Pictures of a supermarket frozen in time

Before the 1970s, out of town supermarkets were unheard of. The suburban corner shop or the town centre independent grocer ruled the roost and had done for decades before, but in the 1970s that was all about to change.

One of the first and noteable out of town supermarkets was Cartiers Freezer Foods at the top of Brookfield Road, Ashford. Local independent business entrepreneur Lew Cartier opened the sizeable store in the infancy of frozen food in a premises that was bigger in square metres than town centre supermarkets at The once-familiar Cartiers store at the corner of Brookfield Road in 1976 that time. The store was an instant hit with local people and was one of several owned by Mr Cartier around Kent.

The Cartier name survived until the very early 1980s when supermarket giant Tesco bought the Cartier empire. When the Tesco opened at Crooksfoot, the Brookfield Road store closed and became clothing and homeware chain Matalan. Mr Cartier’s other one-time store locations included Faversham and Folkestone.

This week’s trio of images take a look back at the Ashford store.

Do you have you any photographs or slides that you would be willing to lend me, to be scanned and featured in the Kentish Express?

Write to me: Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, Unit 4, Park Mall Shopping Centre, Ashford TN24 8RY, email me at rememberwhen_kmash@ hotmail.co.uk, or find me on Twitter @SteveKMAshford.

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