Working in a shop

Shop Products.wma

2.25 minutes

[586 kb]

Interviewee:

The snuff and the loose tobaccos were stored downstairs. At the end of the shop there was a wooden lid kind of thing that we lifted up and there was a flight of stairs, and that was into the cellar, and the loose tobaccos and the snuff was stored on the side as you went down the cellar, so that was always kept cool down there. That was why we sold a lot of that sort of thing, because the way it was stored. And we had no heat in the shop, so tobacco and cigarettes were always fresh really, nothing dried out, we never had any old stock. And we polished pipes, we cleared, we dressed the window every Thursday, and the pipes and the things that were in the display [...] they were all fetched out and Thursday night, and I had to sit after we'd shut the shop, and polish every pipe, and they were always done with shoe polish...

EMOHA:

Really?

Interviewee:

Yes, brown shoe polish, every pipe that'd been in the window, so we never had any faded pipes. And lighters were polished, and everything was... the man used to come once a month from, well it just depended on the display, but I don't know who employed him, but I suppose it was from the tobacconist's federation or something like that, and he used to come and dress the window. Well that was displays of Players perhaps one month, big cartons and that, and they were always done on glass, little pieces of glass, cut out glass. And then the other window we had books in, and fountain pens, and things like that. And it was lovely when the platinum pens and everything came in because I could make such a lovely display of them, and it was the time when Penguin books first came on the market, and they were sixpence each then, and I could fill the front of the window with Penguin books. But I bet somebody'd be very awkward and want one out that we hadn't got indoors!

Last updated: 5/12/03
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