Credit Card Shopping in Northampton

From the collection of

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia

The East Anglian Film Archive, the UK's first regional film archive, offers a unique record of the East of England's social and cultural history. As part of the University of East Anglia, we continue to lead moving image heritage research and inspire audience participation through community projects and events. Our collections represent a broad range of amateur and professional creativity, from 1896 to the present day.

Credit Card Shopping in Northampton (About Anglia)

East Anglian Film Archive at the University of East Anglia
Northampton
26 Nov 1986
Sound

MPs try out a card shopping system in a BHS shop in Northampton

In Northampton's branch of British Home Stores, a cashier demonstrates to members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Retail Trade how Anglia Building Society's cashless terminal is used; the customer types in their PIN and the card is swiped to deduct the payment from their account. Another terminal in the shop can be used to give an instant reading of the cardholder's account balance, reporter Owen Spencer-Thomas explains.

Sir Geoffrey Finsberg MP comments that this idea will have enormous potential over the next ten years, and that the system will only allow you to spend money that you actually have in your account rather than encouraging overspending. Barclaycard are next to consider setting up their own system for customers.Filmed for inclusion in Anglia Television's evening news/magazine programme, About Anglia.

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From the collection

How We Shopped

From the high street to the information superhighway: shopping undergoes a makeover.

The 1980s heralded a sea change in the way we shopped - and what we shopped for. Reflecting the growing impact of new technologies, from the arrival of credit cards to the consumer electronics boom and ultimately the internet shopping age, this collection also journeys through the changing face of our high streets into the 1990s and beyond. This is the era of out-of-town supermarkets and supersized shopping malls muscling in on the traditional town centre trade. Many smaller villages faced the loss of local shops entirely, but they didn't give up without a fight. Alongside these existential threats, local news reports investigate such emerging issues as convenience food labelling, shoplifting and the campaign to 'Buy British' as domestic manufacturing continued its long and painful decline. Glimpses of long-lost chain stores, brands and products that once dominated everyday life across the UK may inspire more than a whiff of nostalgia. Yet this collection also tells a story of continuity: despite the all-powerful internet, we do still seem to want to come together to shop in the 'real world', not least at Christmas, and those seasonal shopping moments are here waiting to be unwrapped

33 videos in this collection

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Newcastle upon Tyne
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Chelmsford
1983

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Dog: Dog Days

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Post-Christmas Sales

Belfast
1984

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Toy Fair 1980

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Charm School

St Austell
1989

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Round Robin: Think British

Norwich
1982

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Debden Village Shop Re-opens

Debden
1982

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Anderson and McAuley Department Store

Belfast
1986

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