Old Shops long gone !

Just been reading Past & Present post on Facebook, the subject was Shops !
I posted that I remember Blaster Bates paint shop near Littlewoods and one of my funniest memories was my Mum and me going in and she asked for a tin of Sky Blue Durex (she meant Dulux),  but I just fell about laughing. The manager stood there very stone faced which made me worse   
Next day we went to mum & dads, he got down from his ladder as he was painting the ceiling  and said " I am just going to Master Bates, I need another tin"
well need I say more   
What were your fondest memories of our shops long gone ?

Duckworths where you could buy butter and sugar by the ounce and that delicious smell of freshly ground coffee as you walked in the door. A quantity to suit any pocket. Brilliant.

Aah yes....Duckworths it is for me too, I  was only a child but I will never forget the aroma's!  

And my Granddad's chippy on Hope Street. Situated as it was between the two gas lamps that lit up the whole street. The smell waffting down made the mouth water - until the Black Pea Man went by with his bicycle - . Oh dear me. You haven't lived folks - -    

Can anyone remember Ronnie's, near the Dicken Green pub?

Publix on Yorkshire Street, my friend's dear old mum always referred to it as 'Pubic's .... ahem.

Next to the Co-Op on Toad lane. Was it Morris's -hmm - called something else before that? Sold everything for the handyman. Brilliant place.

A lot of towns had these rather nice Italian cafes in the late 60's. Stylish, quality family run businesses. But they didn't survive. They arrived too late for the 'coffee bar' fashion of skiffle days.
The great British pubic seemed to prefer the greasy spoon type of cafe, or the spam spam and spam canteen. Pity.

Hinch wrote:Does anyone remember the Rainbow Cafe; also known as Mollies? On Oldham Road by Wet Rake. Later, it moved a few doors down and became the Roma. They were an Italian couple and never really learned English. They had a fantastic juke box and a giant Gaggia expresso machine.

Amazing how long you could make a small, glass cup of coffee last!

For all on Mollies read Ower Dawning by Atlas D'four. Is that blatant publicity seeking or what? Should be ashamed of yourself Atlas. Hmm - well I'm not -