Burgis and Colbourne made the change at its food hall in the Parade 52 years ago, and its management reported themselves "more than vindicated" by the results. Its sales were the highest ever recorded.

Shops – and people's attitude to them – were changing, with the first supermarkets appearing in the town and grand wooden counters replaced by shelves and rails where shoppers could choose the goods themselves.

Former AP worker June Evetts remembers many Leamington shops from during and after the Second World War, when she ran errands for her mother. Shopping then was a matter of asking at the counter, rather than selecting goods yourself.

Mrs Evetts said: "They got them down, put them on the counter and they would add it all up and then you would put it in your shopping bag."

One she looked forward to visiting was Drury's in Old Town, a haberdasher's. Further south was Southborough Terrace, where Mrs Evetts remembers visiting Middleton's the newspaper shop, a hat shop called Olorenshaw's and Johnson's, a small grocers.

Like many young people, Mrs Evetts' first job was in a shop. She went to work in Grey's, another haberdashery that was above Woolworths and Burgis and Colbourne in the Parade.

Supermarkets arrived in the late 1950s. Bishops Tachbrook resident Patrick Kingston recalls MacFisheries in the Parade, which may have been Leamington's first.

Young people in town on a Saturday in the early 1960s would meet for coffee and a cream cake at the Cadena Cafe in the Parade, which Mr Kingston remembers for its smell of roasted coffee beans.

He said: "When I was younger I used to go in there on a Saturday morning and meet my contemporaries. It was the place to go."

But many of the old establishments held sway. For the older generation there was the cafeteria at Burgis and Colbourne's, today the site of House of Fraser.

Other shops recalled by Mr Kingston include gentlemen's outfitters Neville Strange, chemist and household store Timothy White's and Taylors, and Wool-worths, which at the time seemed an eternal part of British life.

Mr Kingston said: "It was an institution. You could get everything in Woolworths and you could also have a bun and a cup of tea."

Nostalgia is trying to build up a picture of shops from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Call the Courier on 457720 or write to the Leamington Courier at 32 Hamilton Terrace with your memories.