To me Woolworths was as much a British institution as The Big Ben. The first time I saw a Woolworths, I gave my heart to it. This was in 1993. India was just opening up.
This was also my first time outside India.
We (a colleague and I) had just reached St. Annes-On-The-Sea. We dumped our bags and went out exploring. The receptionist at the hotel gave us the direction. As we turned into the a big wide street, there it stood at the corner, gleaming with all its glory. We had not seen a store like this before. Like excited kids we went inside. I am sure our mouths were open and I suspect we were also drooling. The store had everything. Everything.
It was such a fascinating place.
I subsequently returned to England many times. I have seen bigger and better stores in England and all around the world. But my first love remained Woolworth's. And on every visit I would go to Woolworths even if I didn't have anything to buy. Just to refresh the memory of my first rush of excitement.
So, you can well imagine how sad I feel when I hear that Woolworths are now having a closing sale. I don't know when I will visit England next but I am sure I will definitely miss not having Woolworths around.
We are living in difficult times,aren't we? The closing sales will perhaps attract the kind of crowd that perhaps was required all year round.
Note: The picture used here belongs to Sanja Gjenero. Visit her gallery for more such pictures.
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1 comment:
Hi Amitabh,
Yes I agree with you. It is sad to see 99 years old business going down. I went to have a look at their closing down sale today. It was full and had to wait for quite a long time to pay.
Another interesting thing which I noticed was that people were taking photograph of the stores.
Ashwin
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