ALL dressed up and ready for a day out. Take a look at the staff at the old Sainsbury's supermarket that once stood in Above Bar, Southampton.

The store opened its premises, now used by WH Smith, on September 21, 1954 and caused a major stir among local shoppers. Post-war rationing had recently finished and the shop had the novelty of being one of the first self-service supermarkets in the town, as it was then.

This photograph belongs to Pat Smart of Sholing, Southampton, who at the age of 18 was among the 90 staff, including her mother Vi Casey (standing second from the left), Sainsbury's employed when it opened the store.

Pat, ne Hunt, has many nostalgic memories of the three or four years she worked at the shop. It was such a hit when it opened that only so many customers were allowed in at any one time.

"There were huge queues, everyone wanted to shop at Sainsbury's,'' said Pat, who was born and brought up in Bitterne Park. She is third from the left in the front row.

"Next to me, to my right, is Rosemary Collingwood, who is now my sister-in-law after she married my brother David Hunt. We used to have an outing each year but I am afraid I can't really remember where we used to go. I know we always looked forward to the trip.

"Most of the shop staff were aged between 18 and 20 and we spent two weeks playing shop so we would know what to do when the store officially opened.

"It was quite long working hours as we started at 9am and then after the shop closed we would stay on during the evening helping to prepare butter, cheese and bacon as everything had to be cut and packed by hand.''

Rosemary also has fond reminiscences of her time at the shop where she worked on the tills for about five years.

"At first we were not allowed to sit down while we were working on the checkout so we all signed a petition and Sainsbury's then let us have a seat.

"It was still pretty uncomfortable. In the afternoon we had a break and we would either go to the canteen where sometimes we could have bread spread with dripping or we would go across the road to the Cadena caf,'' said Rosemary.

The Daily Echo at the time had to explain what self service was all about.

"Customers will collect a wire basket as they enter through the left-hand door; they will be able to retain their shopping basket too,'' we reported. On leaving they will pass through one of the several checkpoints where one assistant rings up the items chosen on a cash register while another packs the food into the customer's own shopping bag."

It could catch on!