nI WAS listening to Dale Winton on Pick of the Pops, the year 1960, on Saturday afternoon.

What cracking stuff there was in the charts in the corresponding week 41 years ago. Remember Johnny Preston, Running Bear; Perry Como, Delaware and Lance Fortune, Be Mine? It reminded me of the previous day when I was in the SSAFA shop in Atherton and the sounds of the 50s were playing in there.

I had a smile to myself. A little pensioner who must have been in her late seventies was singing away to Elvis while searching through the racks. Fantastic. I'm afraid it was much better than the awful ear bashing trash being played in a Bradshawgate charity shop on Tuesday which sent me running for the door. It drove me out -- and others too I'm sure.

It just shows what the atmosphere created in a shop can do for spending power.