervous breakdown of Somerfield. Warning: contains that Gateway rap again. Sorry.
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[@RW-nr6bh]

Gateway's management made my uncle drive for several hours to their head office, invited him in, told him he was being made redundant (something he'd had absolutely no inkling of beforehand) and sent him away. He then had to drive several hours back home.

[@applemask]

No wonder they went out of business.

[@stuartkenny7430]

We had a Presto on Botchergate in Carlisle until the late-80's, our nearest Wm. Low was in Workington while our nearest Safeway was in Penrith. We had a Gateway that formerly a FineFare in the Lanes Shopping Centre, and 2 Kwik Saves, one became a Somerfield, then a Co-operative Food before the Co-op sold it off to B&M Bargains. If you revisit Defunct Supermarkets, FineFare and Kwik Save will need to be mentioned, along with Walter Wilson and Food Giant.

[@citylife2050]

Our largest superstore was opened in 1981 and was called Mainstop. A couple years later it became International, and a couple years after that Carrefour. It was at that point that the Dee Corp decided to merge all its brands into one which was Gateway in 1987. In the early 90's they started the rebrand to Somerfields. However our store along with a few other large stores became Food Giant a gaudy discount store, with clashing colours and a bright red and yellow uniform. The company decided end the lease when the 20 years came up, and for the last year of this stores life it became Kwik Save. Somerfields had acquired them earlier. We had 4 Kwik Saves in a small town of 35000 people. The place was demolished at the end of 2001 and a 93000 sq ft Tesco's was built were it and the next door neighbouring Co-op once stood.

[@steviegTVreturns]

When I was growing up, Gateway was our nearest supermarket for a very long time. However, when it changed to Somerfield almost nothing changed about the store throughout the entirety of the brand’s life. Even when Somerfield had a Market Fresh reboot (last throw of the dice), it’s facias, flooring and lighting were still something reminiscent of the 1980s. Only when the Co-op came they ripped everything out and started afresh. But even they gave up, it’s an M&S Food Hall now, which is symbolic as the area it’s in is now very gentrified. Yet oddly, I do miss it, just a little bit.

[@d2dar459]

Theres nothing odd about why u would miss it, these buildings are *our* imperfections/oddities. They have character.

[@imrustyokay]

@@d2dar459 Yea, which is why I always feel bad when I see an old building in my area being torn down. It's not wrong, just different.

[@sks2002]

15:54 that gateway location is in Cribbs Causeway, it’s now an Asda.

[@GeoNeilUK]

I remember Presto from my childhood in the small Northumberland town I lived in. The Prudhoe store disappeared with the Presto brand. In Prudhoe, Safeway was nothing you wanted from a store and a whole lot less. Corbridge did get Gateway, being smaller and posher than Prudhoe, can't remember if it used to be a Presto. Morrison's was confusing in the North East for a while as it's logo used to be a black serif M on a yellow background... not unlike the logo for the Tyne & Wear Metro. At least the tree doesn't have Geordies and Mackems who are unfaniliar with the area (Blaydon in my neck of the woods) wondering why there's a whole bunch of groceries and no trains there. Maybe they changed it on the advice of their brand ambassadors Ant & Dec.

[@ColmORourke1981]

Re: Tesco at William Low - a similar tactic was deployed when they purchased Associated British Foods' assets on both sides of the Irish border. Mainland adverts were revoiced with the relevant local accent depending on whether you watched the UTV or the RTÉ. The adoption of the new parent company's name also followed the same interim dual-branding template: Tesco at the Stewarts Group for us Nordies, and Tesco at Quinnsworth for 'down South'. And, of course and saddest of all, no more Big Jim Megaw (NI) and Big Maurice Pratt (RoI) on your telly almost every night.

[@imrustyokay]

I just noticed the old Safeway logo looks a bit like the old Czechoslovakian TV logo. Before it was split along with the country.

[@ifaiful]

The gateway in Northwood actually became a store called SOLO before it became somerfield. It did feel homely at the time though

[@foz775]

Remember wullie lows well!

[@edwardburek1717]

That "Bauhaus-inspired" Wm. Low logo looks more like a cubist Pacman to me. But I am well overdue for an eye test, so make of that what you will. And speaking of Wm. Low, does that much-vaunted new store at Camperdown now serve as the Dundee Ice Arena?

[@TheBiggerburger]

Somerfield where I am was still Gateway if you were local right until the end, when it became Sainsbury's. The local Kwik Save then became Somerfield, and was always Kwik Save... Don't like change here in the 'shire

[@knshinn2]

WOT NO MAJOR BENEST?

[@applemask]

Covered him already vimeo.com/257186044

[@GeoNeilUK]

There is a part of me that wishes Benest's of Millbrook (or Fineprice) went national.

[@ifaiful]

I remember that Tesco ad, with a English voiceover.

[@GryphLane]

I notice Morrisons have now brought back "More reasons..." because they really have ran out of ideas now

[@diabrettic]

Ah Wullie Lows, memories lol

[@ridbensdale]

We used to park on the Presto multi storey in Paignton when on holiday down that way. I’m sure it still had the slanty logo as late as 1989. EDIT: What about Fine Fare?

[@byronlaw6491]

I never saw a gateway or somerfield as a kid. Can’t remember any of the ads either so was interesting to see. We went to Normid/Co-op and Kwik Save when I was a kid with the odd Morrisons trip. North West of England and born in 83 is why those specific chains of course.

[@derekmarshall6332]

Where does International fit into this ? Weren’t they bought by Gateway ?

[@merlinonline67]

So what happened to the International store?

[@ntmdisco]

no mention of Kwik Save then with their "no frills" own products?

[@applemask]

Kwik Save aren't defunct. Sort of.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

There's a Kwik Save in Bangor for some reason. I think it's a semi-independent thing now, like the one remaining Blockbuster in the States.

[@derekmarshall6332]

Yes its very much a unique small thing now..

[@davidt-rex2062]

Scottish supermarket but nothing Welsh or Northern Irish. That's racist :)