MANY years ago, I asked an older colleague about his early memories of the Ann Street area of Greenock where he grew up.

He talked about it having so many different shops that his mother only needed to go into the centre of the town for certain goods three or four times a month.

I wrote an article a while ago about the variety of shops listed in a directory from 1965.

Today’s story looks back 100 years.

The 1923-24 Greenock Directory lists no fewer than 97 grocery businesses, including seven in Ann Street itself.

There were 33 bakers named but the number of shops would be higher because the Greenock Central Co-operative Society had several branches and other businesses more than one.

The only name remaining today is that of Thomas Auld, at that time located at 15 Cathcart Street.

Then described as fleshers, the town had 41 butchers. Fourteen fishmongers appeared in the directory. Fruiterers accounted for 23 listings and greengrocers for 21.

Returning to my previous article about the 1965 directory, a sizeable number of small shops selling food items still existed then but many vanished in the 1970s.

Aside from older properties in some parts of the town being demolished, small businesses throughout the UK were hit by the expansion of supermarket chains. Tesco opened its first Scottish supermarket in Greenock in 1972.

Shopping habits were changing in the 1970s and the growth of car ownership made it easier for householders to get to a supermarket.

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TODAY'S photo flashback shows the old Greenock tobacco warehouses.

They are pictured in 1971, just before they were demolished to allow further development of the container terminal.