Gosh, the intro was far too long but what a treat to see these old adverts. I remember going into the UK Woolies as a child of the 70's. It was like an Aladdin's cave, it had all sorts of things you couldn't find anywhere else. Anyone remember the old Ronco brand? Your £ went a long way in Woolworths. Brings back so many happy childhood memories of Christmas.
The prices where a bit over the top for Woolworths in the 70's but still my parents always managed to give us a great Christmas to remember. Bless them both good memories.
never saw the advertisement, I fell asleep during the long intro. When Iwoke up to the door bell, the intro was still playing. so I then made myself a drink and something to eat. finished my book, sent an email and the intro was still playing.
Thanks for posting this. It's definitely from Christmas 1978. The "Starsky and Hutch" annual at 01.37 is the 1979 edition, which I still have. Sadly, I no longer have the "Six Million Dollar Man" watch at 02.00, which I also got that Christmas. Good times.
loved these xmas ads - gave a real sense of excitement in the run-up to christmas. all those things you wanted but would probly never get - and if you did ever get them, it would only ever be at christmas! sounding like an old fart, but kids today get anything they want whenever, in my day you had to wait (and no guarantee santa would deliver!)
A lot of things were quite a bit more expensive in real terms back then. Things we consider to be fairly basic technology, like calculators or TV sets were astronomically expensive. Other things like confectionery were also very expensive - Quality Street was a bit of a "luxury".
Here we go: Jimmy Young, Pat Coombs, David Jacobs, Pete Murray, Windsor Davies, Henry Cooper, Barry Sheen, Nicholas Parsons, Sheila Bernette, Anita Harris, Harry Worth, Georgie Fame, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Stirling Moss, ‘Buzby’, Tony Blackburn, Leslie Crowther. I think that’s all of them.
Can we just take a moment to reflect on the fact that the tin of Quality Street shown here has 2.5kg of chocolate in it. Thats almost 4 times the amount you will get now in 2021. No wonder they lasted well into January. Now its just some shallow dregs washing around the bottom of a cheap plastic octagon.
2.5kg of Quality Street for £4.99! As a child of the 70s, I can remember saving up like crazy, yet never having enough money to buy my Mum a tin of QS or Roses. My Uncle Mervyn would send me a £10 note every year in my Christmas Card, which made up the 'shortfall!' Happy, happy memories ❤
Nearly 30 quid for a Polaroid camera, I was a kid in the late 70s, that was a lot of money then - like £150 today maybe. Some things were cheaper, some weren't. Lovely to see Pat Coombes! xxx
So many things we consider to be fairly basic now were astronomically expensive back. Things like calculators were ridiculously pricey. A lot of people rented TV sets because they were so expensive. Even fairly basic chocolates like quality street were considered a real luxury back then because they cost so much.
Wasn't it lovely! those big tins of quality street! still have the tins !! my mum used them to store her xmas decorations ..I inherited them when she died.....
Many thanks for that. Sheila Bernette could be very funny in Candid Camera and I remember her in Butterflies, aswell as in the Sharp's extra strong mints commercial. I'm sure she was also in Hancock's Half Hour too.
When I saw Don MacLean sing 'And Her Mother Came Too' on Sounds For Saturday, I had a memory of Leslie Crowther singing that on The Saturday Crowd and Sheila Bernette playing the part of the mother!
I'm looking for the Woolies Christmas ad that got my Christmas present that year - an Ingersoll digital watch. I think it was sung by Roy Castle about 1981/2. None of the ones on RU-vid seem to have it. About £14, a ruddy fortune back then. I got one on Ebay this year for 30 quid!
I still miss Woolies. It was surprising how quickly they collapsed in 2008, in the summer and early autumn everything seemed normal, but they suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed around Christmas, the last store closing in early January 2009. I understand their parent company F W Woolworth [USA] has also collapsed since, although Woolworths in Australia and NZ has survived.
Pat Coombes, Nicholas Parsons, Lesley Crowther, various radio djs, the woman from Candid Camera and a couple of others I recognise but can't remember their names.
Jimmy Young, Pat Coombs, David Jacobs, Pete Murray, Windsor Davies, Henry Cooper, Barry Sheen, Nicholas Parsons, Sheila Burnette, Anita Harris, Harry Worth, Georgie Fame, Tim Brooke Taylor, Stirling Moss, Busby, Tony Blackburn, Leslie Crowther, are the ones I recognise.
Yes the singer and composer was Rod Allen, of the ABM agency. I was part of a jingle team called 'Gold' who wrote, performed and arranged many of ABM's adverts back then. I played drums and did some backing vocals on this one :)
Unless I’m very much mistaken, the boy at about 2:00 2:01 Could be perhaps Nigel Rhodes who played Andrew Forbes last two series in the last two series.
my mom me and my sister's used to shop at Woolworths all the time in the 80s. as an little kid. woolsworth was alright to me some of that stuff was expensive. this was way before we started to have doller stores around. also we used to go to the woolsworth that was down town in wichita Kansas.we used to stop by in there around Xmas time before the Xmas parade had started. that was good times growing up in the 80s.these young generation dosent know nothing about wools worth.
Too true, but I'm glad I'm old enough to have be around back then and appreciate the memories I have now. I don't there's really very much worth remembering these days, I'm sorry to say.
It's called "getting old". Everything seems magical when you're a kid. As you get older, life takes its toll and the stars fall from your eyes. That doesn't mean that the past was better - far from it. It's just the way you look at the world has changed.
Thanks, but it was Sheila Bernette just before Nicholas Parsons, I was asking about, I just couldn't think of her name at the time. Pat Coombs is just after Nicholas Parsons. Their appearances are very quick :-)
The old school old ladies that worked there knew how to make a fucking hot dog...they use to butterfly that dog and lightly grill the bun and I think they added a bit of Mayo to it I think...I may be trippen but they ruled
The Quality Street tin is about three times the thickness of the pitiful plastic ones you get now. Even the chocolate bars were bigger back then. Everything's shrunk now
@@richardanderson7872 about £25 adjusted for inflation. Weight for weight adjusted for inflation quality street is roughly half the price now as it was back then.
Let us not forget how they (Woolworth's) saw it fitting to open on Christmas Day! Thankfully special law was introduced to put a stop to the practice...
Rob Spencer don't know where you lived/live but i most defo recall the branch in Wimbledon, south-west London being open one Christmas Day...i say it because i went in! might been a "one-off"
+AbsoRuddyExactly Around their last ten years on the high street, barley anyone was going to their stores, which lead to them losing money which forced them to close all of their stores and focusing online until 2015 when it was brought out by a brand named very. R.I.P wollies 1909-2015
Indeed, I remember chocolate was a luxury then. It was a rare treat. Today we are spoilt, and it has contributed to the obesity epidemic. I was just making the point that the tins then were huge, though still more expensive pound for pound when we consider inflation.
+thomas cope Not totally true. About half the stores were profitable and doing nicely with plenty of costumers. However, that's not how big business works. Increasing rents, decreasing profit margins on their products, and the unprofitable stores dragged the company down. All the way down. RIP WOOLIES!
There were a lot more than just 2 countries that had or still has Woolworth and Woolco operations! The Woolworth in Australia is totally unconnected, as is Woolworth in South Africa that modeled its stores like Marks and Spencer in the UK! Connected countries using the same Woolies format were Mexico, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Cyprus. The UK Woolworth split from the US parents in 1982, and closed a lot of stores to bring the brand back into profit, well for a little while! ASDA will never be a key player on the high street in the UK, stores like QD, B&M, Home Bargains, Poundland / world/ 99p stores are too dominant, they are losing market share here and they need to wake up! Wilkinson were the obvious brand to take on Woolies trade, and they have!
I'm impressed Woolworth still exists in Mexico! (looks like they're using the last logo the US stores had) www.woolworth.com.mx/ The UK operation was the earliest international expansion for F. W. Woolworth Co., possibly the first for any US merchant at the time.
There are a number of celebrities - Tim Brooke-Taylor (comedian and actor, one of the Goodies), Anita Harris (entertainer), Windsor Davis (actor), Lesley Phillips (TV presenter), Henry Cooper (boxer), Kevin Keegan (footballer), Tony Blackburn (Radio DJ) to name the few names I could remember. I think the one at the end was Stanley Baxter (TV comedian), but I am not 100% sure.
Tell what I got a dodgy Wii just before they went bankrupt...damaged stock apparently and I would have to go through liquidators....Store managers getting their best in my opinions ;)
