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The Co-operative at 11

By on Tuesday 11th November 2008 16:39 / 1 comment

 

This morning (as I do most mornings) I went into the Co-operative to see people and buy the odd thing here and there.

My timing this morning was near-impeccable. I went in at about 10:50 (you can guess what’s coming up next) and did my shopping.

Almost as soon as I had stepped away from the counter the presenter on Co-operative Radio (the in-store music channel) started talking, though I didn’t hear what he said due to the fact there is no speaker near the tills.

Suddenly he stopped – and the shop fell silent. Everyone who was working was stood in what looked like a semi-circle (with no-one behind the counter) and everyone in the store was silent. Even a customer who walked in halfway through quickly worked out what was happening and said nothing.

After the two minutes was up, Co-operative Radio went straight into playing Imagine, in what I thought was a rather poignant tribute to those we had paused to remember.

 

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1 Comment

  1. John Ward says:
    Wednesday 12th November 2008 at 11:15

    Yes, this is one of the special memories I have from my days as the weekend Greeter at Asda on Remembrance Sunday. Asda Radio has been around for a numbver of years, and the whole country would stop at 11 am on that morning every year.

    I gently handled anyone who happened to come in during those two minutes to ensure they didn’t just stop in the doorway and to ensure they were quiet (they might not have realised, while they were entering, just what was going on) and it all went well.

    I was up at the store only yesterday as it happens, and as always it brought back many happy memories of my three years or so working there, which I had to leave when council work became so heavy that it left me too frazzled to cope with a full-time job as well.

 
 

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