A lost supermarket chain known for its discount prices is still remembered fondly in Greater Manchester and beyond.
The Manchester Evening News recently took a look back at the former Presto supermarket, which was a big brand name from the early 1960s to late 1980s. A division of a larger company called Allied Suppliers Ltd, the stores were often located in shopping centres and there were a number of Prestos in and around Greater Manchester that shoppers will remember.
Presto sold all the fruit, vegetables, meat and bakery items you'd expect, and the popular treats of the time, such as Cadbury's Brazil Nut bars and Sunshine table jellies. It also had its own memorable TV advert catchphrase - 'you'll be impressed at Presto.'
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In its infancy, the company was said to have been looking for a name for a new discount shopping store in the north east and ended up deciding to remove the ‘n’ from Preston in North Tyneside to create the name Presto, Chronicle Live previously reported. But by the late 1980s, many of the supermarkets had become Safeway stores.
The name was briefly revived before disappearing for good in the late 1990s. On the My Bury Facebook page, a number of MEN readers have since shared their memories of the lost supermarket chain.
Tammy Obrien said: "Loved shopping with my mum at Prestos. Used to take the shopping home in my dolls pram."
Susan Dearden wrote: "I used to work there on the checkout in the 1980’s. No barcodes or scanner in those days every price had to be typed in. Great place I loved it happy memories."
Julie Ann Neary posted: "I used to work in the staff canteen." Gill Clegg said: "I used to love going to Prestos with my mum, used to have a brew and a chorley cake from the cafe at the bus station before getting the bus home."
Paul Sierra Ford said: "We used to get treated to a curly-wurly when shopping there, in our VW Beetle." Ben Davis wrote: "Jesus Christ I’m old enough to remember this."
Andrea Matulka posted: "Blast from the past." Darren A Cahill posted: "Was only thinking of Presto yesterday."
Gladys Hardman commented: "I shopped there it was a great supermarket there, there was a clothing store over the top." Ian Scott wrote: "Good old days."
Jane Hawarden commented: "I used to work there as a Saturday girl." And Lynn Urch commented: "My sisters worked there."
For some of us, Presto was the first supermarket we visited or a place where our family got their weekly shop. W ith their bright packaging and advertisements, the brand was instantly recognisable.
MEN readers may remember one Presto branch in Whitefield, a site which is now home to a Morrisons car park. This image, courtesy of Museum of Transport Greater Manchester, shows the store in 1984.
A full-page Presto advertisement from an Evening Chronicle in July 1972 shines a light on the shopping tastes and preferences of 50 years ago, as well as the ridiculously cheap prices by today's standards. There were a number of Presto supermarkets in England and Scotland, so we can assume these prices and products of the time weren't too dissimilar to those stores based in and around Greater Manchester.
Do you remember shopping at Presto? Let us know in the comments section below.
The '70s favourites on sale included Cadbury's Smash at 13p; Vesta Curries at 18½p; a tin - yes a tin - of Heinz Beefburgers at 18p; and a tin of Tyne Brand Sliced Pork at 16p½. Plenty of the products are still supermarket staples in 2022 such as a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup for 12p; Bird's Eye Fish Fingers for 19½p; Bird's Eye Garden Peas for 13½p; and Bird's Eye Cod Fillets for 27p.
Kids would have been straight over to the biscuits and sweets section where you would have found packets of McVities' Digestive Biscuits or McVities' Ginger Nuts for 5p each. A pack of four Mars Bars cost 14p; while a hefty ½lb block of Cadbury's Brazil Nut was 22p.
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Moving to slightly healthier foodstuffs, 1lb of bananas was 7p, while you could pick up two large grapefruit for 14p. In an era when drinking alcohol at home wasn't yet the done thing, and before Britain had developed a taste for wine drinking, the 'wine and spirits' offers were somewhat limited, with Tennents' Lager at 11½p a can catching the eye.
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