Boxes were provided for customers to sit down until it was their turn.
This is a photograph of Thompson Red Stamp Stores in Marina Avenue, Meadowell Estate, North Shields. It was taken in about 1947 and from left to right the people are; Ronnie Campbell, Bobby Brown, Jean Park, Jenny Ormston, Alice Laws, Sid Nichol, don’t know, Olive Ormston, Cathy Taylor, Marjorie Hunt, Mr Butcher, don’t know.
Rationing was still in force when the picture was taken and customers had to register with a shop to do their shopping. You can see in the photograph that it says ‘re-register here’. If you served a customer who re-registered you got 1/2d added to your wages. If you registered a new customer you got 1d added. It was quite an incentive.
It was a very busy shop and boxes were provided for customers to sit down until it was their turn, making it a very happy shop to shop in. It was called a Red Stamp store because you were given red stamps to save when you shopped there, just like Co-op dividend. Customers filled a book and received 5/- (25p) when it was full. There were three other Red Stamp stores in North Shields: Billy Mill Avenue, Saville street and Prudhoe Street.