Superstore opens in 1955
Burbage historian Michael Roberts writes about the town’s first self-service
IT’S interesting to remember that prior to 1955 the town did not have a food superstore.
For Hinckley, it all started with Lawrence Mackey, who owned ‘Lawrences’ in Castle Street.
This shop sold books, stationery, anniversary cards, and textbooks for the various schools in the town. This was for a number of years a very popular shop.
In the early 1950s Lawrence Mackey visited the USA. He was very impressed with their new way of shopping in self-service stores. On arriving back home, he looked around the town to see if there was anywhere suitable to introduce this American way of shopping to the people of Hinckley.
The old Drill Hall in New Buildings was now empty. American soldiers had been stationed there for a while during the war. Prior to this it had been a roller skating rink, cinema - ‘The Palladium’, theatre, the town’s Grammar School and its original use - The Drill Hall.
Lawrence thought this building ideal. A deal was completed and contractors began converting it into Hinckley’s very first of what we call today a superstore. Would Hinckley people take to this new way of shopping? You bet they would!
The store opened in September of 1955 and was a success from day one. Shoppers came from miles around and found they liked the leisurely walk round the store where they could see all they desired to buy. The food was fresh and neatly packed and clearly marked with the price they would have to pay.
Of course, they did not have to buy anything unless they wished. It appeared that Hinckley had long wanted a store of this description, where, with such a wide variety of foods under one roof, customers can help themselves and pay as they walked out. Lawrence Mackey had made dreams come true!
We had seen it on the films and in the new American series on TV, and here it was in our own hometown. Lawrence even built an ‘in store cafe’.
Today we take the superstore cafe for granted but in 1955 this was something special.
Let us give praise where it is due, Lawrence Mackey was one of Hinckley’s great entrepreneurs. Unfortunately there is nowhere to erect a blue plaque in his memory. The Drill Hall has gone.