Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

With the passing of over forty years I feel it may be relatively safe to spill the beans and reveal what is was really like in a store such as Grace Brothers
By a quirk of fortune, or misfortune this spotty sixteen year old sales trainee found himself a junior to three ageing sales floor divas each determined to sell the most frocks and coats. If Molly, Margot and Muriel didn't exist you'd be hard put to invent them.

Molly had a bob of thick black hair, piercing blue eyes and a black heart. With her powdered pale face reminiscent of Transylvania she stalked the sales floor, pouncing on unsuspecting shoppers with a sales pitch expertly delivered in a soft Scottish accent.
"Oh my dear that is so you" , worked every time, especially when delivered by Muriel or Margot , making an apparently spontaneous but actually a planned casual aside as they passed by Mollie's wavering customer.
Yes, they were able to work together on occasion if they thought all three might lose the sale. An inquest followed all such disasters. They even had a name for it, S.W.O.P. Shopper wouldn't open purse.

Margot reminded me of a fading movie star. Glamorous once and still pink powdered and perfumed. Still glamorous but now, in a Mae West in Myra Breckenridge sort of way. She lived in a nice flat over a florist in Bournemouth with her toy poodles. Her hair was in a big blonde bouffant style, with greying dark roots peeping through by Wednesdays. On Thursday it was expertly dyed back to a strawberry blonde, to match her poodles.

Muriel was a genuine toff who had fallen on hard times and a class act even when her nylons had ladders and her chignon came loose. I can still see her now tottering and twisting her body to one side as she struggled to straighten her seams, or ladders, or both. She was tall, not as tall as Grace Everdene, in The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, but a statuesque six feet plus a good bit more. .Happily an exception to the complexes and stooping experienced by many others of this height, she was free of angst for her as befitting her prior station in life she was quietly confident that she was above the rest of us anyway.


© Robert Junior

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Been there done that,loved it but would kill to be young and be able to work at John Lewis.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Annie, you guessed right, I worked for JLP during the 1960s, they were caught in a peculiar sort of time warp.
However I loved the time I spent with them. Later in life I worked for a DIY chain, a different world.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Bob matey, Brighton had its very own (home-grown) version of JLP - was called Hanningtons - sadly now gone.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Hi Uncle Joe, glad my post brought back happy memories for you. Did Hanningtons have a pneumatic tube system for cash transactions?
You know, the ones that shot overhead in a round pipe to the cashier.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Are you free? Robert.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Yes matey - they did, as did another store - Ross and even M&S many years ago too. Before the 'big Five' we even had a supermarket (one of the first in the country) owned by another 'local' Sidney Bellman. The store is still there but now owned by the Co-op after they took over Gateway.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Very good description Robert. I used to work in a small place, about 8 staff members including me, I was the resident goldsmith and worked down in the basement. We had those message tube affairs that carry things up down and across the place. When a couple selected an engagement ring in one of the little kiosks they had for privacy, if the ring needed sizing it was sent through the tube down to me and the pressure was on me to get it back up as soon as possible. All the girls wore black skirts and jumpers, black stockings too, the men wore dark suits. Mr. Howard the manager was from the London branch, he was an arrogant and greedy man he also liked to get the biggest sales himself, one busy Saturday he was out to lunch, he hated going out when the shop was busy. While he was away an American couple came in to buy an engagement ring and one of the senior girls got the sale, a huge amount of money at that time. When howard returned he looked up the sales book and was horrified he missed the commission, he wouldn't talk to the girl for months afterwards. I got a few extra quid off the girl for sizing the ring, so I was happy.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

I've enjoyed reading all your memories working for various places. I can remember seeing the pneumatic tube systems for cash transactions. Not sure where. It may have been M&S. When I was about to leave school you had the chance to visit various workplaces and M&S was one such place. I never worked in retail, though.

We had a Sopers in town until it became Debenhams. Never got used to calling Debs. When I was growing up they had a foodhall. Liptons, I think it was called. Dogs were allowed in Sopers, but not into the foodhall. I remember I couldn't find my parents once and this lovely couple went to look in the foodhall for them for me, whilst I held onto their dog. I knew then I wanted a dog for my birthday.

They were two places to eat. A self service restaurant on the ground floor, which was on the left hand side as you walked in. I remember you had to walk up some steps. On the 2nd level was table service restaurant. I don't remember going there but maybe I did. It was obviously for special occasions.

When I was about 15/16, a new department store came to town. It was opened by Roger Moore. I can't remember its name because it faded away after a few years to be taken over by a dental company. I remember my parents buying towels there.

I put my name down for a Saturday job in Littlewoods, but by the time they'd written to ask me to attend an interview, I'd found a full time job.

We had another store in town that reminds me of Grace Brothers in Are You Being Served. I think it was just a clothing shop as I can remember my grandmother going there to buy something like a pair of stockings. The female sales assistant pulled out various drawers from behind the counter making sure to give my Gran her full attention. I like that touch and I do think it's lacking in so many ways nowadays.

Re: Confessions of a Retired Shopkeeper.

Thankyou LovelyMeerkat foR your memories. I remember the drawers and the glass top counters. My favorite dept was millinery, the colour grouped displays were never letf out overnight but packed away until the next day when the first job was putting them out again.