We are looking for 20 people to interview about ‘The Store’.
Do you have memories of ‘The Store’?
Did you work there? Did you shop there?
What was your association with ‘The Store’?
‘The Store’ (the Newcastle and Suburban Co-operative Society), once located in Newcastle West, was more than a retail store: it also supported its members in other ways, offering funds for health and funeral cover, a travel agency, credit union, function centre, local deliveries… and many of its members would remember the ‘divvy’ that rewarded loyal customers.
The purpose of this oral history project is to collect a range of stories about ‘The Store’ that can be used in a publication and made available on-line on the University of Newcastle’s livinghistories@uon digital platform and shared with the wider community. If you are interested in participating or would like further information, please contact Dr Ann Hardy at the University of Newcastle on Ann.hardy@newcastle.edu.au or 02 49854594 by 8 February 2019.Oral history interviews will be undertaken during early 2019. (While there is a limit of 20 interviews for this project, contributions in other forms, such as written works, photographs etc, would also be greatly appreciated). 
This project is sponsored by Doma Group, and managed by Artefact Heritage (artefact.net.au), with GLAMx Living Histories Digitisation Lab at the University of Newcastle Library (livinghistories.newcastle.edu.au) and the Vera Deacon Regional History Fund (uoncc.wordpress.com/vera-deacon-fund), and supported by Newcastle Region Library (newcastle.nsw.gov.au/Library/Home).
Click Here for Store related posts:
https://hunterlivinghistories.com/category/advocacy-and-public-awareness/the-store/
My mother, grandmother and aunty shopped there, but my memory of the store is that every so often, not sure how regularly this was done, they would have a popular singing performer in the record section on a school day. My mother would give me a note to be excused from school in my lunch hour (I went to St Aloysius’ GHS, Hamilton, and I would take some of my schoolfriend’s autograph books with me and get the starring personality to autograph each one. One of my earliest memories is when I was about 3 years old, my Nana took me to a circus which was on the roof of The Store building. I remember vividly, a clown drinking a bottle of Coca Cola and it poured out of the back of his head – this apparently scared me and I have hated clowns ever since.
If you need a hand doing the interviewing Ann, I’m interested. Rosie Heritage.
Too late. But I had 2 different jobs there. Record bar and then as a check out chick. Great bosses. Loved it.
Joy Duff nee Davidson
During the 1950’s & 1960′ my grandparents used to knit tea cosies in the form of koalas and sell them on commission through The Store. The were sold all around the world!
Joy Duff nee Davidson
During the 1950’s & 1960’s my grandparents (Vera & Stan Davidson) used to knit tea cosies in the form of a koala and sell them on commission through The Store. I remember going with them in their EH Holden to The Store to take them in. Their tea cosies were sent all around the world!