Where would we be without Woolies?

Woolies in Crouch End was doing a roaring trade on Sunday (see pic). If it disappears from the Broadway, I will certainly miss it. The company has gone downhill in recent years, but as I look around my kitchen right now, I have a lot of bits and pieces I bought in Crouch End Woolies. Only the other day I bought a sink drainer for my new kitchen. It does the job, and it was only a fiver.

Though entirely Welsh, I grew up in Ireland, where we had no Woolworth stores. As a kid visiting my dad's family in Wales, I used to love going to Woolies. It sold all things I wanted; books, games, stationery, and stupendous packets of felt-tip pens to which my pocket money would often fail to stretch.

My mum, when vitising London, always makes a bee-line for the 'pic'n'mix'. And without Woolies in Crouch End, just where could you pick up a Christmas CD for four quid on your way back home from work?

The Wood Green branch has already gone, and the Crouch End site is in a prime location. With several stores closed in the area, it would be a blow. Haringey needs local jobs. There is a feeling that the smaller stores are better placed to survive. I hope that's true.

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