Britain’s first major out-of-town store opened in West Bridgford in November 1964. Operated by American company GEM, it pioneered a US concept of one-stop shopping, where a vast range of goods were available under one roof.

One-stop shopping was a post-war success in the States, under the banner GEM – an acronym of Government Employees Mart – to help busy American civil servants get their shopping done quickly and cheaply.

In the early 60s, GEM began to look across the Atlantic for sites in the UK and eventually chose an area of land in West Bridgford that had once been the site of a farm owned by the Collington family and also Padley’s car auctions.

It took just ten weeks to construct the 110,000 sq ft store, described as a “long windowless box,”. GEM had free parking for 1,000 cars, a free bus service to bring the shoppers in and, according to the Guardian Journal newspaper, the biggest pram park in the city.

Bond girl Shirley Eaton was the star guest for the opening, but the real attraction was the unique store selling everything from cabbages to car batteries.

On the opening day, 30,000 people turned up and the Nottingham Post reported that  “The store had to be closed several times to clear the mass of shoppers in the food hall through the pay-out counters. Some buses ran as much as an hour late.” In 1966 GEM was bought by ASDA and still trades on the same site.