As part of his Return to Manchester exhibition, Martin Parr’s 1986 series, Point of Sale, takes a look at the typical retail shopping experience of the 1980s.
If you weren’t old enough to be there, Manchester in 1986 was a very different place. It was a simpler, less progressive time when racism, misogyny and homophobia were rife and the Tories were in power. There was no internet and no online shopping (the nearest we got was the mail order catalogue). We only had four terrestrial TV channels and one satellite channel. The first mobile phone call in the UK had been made in 1985 and mobile phones cost about £1,200.
It was the year that Manchester’s Chinese arch was constructed on Faulkner Street. Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel and the Single European Act was signed, creating the Single European Market (yes, that Single Market >le sigh<). The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded on launch killing all seven crew members including the first civilian astronaut, school teacher Christa McAuliffe. Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson (You know times are really bad when they throw in a royal wedding to distract everyone). Journalist John McCarthy was abducted in Beirut. There was the Russian nuclear power plant disaster at Chernobyl, when Europe lived in fear of radioactive winds (weather reports had rarely been so tense). It was also the year that England was knocked out of the Mexico World Cup by Maradona’s ‘hand of god’ handball incident. Desmond Tutu became the first black Anglican bishop in south Africa. The M25 was opened, and the Government launched its first scare-mongering AIDs awareness campaign.
Meanwhile, Martin Parr was taking a series of photographs called Point of Sale, documenting the retail experiences of people in Salford, including shots in a Tesco’s Hypermarket. The idea of huge one-stop superstores, when most people still shopped in the local high street, was a relatively new idea in Britain at the time.
Point of Sale (1986) by Martin Parr – credit:Martin Parr/ Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery
It revolutionised shopping. The idea of being able to do one shop for the week, and fill a freezer for the weeks beyond (in Tupperware no less), was rather seductive. And the prices were totally like…
It wasn’t just Tesco’s, though, that caught Parr’s eye. Iceland, the frozen food store, also features in Parr’s series along with Marks and Spencer, Greggs and Kwik Save (now long gone), a pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap 80s Aldi or Lidl.
One of my first jobs was working in Kwik Save as a shelf stacker. It was the checkout operators who had it hardest though. Prices were on the shelves, not on the item, so the girls (always girls, never men) had to commit to memory 300-odd prices that often changed weekly and there were spot tests by the manager. No barcodes back then!
Point of Sale (1986) by Martin Parr – credit:Martin Parr/ Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery
And in Piccadilly Gardens, there was Woolworths, seen here in the background of Parr’s Love Cubes series (1972). Ah, the wonder of Woolies; a store that was all things to all people and sold practically everything from music to kitchenware, toys, pick ‘n’ mix, clothes and furniture.
Love Cube (1972) by Martin Parr - credit: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery
Unfortunately, this branch suffered a tragic fire in 1979, prompting a tightening of fire regulations on flame retardant furniture.
The 80s weren’t all bleak though. We had music and a blossoming home entertainment industry, where films could be rented out on VHS video tape from your local video shop (Be kind, rewind!), an early example of which was captured by Martin Parr.
Point of Sale (1986) by Martin Parr – credit:Martin Parr/ Magnum Photos/Rocket Gallery
Although Parr has documented life in Manchester from the 70s through to the 80s, his pictures often lack a wider cultural context, so here to give you some idea of what we were all living through back then, and in a nod to Parr’s photo of the video shop above, here’s a compilation of music and film from 1986… How many films and songs do you recognise (if any)?
I know what you’re thinking; the clothes! The hair! Well, for those of you too young to remember the Eighties, enjoy yourselves while you can because one day, decades into the future, you’ll look back at Martin Parr’s 2018 photographs with the same nostalgia that some of us view his earlier work, and you’ll probably find yourself cringing in embarrassment at today’s fashions and hairstyles, too, trust me. And those cutting-edge games, devices and apps? One day, they’re going to be so retro and vintage.
Feel old yet?
BONUS FEATURE!
Time for a little Parr-ty game. The Seventies had Martin Parr’s Love Cubes (1972), a game for one or more persons where you were invited to match up individuals who went out with each other in real life. And now, from Martin Parr’s Manchester 2018 series, we present... Spot the Difference!
Take a look at these photos below, currently on display in Gallery 18. How many differences can you find in the second picture?
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Manchester 2018 by Martin Parr - credit: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos
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Manchester 2018 by Martin Parr - credit: Martin Parr/Magnum Photos
Scroll down for the answers
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I found thirteen differences. If you find more, let us know in the comments below.