Margaret Hill and Pamela Carruthers, of Watt Brothers, Glasgow
PAMELA: I joined in 1980 when I was just 17, and I now work in the store's headquarters, in Helen Street, in Govan, Glasgow. The store was a lot different when I arrived. It was all 'Miss' or 'Mr', very formal. Everybody was immaculate. You had to dress up to come to work. Whereas I was just a 17-year-old girl running around with the mail. There were gowns and bridal wear – and gloves. My mother used to shop here for her gloves. There were big cabinets that people would polish, and the drawers would come out, showing the selections of gloves.
Assistants in the store used to use a system of pneumatic Lamson tubes to send customer cash payments up to the cash office. It was a time-consuming process. Christmas must have been a nightmare. But the store definitely had glamour. The window displays were always beautiful. It was a very family-run place and it was always an easy-going place to work.
It has become bigger and more popular over the years. It has been opened up to a completely different audience, which is good. You have to move with the times, and [the owner] Willie [Watt] has had the insight to go forward. He thought that rather than keep with the gorgeous gloves and the lovely ball-gowns that aren't going to be worn any longer, he decided to bring it down to the normal level for the rest of us, with things like make-up, and clothes that you can wear every day.
Lots of changes were introduced. There was a gents' department and a range of crystal. That was huge. Everybody came in and would buy their weddings gifts here. But it was the make-up department that really hit the jackpot.
You make so many friends here. My old boss in the store was like another mother. We knew each other inside out. My current boss in the office – we're very close too. It's a job for life. I didn't think that at 17 when I came in here, but it's been a job for my life.
MARGARET: The store had its centenary last year. I've been here since 1989. I used to work for a concession in Daly's [another department store] and I used to come in here and cover the managers' lunches for that concession every day, and I got to know everybody. When I left Daly's, Miss Spence at Watt Brothers said, 'I know you, I'm going to take you on'. I didn't need to fill in anything – she took me right on, and that was it, and I started in lingerie. I can't believe I've been here for 26 years. When I look back, it has flown by, because it's such a good place to work. We have one lady here whose mother worked here. Her grandmother did, too.
The lift was always a big part of the store. There used to be an attendant called Stan, who would take customers to whichever floor they wanted. It used to be an old gate-style lift. Stan loved the job – he got to meet everybody, and he knew where everybody was going. People would go back to go down to the exit and they would tell him, 'I bought this and I bought that'. Even after Stan retired, he would come back into the store to have a wee cup of tea with the despatch department. I think he missed the place.
Technology has probably been the biggest change here. Even the cash registers have been upgraded several times. I remember the Lanson tubes when I started here. You always had to remember whose change you had. Because if you had served three different customers and you were waiting on the change coming back down, you had to know how much change each customer was due.
Russell Leadbetter
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