Recent mention of another shopping franchise coming to Darwin made me wonder whether any members remember the following.

During the 1970s, Woolworths had their store on the same corner in the city that has been given a new lease on life recently, but it had a large car park in front. I parked there one day and went in to find the store almost empty. I commented on this to one of the assistants and she told me that all the people were round in Cavenagh Street, shopping at a new store there. I trotted round and about where Warehouse 73 is now was the new attraction; I'm not sure but I think it was a branch of Tom the Cheap from WA. Apparently they had to close the doors twice on their first day of trading to restock the shelves. You marked the shelf price on whatever you put in your basket: definitely no frills.

Later, a branch of Jack the Slasher, a warehouse-type store, opened somewhere in Winnellie. Whenever we came to the big smoke from Katherine, we always packed the esky in the car to stock up on the way home with all these new brands you never saw anywhere else. Those were the days when shopping was fun!

Fran Wickes