As the last of the popular high street stores, Woolworths, were closed down in the UK in early January this year, the whole nation felt a valuable part of its retail heritage was being lost after being around for almost 100 years. It was a devastating event that made a big impact on everyone, from the pensioners that have grown up with it since their childhood, to the toddlers that are accustomed to visiting the toy aisles on Saturdays.

This dreadful happening was the aftermath of the company being forced to shut down as a result of large debts during the infamous credit crunch, causing 27,000 people to be left redundant and hundreds of stores empty. For weeks to come there was a search for buyers for the cleared out premises but it was difficult and in many cases unsuccessful due to the economic situation at the time. This caused shops to be left vacant, mere shadows of the lively places they once were.

The Kingston and Surbiton branches of Woolworths have both been left unfilled since they shut down but now a Swedish hardware store is set to fill the abyss that stayed behind in the market square in Kingston. Recently they have begun setting up a 99p store for the high street in Surbiton, a new place for us to pick up cheap goods.

Fear not though that this place that was once so close to our hearts has been lost forever, luckily for those addicted to picking up bargains from the high street retailer, the brand was bought by Shop Direct Group owners, the Barclay brothers, and they soon set up a website for shopping online.

One of the things that Woolworths was always renowned for is the same as what is now most missed, the cherished Pic n’ Mix. The act of being able to choose exactly what type of sweets and how much you wanted was one treasured by many. You could fill up your colourful paper bag with however many sugary treats you liked from a huge variety of the scrumptious delicacies, ranging from white chocolate mice; to sour strawberry laces; to giant fried eggs; to fizzy cola bottles, and this luscious list goes on.

Many shops have now tried to imitate the glory that was Woolworths’ Pic n’ Mix, one of which is WHSmith, but for many of us it’s just not the same. Fortunately, Pic n’ Mix is one of the wonderful things available online. They might not have as big a variety as they had in their rows of containers in the shops but if you want it, it’s there. And now, you don’t necessarily need to limit yourself to how much you can carry, as it’s being delivered, technically, you could buy several kilograms of the stuff at a time!

This is, in fact, what TV presenter Jonathon Ross did. In preparation for hundreds of trick or treaters at Halloween he bought 40kg(!) of Pic n’ Mix and he decided to share this information with his followers on Twitter, and I’m guessing he made hundreds more people jealous in the process.

This just helps to show the impact that Woolworths had while it was around and how its legacy will live on as people continue to love the classic high street store. If it will ever be brought back to the streets, who knows? If it will be forgotten in a few years’ time, we’ll have to see. But that it was a big part of many people’s lives and was simply brilliant, that’s for certain.