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Working for Woolies in the 1930s |
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in the 1930s a Sales Assistant could expect to earn
between 30 shillings (£1.50) and £2 a week, with a
management trainee or stockroom man earning up to £3 a
week. Trainees and stockroom men were paid extra for
mobility. They could be moved from store to store at
very short notice, sometimes expected to move over a
hundred miles to where the work was.
With the company expanding rapidly the career prospects were very good for people with talent and enthusiasm. |
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Most
sales assistants were young, unmarried women. At the time it was unusual
for a married woman to continue to working - indeed the Company offered
a combined marriage and leaving present. Virtually no-one returned to
work after bringing up a family. Everyone was full-time, 5½ days a
week, with store closing for half day closing on a Tuesday, Wednesday or
Thursday afternoon (according to local tradition).
Each assistant was assigned to one or two departments, and maintained the displays and served the customers. Stores had comfortable rest rooms and offered paid breaks with subsidised hot meals available at lunchtime with teas and coffees morning and afternoon. |
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| The In the larger stores Managers or Merchandisers were responsible for ordering products, while in the smaller stores individual assistants raised handwritten orders for staple merchandise. Assistants had to add up customers' purchases in their heads or using a ready reckoner pad - the tills didn't add up. | ||||
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"A
DAY IN THE LIFE" |
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| In the days before widespread car ownership most store staff walked to work or rode in on a bicycle. The great majority lived within a mile or so of the store where they worked - too close to need public transport. Typically they set out from home at 8.15am, in time for a quick cup of tea in-store, to put their uniforms on and to be on the salesfloor for morning inspection at 8.45am 15 minutes before the store opened. | ||||
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| Morning inspection gave the manager the chance to sharpen the displays, check the availability of best-selling lines and give topical tips for the day's trading. In between serving the customers the assistant would spend the early part of the day preparing a stock list, which was sent to the stockroom. A stockroom assistant would collect the goods into a trolley and deliver them to the salesfloor later in the day to be put on sale. Believe it or not Sales Assistants were not allowed access to the stockroom until many years later. | ||||
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| Lunch breaks were staggered, starting shortly after 11am to make sure that the maximum number of staff were on-hand for the peak trading hours between 12 noon and 2pm. After a brief lull in the early afternoon, the store would be packed again from just after 3pm, as mums and children visited after school. In between customers orders would be made out for any missing lines, and a check would be made to ensure that every item carried its own individual price ticket. As the week continued there was a push to make sure that the store was picture perfect by Friday afternoon in time for the weekend business. At the time most people were paid on Fridays, making this a very large sales day for the Company At 5.30pm the doors closed and it was time for home - before starting the whole cycle again the following day. | ||||
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Opening
gambit - transforming the High Street Flotation
on the London Stock Exchange |
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