Sydenham Hypermarket

multisync · Post by **multisync** » 4 Dec 2008 22:54

What has happened to this store now! I noticed it had it's shutters down the other day.

simon · Post by **simon** » 4 Dec 2008 23:31

According to another local trader it has been closed down by the operator as they couldn't make it pay.
Another empty shop then.
There was a thread on here about how they used to get sale stock from Somerfield and sell it on. With those kind economics its unsurprising it failed.
Another issue apeared to be the number of staff required for security reasons; as a big shop it was a haven for shoplifters.
God knows what will end up there but in all the time I've been here, it was a Budgens when I first lived here i think, Ive always had bad service and poor prices from it.
BTW, the operator is still doing her flower stall, I understand.

Rebelmc · Post by **Rebelmc** » 5 Dec 2008 00:32

simon wrote:According to another local trader it has been closed down by the operator as they couldn't make it pay.
Another empty shop then.
There was a thread on here about how they used to get sale stock from Somerfield and sell it on. With those kind economics its unsurprising it failed.
Another issue apeared to be the number of staff required for security reasons; as a big shop it was a haven for shoplifters.
God knows what will end up there but in all the time I've been here, it was a Budgens when I first lived here i think, Ive always had bad service and poor prices from it.
BTW, the operator is still doing her flower stall, I understand.

How on earth did they cope when it was twice the size, as it used to incorperate what is now the 'Two Halves', in it's previous guise as a '7/11', one of the first local, late night stores.

I can't actually remember what it was before the 7/11, but I do remember being very pleased when a late night shop arrived down the road from me (bearing in mind you had to travel quite a long way to find a late opening petrol station in those days).

Incidentally Simon, I don't remember it as a Budgen, but I do remember buying the odd packet of fags there after a long night as a motorcycle courier, which puts it as a 7/11 long before you lived here...........I think

maestro · Post by **maestro** » 5 Dec 2008 08:43

It became a Budgens after it was a 7-11 store, but only survived about 18 months or so.

simon · Post by **simon** » 5 Dec 2008 10:49

Rebelmc, Yes I do remember it as a 7/11 as I've checked my records and I've been here 13 years. I remember that it was the only late night shop when I was working nights in the city. I used to go in there for a packet of smokes and was always frustrated that although they always had at least three staff on duty they always only had one till open and it often took ages to get servedAs I dont remember it incorporating the Two Halves as I remember that as a carpet shop before it became the Pukka Bar.

goonerchamp · Post by **goonerchamp** » 5 Dec 2008 13:16

I think I remember it being a Co-op with a carpark out the back but I was young when this was the case and can't be sure if it took up both stores - I don't think its any great loss - I thought it was was over priced from my visits to it in its life as the Sydenham Hypermarket - at least theres now an openining for possibly the largest pound shop in the UK ??

Eagle · Post by **Eagle** » 5 Dec 2008 14:40

I believe the area with the new building on was a bomb site. I remember going with Mum to her grocer Mr Finch who was in the first old building on the way down. Just a few shiops down was an amazing ironmonger called Boag's

bensonby · Post by **bensonby** » 5 Dec 2008 18:55

what is now the two half's (sic) was never part of the 7/11 - it was always 2 shops.

It used to be a furniture shop - that closed about 15 years ago I think.

Rebelmc · Post by **Rebelmc** » 6 Dec 2008 00:44

bensonby wrote:what is now the two half's (sic) was never part of the 7/11 - it was always 2 shops.

It used to be a furniture shop - that closed about 15 years ago I think.

At the risk of someone proving me wrong, I don't think you're quite right there bensonby.

I remember 7-Eleven opening when I was about 18 (ie before you were born and about 12 years before simon came here) and it occupied both spaces; as I intimated in my previous post, it was a real novelty at the time, when 'late night shopping' involved shops staying open until 6pm and banks closed at 3.30....................thems were the days!

lbere · Post by **lbere** » 6 Dec 2008 09:18

Sorry Rebelmc!!!!! I do remember it being a furniture shop. I have been here 37 years and Im still a young chick (well in my dreams anyway!!!!)

pip · Post by **pip** » 6 Dec 2008 11:07

It was definately a furniture shop before the Pukka Bar coz my mother bought a dining room table and chairs there some 15 to 20 years ago.
I will ask her if she remembers the name of the shop.

maestro · Post by **maestro** » 6 Dec 2008 11:27

Rebelmc also can't remember it being a Budgens, which it certainly was for a while after it was a 7-11. Are you on the right forum mate? - there's another Sydenham in the state of Victoria, Australia.

Pat Trembath · Post by **Pat Trembath** » 6 Dec 2008 13:20

To try to sort out what, which and where I have been talking to Michael who runs MD Furniture shop and who has been in Sydenham Road retailing since 1962 when he worked as a Saturday boy for George Hetherington who owned a number of businesses in the high street before retiring several years ago.

Going down the high street

Sydenham Hypermarket was 7/eleven, previously Budgens, prev the Co-op and before that it was a garage.

The Two Half's (yuk to the grammar) on the site of the Pukka Bar - was a furniture store (name forgotten - can someone else please fill in the gap) - it, too, formed part of the Co-op and was originally part of the garage site.

George's shops were at:

no. 48 Underfoot - now the clothes shop (and I forgot to check its current name while in the high street this morning) and formerly it was Boag the ironmongers
no. 62 Vertical - now the Pharmacy
no. 64 Horizontal - now MD Furniture and previously a ladies hairdressers
George also bought out Whites on the corner of Girton Road when it was primarily a garden goods supplier and secondly a pet food supplier.

maestro · Post by **maestro** » 6 Dec 2008 17:25

Pat Trembath wrote:Sydenham Hypermarket was 7/eleven, previously Budgens, prev the Co-op and before that it was a garage.

It was Budgens after being a 7-11. I remember being in the 7-11 during the early/mid nineties, I also used to use the Safeway store further down, now Somerfield. Since Sainsbury's opened much nearer me I was never in it when it became Budgens, but I do remember the orange and green frontage. Was it not there until about 3 or 4 years ago?

simon · Post by **simon** » 6 Dec 2008 23:26

I agree with Maestro, certainly a Budgens after 7/11. I think I got the idae of a carpet shop confused with the furniture shop (perhaps they also sold carpets?) but that preceded Pukka Bar on the two halves site.

Rebelmc · Post by **Rebelmc** » 7 Dec 2008 00:56

maestro wrote:Rebelmc also can't remember it being a Budgens, which it certainly was for a while after it was a 7-11. Are you on the right forum mate? - there's another Sydenham in the state of Victoria, Australia.

There's another one in NSW, also in Belfast, and in many other parts of the World; and as for me not remembering Budgens, that's probably a function of me not spending a great deal of time in Sydenham between 1987 and 2004.

My point was, as Pat Trembath hinted at in her posting, 7 Eleven took over what was Co-op, in about 1981/2, and occupied all of that site; at what point half of the site was taken over by a furniture shop I don't know, but I do know (as confirmed by a friend of mine that worked opposite in Fads) that, at one stage, the late night store in Sydenham high road occupied all of the site next to the Post Office.

The Eagle · Post by **The Eagle** » 7 Dec 2008 05:32

There was also a Doctor Who type Police Phone Box outside the garage.

Pat Trembath · Post by **Pat Trembath** » 7 Dec 2008 09:22

Apologies for any confusion - Budgens did come after 7/eleven. Michael and I were working this out on a piece of paper and I copied it down in the wrong order.

The saying what goes round, comes round continues to fascinate.

Do you remember F.J. Wallis the supermarket? This was taken over by International and then by Somerfield before becoming Lidl.

Safeways started trading in the old Granada Cinema and were taken over by Morrisons who sold the store on to Somerfield. Somerfield have now been taken over by the Co-op and the future of our Somerfield has not been indicated as yet. It could be a Co-op or be sold off to Morrisons.

leaf · Post by **leaf** » 7 Dec 2008 09:32

Rebelmc wrote:
maestro wrote:Rebelmc also can't remember it being a Budgens, which it certainly was for a while after it was a 7-11. Are you on the right forum mate? - there's another Sydenham in the state of Victoria, Australia.
There's another one in NSW, also in Belfast, and in many other parts of the World; and as for me not remembering Budgens, that's probably a function of me not spending a great deal of time in Sydenham between 1987 and 2004.

My point was, as Pat Trembath hinted at in her posting, 7 Eleven took over what was Co-op, in about 1981/2, and occupied all of that site; at what point half of the site was taken over by a furniture shop I don't know, but I do know (as confirmed by a friend of mine that worked opposite in Fads) that, at one stage, the late night store in Sydenham high road occupied all of the site next to the Post Office.

I too rememeber 7eleven being bigger than the shop that is there now definitely...

maestro · Post by **maestro** » 7 Dec 2008 09:42

I googled "Budgens Sydenham Road" and found several business/retail directories still listing the store, and with an 020 8659 telephone number (the last London code change was on 1st June 1999) so this all told me it must have been here until relatively recently. However, I then came across a link back to our own forum, which had the story all along, if any of us had thought to look!

This article was about the store suddenly closing on Saturday 1st October 2005 (rebelmc, you say you were here then!) and it had been there since taking over from the 7-11 back in 1997. I'm surprised that Budgens were there for as long as 8 years, but as I said in my previous post, I was never in it, and I think very few of us ever were by the sound of it.

I've erased the link because it didn't work, but it's easy to find on here. Just click on the home page, enter a search on the top right with the word "Budgens" and the story is there.

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Sydenham Hypermarket

Sydenham Hypermarket