The 1940s

The post-war 1940’s was an exciting time of growth in the Barossa, but also an era where shopping services were frugal. The shop had changed very little from the early days of the century. There were no fridges in the Co-op store, and butter was still collected directly from farmers. Shop assistants climbed ladders for groceries and a pound of sugar was fourpence.

Harry Craker’s untimely death in February 1948 led to the appointment of Roy Hodgson, a returned serviceman who had once run his own general store at Paskeville on the Yorke Peninsula. Roy, remembered as a ‘manager of ideas’, was appointed in April 1949 and proceeded to take the Co-op from a nostalgic 1920s style service store into a more modern era of customer promotions, self service and improved buildings.

His first move was to upgrade the facade of the store from its Victorian verandah street frontage, with its characteristic posts and ironwork to a modern brick, steel and plate glass facade. The drapery department was built to add to the old ex-army Sydney Williams hut at the rear of the store.