Sainsbury's Archive

[egg]

It's like a bloody fantasy world for us lot. Imagine time travel back to one of these car parks for a day (with modern camera of course!).

'you can go anywhere in history with this machine'

'Sainsbury's car park Beckenham September 1984 please'

[HillmanImp]

31 minutes ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Interesting that people who drove Mercs and BMWs didn't go to supermarkets in the 80's and 90's, must have all been at the golf course.

Back in the 80's and 90's the chances of seeing a Mercedes outside London was a rare sight. I lived in Sussex and my mates and I used to get quite excited when we saw one. I remember going up to London though and they were everywhere. 

If I could find the newspaper article about me crashing my Imp into a bollard outside Sainsbury's in Rustington, I'd load that up to that stores page. Just had a look are articles in the 1994 Littlehampton Gazette but it was just a small article and it's not there.  Maybe I should load up a picture of the car though. There's nothing else on that stores history yet. 

[Lord Sterling]

1 hour ago, NorfolkNWeigh said:

Interesting that people who drove Mercs and BMWs didn't go to supermarkets in the 80's and 90's, must have all been at the golf course.

 

19 minutes ago, HillmanImp said:

Back in the 80's and 90's the chances of seeing a Mercedes outside London was a rare sight. I lived in Sussex and my mates and I used to get quite excited when we saw one. I remember going up to London though and they were everywhere. 

Mercedes at J Sainsbury's in Birmingham. ?

 

[Asimo]

Hemel Hempstead.  Look at at all of the colours!

[HMC]

1 hour ago, egg said:

It's like a bloody fantasy world for us lot. Imagine time travel back to one of these car parks for a day (with modern camera of course!).

'you can go anywhere in history with this machine'

'Sainsbury's car park Beckenham September 1984 please'

This.

[HMC]

Unsure what the benefit to sainsbury is in their decision to put live bits of their archive but for me this is idea/link/thread of the year. The mundaneness of the subject matter as it happened is a window to another time.

[michael t]

This is brilliant, there goes my productivity levels at work this afternoon!

[HillmanImp]

3 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

Maybe I should load up a picture of the car though. There's nothing else on that stores history yet. 

There's the car. Might update it tomorrow night. They replaced the store with a new one a few years ago but until then the bollard i hit was never put back quite straight always reminding me of my idiocy each time I bought something from there. 

[adw1977]

The then new, now long closed, Epsom High Street branch in 1982.

Two J reg Vauxhalls in the car park that would have been quite old even then, but the Metro was almost brand new:

Efficient parking in the street outside - three small cars in two spaces!

[adw1977]

Bexhill

Opening day, 1976:

PPN522M lasted until 1984.  Plenty of BL tin in the background.

Sometime after 1976:

[adw1977]

White was a popular colour for cars in Hastings in 1993:

[adw1977]

Not just stores in the archive - this is the gatehouse at Charlton depot in 1977

Site clearance before construction of Charlton depot, 1968:

[The Vicar]

19 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

White was a popular colour for cars in Hastings in 1993:

That Riva is just wonderful! 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

3 hours ago, Asimo said:

Hemel Hempstead.  Look at at all of the colours!

This must be the Apsley branch, which I sometimes go to.....

[adw1977]

That Hemel Hempstead pic is particularly good - 3 Maxis and an Ital!

[adw1977]

Edgware 1989

[Tadhg Tiogar]

6 minutes ago, adw1977 said:

Edgware 1989

This is built on the site of the oul Edgware ex-GNR/LNER railway station (closed 1964)

[Skizzer]

2 hours ago, adw1977 said:

 

Never mind Mercs and BMWs being at the golf course, I do believe that’s a Bentley T-Series next to the grey Sierra.

And a mega bonus Zastava/Yugo Mediteran 513.

[HillmanImp]

6 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

 

Mercedes at J Sainsbury's in Birmingham. ?

 

He was probably from London visiting relatives.

To be fair, I only used to go to Birmingham every other year to the motor show at the NEC, so I've no idea how common they were there or other cities. Maybe it was just the peasants round my way who couldn't afford them. 

[HMC]

Nominating J SAINSBURY PLC for services to shite spotting. 11144355/10 wud shop again

[Spottedlaurel]

19 hours ago, trigger said:

 

 

Am I reading the plate on this 240Z correctly as RPG 480L? If so it is/was still around, I saw it at Billing in 2001 and it was blue then. Found a photo of it online here: https://zclub.net/community/index.php?media/rpg-480l.448/

DVLA say untaxed since 1995, but it was clearly in existence after that date.

Enjoying what people are finding, would definitely love to go back to the early-mid '80s.

[The Vicar]

6 hours ago, HillmanImp said:

Back in the 80's and 90's the chances of seeing a Mercedes outside London was a rare sight. I lived in Sussex and my mates and I used to get quite excited when we saw one. I remember going up to London though and they were everywhere. 

It wasn't until the end of the 90s and beyond that Mercs and Beemers became common sights even in our capital (Dublin). If you did see one before that time, it was a baby Merc 190E, with hubcaps and cloth, or a 316i. In 1987 my parents bought a farm house and working farm, on a good number of acres, in Dublin, for less than what an uncle of my mother had paid for a 520i that had, at a push, alloys. That was proper exotica here back in the day  

[HMC]

Same re merc spotting. Also sort of reinforcing this point, but a disproportionate number of my old 70s/80s/90s mercs had Londonish registration marks

EYO924V K461EJD G994SGK M—-GGO A151HGV A880VGC etcetc

[HMC]

Edinburgh 1993

[adw1977]

Meanwhile in Northern Ireland, Clios are popular in 1998:

[HMC]

Nottingham 1984 what a line up

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, The Vicar said:

..... In 1987 my parents bought a farm house and working farm, on a good number of acres, in Dublin, for less than what an uncle of my mother had paid for a 520i that had, at a push, alloys. That was proper exotica here back in the day  

OT but first came to Ireland in 1988, and was taken aback by the reasonableness of Dublin property prices compared to London at that time. I think we could buy a decent town house Southside for about 30 grand.  In Clare, it was just stupid cheap. 

 

[The Vicar]

24 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

OT but first came to Ireland in 1988, and was taken aback by the reasonableness of Dublin property prices compared to London at that time. I think we could buy a decent town house Southside for about 30 grand.  In Clare, it was just stupid cheap. 

 

For the same money and at the same time they bought the farm, my parents turned down an (admittedly rather tatty) three storey over basement Victorian redbrick in Ballsbridge. Admittedly not the wisest financial decision they have ever made, but there has been worse - they did buy a Peugeot 605.

[ChinaTom]

22 hours ago, trigger said:

That Cortina is definitely touching!

K70 in last pic?

[Tadhg Tiogar]

37 minutes ago, ChinaTom said:

K70 in last pic?

Yes, and if the one in the pic is OPJ 976L, that's the one I owned for a few years when I was a student.