232 – 234 Hawthorn Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham B44 8PT
Woolworths opened in Kingstanding, North Birmingham in 1955. Below is an extract from “Voices of Kingstanding” which talks about the store.
The self-service salesfloor at Woolworth’s 232-234 Hawthorn Road, Kingstanding, Birmingham 44, which opened on 28 October 1955
At the time it opened Woolworth was divided into four administrative regions, one of which was called ‘Birmingham District’ and was based in King Street, Dudley. When they were looking for new locations they stayed close to home, building the chain to over fifty stores with Birmingham postcodes…
The flagship branches in the Bull Ring and New Street, which were freeholds, were summarily sold and more than half of the suburban stores in Birmingham faced a similar fate. Intriguingly as the shutters came down elsewhere, the new owners modernised the Kingstanding store, reopening it with a new look on 19 May 1983. It was used as a test bed for many of their new ideas about how to revitalise the chain, after a computer model highlighted it as a ‘totally typical suburban store’.
The District was highly resistant to instructions from Head Office that they had to introduce Self-Service at Kingstanding; executives gathered and shared lots of feedback from shoppers saying they didn’t like it and were frustrated that they couldn’t buy some things stocked in every other branch (for example Pic’n’Mix) and missed the personal service at each counter that Woolworth offered in all the neighbouring stores. It was the first branch in the Midlands to operate the self-service principle…
Source: Woolworths History and Pictures
Source: Hughes, R.
Kingstanding Woolworths closed in December 2008, and today the building is occupied by Heron Foods.
Source: ballysundriven
Woolies Buildings - Then and Now 
