HERE'S a pictorial memory-jerker for our more mature readers to ponder over. It harks back to a time - before the proliferation of supermarkets - when the local Co-operative Society was undisputed front-runner in the customer stakes.

St Helens town centre, of course, boasted the magnificent Helena House Co-op department store, complete with it head office and well-patronised ballroom. Folk still chat about the good old days when long queues formed there to collect their annual dividend. The payment, worked out on a percentage basis, was a loyalty bonus, rewarding regular customers. And even now, decades later, there are plenty of ex-customers around who can still quote their old 'divi' number.

The Co-op of course is still very much in business and has claimed something of a comeback in recent years. But this picture was taken during an era when every district of St Helens, plus all of the surrounding satellite towns and villages, boasted its own distinctive Co-op store. And this particular one, long ago flattened for the re-shaping of the Fingerpost shopping zone, would have been familiar to folk living around Parr area. Wonder how many can recall where it actually stood and when it finally put up shutters? (From the presence of the lone car in the foreground it was still there in the Mini age).