A lost supermarket chain, remembered for its "freshly baked bread' and discount prices was loved for years in Greater Manchester and beyond.
Many will remember once shopping at a Presto supermarket. A big brand name from the early 1960s to late 1980s, it was a division of a larger company called Allied Suppliers Ltd.
The company was said to have been looking for a name for a new discount shopping store in the north east and ended up deciding to remove the ‘n’ from Preston in North Tyneside to create the name Presto, Chronicle Live previously reported.
Often located in shopping centres, there were a number of Prestos in and around Greater Manchester that shoppers will remember.
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Presto sold all the fruit, vegetables, meat and bakery items you'd expect, and the popular treats of the time, such as Cadbury's Brazil Nut bars and Sunshine table jellies. Presto is also remembered for its own TV advert catchphrase - 'you'll be impressed at Presto.'
But by the late 1980s, many of the supermarkets had become Safeway stores. The name was briefly revived before disappearing for good in the late 1990s.
For some of us, Presto was the first supermarket we visited or a place where our family got their weekly shop. W ith their bright packaging and advertisements, the brand was instantly recognisable.
MEN readers may remember one Presto branch in Whitefield, a site which is now home to a Morrisons car park. This image, courtesy of Museum of Transport Greater Manchester, shows the store in 1984.
Do you remember shopping at Presto? Let us know in the comments section below.
We put a call out on social media for a number of memories of Presto in Greater Manchester and these are some of your responses.
One person said: "I remember it, very good supermarket." Another said: "Yes - the first supermarket I remember. We went to the one in Whitefield, next to the bus station."
One wrote: "You'll be impressed at Presto." Another said: "There was one in Whitefield I remember it caused a bit of a stir as it was a big supermarket."
Another commented: "Nicking the chocolate out of the Easter eggs with my dad." One posted: "It was a good supermarket."
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One wrote: "Ashton-under-Lyne, ground floor of the TAC building." One said "I do even though now live in Rochford Essex since 1980. The first supermarket was Prestos in our market square and had a good deli counter as well xx."
One person posted: "Yes, I used to call in the one in Whitefield when I had gone to visit my Auntie." And another person said: "Yes Whitefield in the early 80s every Friday night."
A full-page Presto advertisement from an Evening Chronicle in July 1972 shines a light on the shopping tastes and preferences of 50 years ago, as well as the ridiculously cheap prices by today's standards. There were a number of Presto supermarkets in England and Scotland, so we can assume these prices and products of the time weren't too dissimilar to those stores based in and around Greater Manchester.
The '70s favourites on sale included Cadbury's Smash at 13p; Vesta Curries at 18½p; a tin - yes a tin - of Heinz Beefburgers at 18p; and a tin of Tyne Brand Sliced Pork at 16p½. Plenty of the products are still supermarket staples in 2022 such as a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup for 12p; Bird's Eye Fish Fingers for 19½p; Bird's Eye Garden Peas for 13½p; and Bird's Eye Cod Fillets for 27p.
Kids would have been straight over to the biscuits and sweets section where you would have found packets of McVities' Digestive Biscuits or McVities' Ginger Nuts for 5p each. A pack of four Mars Bars cost 14p; while a hefty ½lb block of Cadbury's Brazil Nut was 22p.
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Moving to slightly healthier foodstuffs, 1lb of bananas was 7p, while you could pick up two large grapefruit for 14p. In an era when drinking alcohol at home wasn't yet the done thing, and before Britain had developed a taste for wine drinking, the 'wine and spirits' offers were somewhat limited, with Tennents' Lager at 11½p a can catching the eye.
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