World Class in Pitsmoor

Story & photos: Douglas Johnson

What was once Wilson Tupholmes’ department store has now reopened as “World Class”, a new, modern supermarket at 290 Pitsmoor Road boasting of “foods from around the world”.

Inside, that certainly seems to be the case, with a range of fresh foods, fruit and vegetables, rice and spices, herbs, fresh meat,dried food and sweet pastries.

In between the stream of new customers, Billal and Wadhah, two of the proprietors, spoke of how they saw the shop, which opened on 14th March.

“It’s to serve the local community. There’s no local shop round here and it’s about time there was one,” said Billal. “It’s a perfect location and there’s free parking.”

Wadhah explained they had done a survey and found people were struggling in this area, partway between Firth Park and Spital Hill. This was particularly difficult for the many people without cars but the easy access off Pitsmoor Rd makes it easier for people with cars too.

They realised there was a ready market for their foods. Wadhah pointed out, “our name says we do food from around the world and we’re trying to back that up.”

The light and clean feel of the shop certainly seemed to be attracting in the customers this morning and kept all the staff busy attending to them. It already has a good community feel to it.