Jason and the Argos Gnomes (Part Fifteen): The Malroy Mammoth Shopping Trolley

Come on down!

The spring of 1984 saw the UK launch of a TV programme, which was popular in the United States for several years. As with any programme likely to take off in a big way, it was panned beyond redemption in the Daily Mail. Panned for its exhibition of greed and the lack of British reserve. Yet, the programme was a foretaste of the “Greed is Good” popular capitalism mantra which would seep into British households by the late 1980s. Which is pretty much with us in some circles today, thanks to the government of the day that the Daily Mail fully endorsed.

I shall leave the UK version of The Price is Right alone for now. Well, apart from the fact that Leslie Crowther’s affable patter and tight production by William G. Stewart made for excellent Saturday night television. Whilst participants tried to guess the price of any item, you would have been likely to see in an Argos Catalogue, ‘The Price is Right’ for many households remained – as of now – checkout savings. Supposing we eschewed the hypermarket for Ashton Market, no shopper couldn’t afford to be seen without one of these: