When Victor Value Came To Town

A Memory of Bexleyheath.

One sunny day in the late 1950's the next door neighbour came knocking at our door with some exciting news. A big new food store had opened on the Broadway, Bexleyheath,. It's a Supermarket, she said. It's Victor Value and it sells everything, it's wonderful. The following weekend the whole family went to see what all the fuss was about, suitably impressed by the sheer size of the place and the fabulous choice of food and household items on offer. What's more, and a complete novelty, it was self service. We loved the store's exterior blue and white tiling and the big double V's on the entrance handles. What we didn't know at the time was Victor Value marked the begining of a revolution in food shopping, where shops like Liptons, Home and Colonial and indiviual grocers, butchers and greengrocers made way for the convenience of buying it all under one roof. Nothing would ever be the same again.