THE Direct Walk Round Store in Cooke Lane was opened by Direct Woollen Supply Ltd in 1958 and remained a prominent if rather shortlived Keighley shopping feature till its closure in 1966 during the redevelopment of what is now the Airedale Centre.
Its demise was spectacular. Notices announcing "our entire stock will be cleared" and offering half-price sales drew crowds of bargain hunters. The doors of the closing-down sale opened at noon one July Wednesday, but a queue had already started forming by 9.30!
It was headed by a Guard House mother hoping for clothes for her two children. The woman behind her had come from Skipton out of curiosity and the off-chance of a desirable bargain.
In reality many goods still cost more than half price. A Keighley News reporter noted the best offers on coats and furniture, but even here a dining suite was only reduced from 69 to 49 1/2 guineas. Much of the shoe department offered only a ten per cent reduction.
On the left the premises of the North-Eastern Gas Board would disappear along with the Direct Store.
The photograph has been supplied by Mr Bill Palmer, of Shann Avenue, Keighley.
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