'An ode to Kwik-Save': Ex-staff plan reunion to share memories of old supermarket

Bags you'd risk your street cred taking to school that now sell online for £250 each - Kwik-Save has come back around!

At its height there were more than 100 branches in the North East which prospered with their 'pile 'em high, sell em cheap' ethos.

But it folded in 2007 with the rise of other discount stores.

Now, former cashier Steve Cain has organised a huge staff reunion to celebrate the era and to remember Kwik-Save, the store invented to provide affordable food to low-income families.

Steve's missed it so much he's kept a clutch of Kwik-save kitsch and a carrier bag of memories he's itching to share with hundreds of other former staff this Saturday.

He said: "The number of coupons we used to take because poverty was rife. I mean now, you've got people going to foodbanks - you didn't have that then. You didn't need to, because you could go to Kwik-Save, and you could maintain your personal pride and do the family shop.

"I think the baked beans were the biggest loss leader...it got to the point where the carrier bag you took them home in cost more than the beans themselves."

Graham Soult is a retail expert from Gateshead, and says the store was pioneering: "There are so many ways in which Kwik-Save really innovated, and led the field in terms of retail.

"It's 'no frills' brand for example, paved the way for similar lines in supermarkets that we see now."

It was first to charge for its carrier bags and famously offered up to 13% off the weekly shop - but in recession-hit Britain, even that was too much for some.

The old staff will be getting together on the 5 March - with a big party planned. Including a performance from local drag artist John Thompson and he says he's looking forward to seeing some old faces.

The store may be a distant memory for some - but it is clearly a place that is still remembered fondly by many.