Mrs. Bannister, and her husband George, looked over the Corner Shop when Alf and Renee Roberts decided to sell up in July 1980. Mrs. Bannister inspected the shop at length, wearying the Roberts with her non-stop chatter about virtually everything and ignoring her hen-pecked husband's attempts to usher her along. George had just been made redundant and they were using his redundancy money to buy a shop - they'd looked over a few others including one which looked like "Aladdin's cave gone mouldy". Even though she never seemed to stop talking, Mrs. Bannister was muted in her feedback about the shop's suitability. The Roberts were relieved when they finally left, with Renee remarking that Mrs. Bannister had Hilda Ogden beat when it came to yakking.
The Bannisters agreed to buy the shop for £15,000, £1,000 less than the asking price, but Alf pulled out of the sale when Renee was killed in a car accident.