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Old 22nd May 2019, 8:27 pm   #81
PaulR
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

The same friend was going to send his rotary lawnmower to a repair shop to have a new blade fitted. It is held on by one bolt.
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Old 22nd May 2019, 8:31 pm   #82
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

Yes, there's truth in that - but I also think that there's a widespread belief that everything is disposable these days.

"Don't even bother to find out if it's repairable - just chuck it out and buy a new one."

It makes me cross
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Old 22nd May 2019, 8:45 pm   #83
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

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The same friend was going to send his rotary lawnmower to a repair shop to have a new blade fitted. It is held on by one bolt.
It all comes down to time-value. Sending said lawnmower to be fixed - and paying £25 - could have been a far better prospect for your friend than spending an hour or two finding a suitable spanner to remove the old blade, driving 25 miles on a round-trip with the failed blade to somewhere that might have a new one, buying it, driving home, and reattaching the new blade.

That could take a couple of hours and a gallon of non-business-expensed fuel. £25 for someone to do it for me while I did £50-per-hour-plus-VAT work is a bargain !
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Old 22nd May 2019, 10:23 pm   #84
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

Ah, but my neighbours know they have me in the vicinity. I don't replace lawnmower blades, I sharpen them, straighten them and if worn can build the edge up with a bead of weld and grind that to an edge!

On the other side of the equation, they take in parcels, keep an eye on the place when I'm not around, etc etc. I think I may be a protected species!

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Old 22nd May 2019, 10:48 pm   #85
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

That reminds me that I bought my first electric lawnmower, a B&D cylinder one, at Woolworths in Romford in the early 1970's. A couple of weeks after getting it, the two screws that secured the external cover for the toothed belt drive, lost their heads. The broken-off remains were very resistant to removal, so I took it back. The assistant was a bit dubious but the supervisor said to give me a new one. I asked them to check that the replacement was OK, and when they opened the box, two screw heads rolled out! Ditto the second and third. They did eventually find one that was OK and the supervisor said they would be sending the whole batch back to B&D.

The manual of the Qualcast mower we got from Argos last year advises you to take it to a service centre if the blade needs attention! It just unbolts.

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Old 22nd May 2019, 11:01 pm   #86
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

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This all sounds like great fun. Sadly, being born in 1973, I must have just missed out on this.
I think those of us old enough to remember a retail shop lit by gas are the ones who feel sad.

I remember when the dentist sterilised his instruments with a gas flame.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 11:11 am   #87
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

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The same friend was going to send his rotary lawnmower to a repair shop to have a new blade fitted. It is held on by one bolt.
If he didn't have a screwdriver, what chance of a spanner. Lightens the load on A&E though. I know people who shouldn't be allowed tools for their own protection, but I can't do what they can. Horses for courses they say.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 11:50 am   #88
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

When I was at school the go to tool for changing a plug was a knife from the cook house.
If the cleaning staff forgot to lock the cleaning cupboard there would be plugs missing off the appliances. It was safer than match sticks.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 4:26 pm   #89
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

In my schooldays a trip to the local F.W.Woolworth stores electrical counter was a regular favorite, electric bells, battery's, twisted bell wire, low voltage switches, MES lamps and holders all being purchased for fun.
I used to like watching the counter staff testing mains lamps before selling them. I think some of the Woolworth mains lamps were branded Sunshine Lamps.
I always looked up at the gas lights and also saw them in use during the power cut period. They also warmed the store up quite a bit when on!

John
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Old 23rd May 2019, 5:47 pm   #90
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One reason for the popularity of the MES bulb holders, bulbs and miniature switches was that a significant minority of homes still lacked mains electricity.
If the main lighting was oil lamps or gas lights, then all sorts of useful improvisations could be useful to provide limited battery lighting.

A bedside table lamp could easily be fitted with a home made B22 to E10 adapter and connected to a battery. A 6 volt battery and a 5.5 volt 0.3 amp bulb would be bright enough for safe movement. Most useful if the main lighting was by gas.
With a bit of ingenuity, a battery light with two way switching could light the stairs "on demand" from top or bottom, much safer than creeping in the dark, and cheaper than leaving the gas light burning all night.
People living in the countryside were more likely to lack mains electricity, and could stock up at Woolworths when visiting the town.

Camping was popular, and rather basic by the standards of today. Although battery camping lanterns existed, many people found home made camping lights to be preferable.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 6:22 pm   #91
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

Another brand I remember Woolies' electricals-department selling a lot of was Waltham: they did things like clock-radios, cassette-recorders, portable radios, and the sort of small portable B&W tellies people bought for their guest-bedrooms in the 1970s.

I had a Waltham 'piano-key'-type cassette-recorder for my Sinclair ZX81!
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Old 23rd May 2019, 7:02 pm   #92
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Camping was popular, and rather basic by the standards of today. Although battery camping lanterns existed, many people found home made camping lights to be preferable.
Ah, an indicator bulb soldered to a long bit of flex with an ali steak-and-kidney pie dish as a reflector!

I remember woolies as self-service (born 1970) - ours (Upminster Essex) had these very groovy automatic change-dispensers at the far end of the bit where you paid at the cash register. I used to watch it spit out coins, and pull them from the helter-skelter style bowl where they ended up.

I used them for records too - and at home they were well-regarded for tools, paint, pots and pans, shoe-repair stuff etc etc. Ours sold a good range of fishing tackle at one time.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 7:10 pm   #93
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

Here's a couple more from Nuneaton Woolies. The first was prompted by the talk of gas lighting for backup. The store I worked in was newer than that (though my OH remembers the previous Nuneaton store, and she also worked at the 'new' one) and was probably built in the early sixties. The emergency backup was a diesel generator down in the basement. I remember the head of the audio / electronics department, Pete, was responsible for starting it up every so often to make sure it worked.

Being reminded of him, and stuff like Waltham reminds me of another event. Does anyone remember the antistatic (?) guns for records? Essentially a piezo device a bit like a piezo gas lighter but the output was aimed at your vinyl with the aim presumably of equalizing any stored static charge. The reason I remember Pete because of this is because he found it hilarious to ask me to try to get a cassette deck on display to stop playing, and as I pressed the keys, discharge this device into the keys I was pressing. Ouch!
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Old 23rd May 2019, 7:25 pm   #94
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

The 'flat' 1289 battery was made up from 3 X U10 cells very popular in the 1930's. The old HT batteries were made up from the same size cells as the U10 but apparently had a different make up but I doubt it. John.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 7:28 pm   #95
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

"Zerostat"

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Old 23rd May 2019, 7:59 pm   #96
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

Woolworths also sold quite a nice range of ornamental items.

The pictures show the acid etched figure and bowl, actually a cut flower display bowl purchased by my mum before WW2. The green and pink vases were another popular Woolworth stock item. They must have sold millions.

Remember that the original Clarice Cliff pottery was sold through Woolworths. Apparently they were slight rejects and she suggested painting Art Deco designs on them and offering them for sale via Woolies.

The doggie torch was an Xmas stocking filler for me around 1952 when I was 4! You push the tail to turn it on.

John.
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Old 23rd May 2019, 8:40 pm   #97
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We still sold the Izal toilet paper when I worked there. I never understood why people still bought it in the eighties!
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Old 23rd May 2019, 9:06 pm   #98
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

As a child (albeit in the 1950s), I remember using it as cheap tracing paper!
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Old 23rd May 2019, 10:01 pm   #99
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We still sold the Izal toilet paper when I worked there. I never understood why people still bought it in the eighties!
I'm sure my school bought it because us pupils would only use it in the direst, direst emergency
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Old 24th May 2019, 1:56 am   #100
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Default Re: Woolworths Electrical Counter

For the life of me, I can not remember ever having been in a Woolworths store back then (before we left the UK in 1965).

I can remember going into Sainsbury's in Reading with my Grandmother, but that's about it (then again, unless it involved trains, as in toy store, shopping held no interest for me).
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