A lost supermarket chain that once sold cut-price items was a familiar fixture in Greater Manchester for years.
In the 1960s, the way we shopped changed dramatically as supermarkets meant customers no longer had to travel from shop to shop for different items. Instead of asking staff behind counters to fetch things, shoppers also began to serve themselves, grabbing items after browsing the shelves.
In Greater Manchester, many will remember visiting their first supermarket and for some - that supermarket was Lennon's. The family business dates back to 1900 when Mr Frank Lennon established his grocery and provisions businesses in St Helens, now part of Merseyside.
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Until the early 1950s, the family ran a small group of traditional style grocery shops. But in 1958, one of Frank's sons, Terence Lennon, paid a visit to America and was inspired by their style of grocery selling and when he returned laid the plans for converting Lennon shops to self service.
It soon became a public company and old cinemas local to the family were soon bought and converted into supermarkets. The chain progressed rapidly and Lennon’s started adding off-licenses, selling cut-price drinks.
As the business prospered, more shops were opened and by 1963, Lennon's boasted a turnover of £5 million, the Manchester Evening News previously reported. Lennon's supermarkets were later opened in Manchester, Rochdale, Wigan, Levenshulme, Cheetham Hill and more and outside of Greater Manchester, branches could also be found in Liverpool, Lancashire, Yorkshire and elsewhere in the country.
The first supermarket arrived in Rochdale in October 1963, when Lennon's opened at the junction of Yorkshire Street and Whitworth Road. The MEN previously reported how the entire ground floor had been opened out to provide 4,800 feet of shopping floor and on opening day, 35 members of staff were ready to help customers buy groceries, greengroceries, fruit, meat and other provisions from £15,000 worth of stock.
Do remember Lennon's supermarkets? Let us know in the comments section below.
Appointed manager of the store was William Roberts, 31, who had only been with the firm for six months. He previously said: "Lennon's pride themselves on the quality and freshness of their meats, vegetables and fruits and provisions.
"All meat and provisions are in refrigerated trays until handed to the customer and because of our quick turnover, backed by our massive store refrigeration plant, we can guarantee freshness." Rochdale was the company's 18th store to open.
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Many will remember Lennon's offering Green Shield Stamps, highly-competitive prices on drinks and tobacco or it being the first supermarket you ever visited. On social media, we recently put a call out for your memories of Lennon's.
On person posted: "I remember with my mum getting the Green Shield Stamps at the end of shop. Another commented: "Went every Friday with my dad looking for bargains and Green Shield Stamps
On Facebook, many reminisced about working at the Rochdale branch. One person said: "I used to work there, selling strawberries outside in the summer. Mr Pimlot was manager then."
Another commented: "I worked on the fruit and veg section as a Saturday girl in 1969. Produce put in brown paper bag, weighed, price worked out and then written on bag to be taken to till! Those were the days."
Images, courtesy of Manchester Archives and Local History show what the Cheetham Hill branch looked like back in the 1960s. One image shows prams left outside the store, with food offers advertised in the windows, from Cheshire roasting pork to boneless English roasting beef.
At the time, customers could also buy HP Baked Beans for 11d, OXO cubes for 1 1/2 and steak and kidney for 3'8. Another image, courtesy of Keith Holt/KDH Archive also shows outside Wigan garage and the Ribble all over advertising for Lennons Supermarkets, a bright yellow bus with illustrations of drink bottles and glasses of wine, with a slogan "the best places for drink in the North."
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By the 80s, Lennon's announced plans to expand further with more branches farther north and in Wales. On August 19, 1981, the Liverpool ECHO reported: "With 44 supermarkets, 126 wine and spirits stores, and more than 2,000 employees, Lennon's the still-growing food and drinks giant now covers the country from the Scottish border to Oxfordshire."
Over the years, Lennon's began to disappear from our high streets across Greater Manchester and beyond. But many still hold fond memories of it being the first supermarket they visited or what it was like in years gone by.
To find out more about Manchester Archives and Local History Library, click here.
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