'Woolworths Pick 'n' Mix had everything from white mice to flying saucers and strawberry shoelaces'

This month 14 years ago, Woolworths (or Woolies, as it was affectionately known) closed the last of its 19 stores in Northern Ireland – and many of us felt bereft.

Woolies was a household name, a one-stop-shop which sold everything from chocolate bars to toasters and televisions, Pyrex dishes to Ladybird clothes, aerobics DVDs to shoe polish, Chad Valley toys, pencils, pens, mops – and, I’m sure if you looked hard enough, kitchen sinks.

But the main reason everyone, both young and old, loved the cheap and cheerful chain was the Pick ‘n’ Mix sweet counter.

Known by some scoundrels as the ‘Pick ‘n’ Nick’, it had everything from white mice, to flying saucers and strawberry laces, and was watched over by pacing sales assistants , wearing nylon tabards, American tan tights and eagle eyes.

In my day, Woolies was less of a shop and more of a meeting place for excitable teenage girls to gabble and flick through magazines and Top 10 singles, arguing over who was the best looking member of A-ha (Morton Harket, obviously).

So, whilst the demise of Woolworths is still keenly felt by many, at least we still have a store of memories and perhaps even a K-Tel compilation album or two that we bought from the bargain bin in 1983.

The wonder of Woolworths - gone, but not forgotten