Belper's First Supermarket

From the Neil Gillett Collection – photograph by Noel Smith.

The Palace Cinema closed in early 1963, and after demolition, its replacement was Belper’s first supermarket, Fine Fare. Promotion of this new shopping experience must have been effective, as on the day of opening in October 1963, crowds started gathering outside long before the official 10am opening. There must have been some concerns over how quickly the crowd was growing, as extra police were brought in to help marshal it.

Shortly before 10am, the Dagenham Girl Pipers, who’d been booked to open the store, appeared and marched down King Street, bringing even more people down to the bottom of King Street for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony. Once the ribbon was cut by Pipe Major Peggy Iris, the crowd surged forward and into the store.

There were lots of offers with free pork pies, liquorice allsorts and frozen peas available as part of the special deals. A 2lb bag of sugar was just sixpence if you spent over 20 shillings (£1). Supplies had to be topped up with extra van deliveries – a very successful first day for Fine Fare.