Roberts Stores is not the first, and won't be the last, victim of the city's retail revolution, reports Paul Drury
Generations of men from the west of Scotland may shed a tear this weekend on learning of the demise of a sporting institution so venerated it arguably ranks up there with the hallowed slopes of Hampden Park.
After 80 years in Glasgow's Trongate, Roberts Stores, purveyor of sporting dreams, is closing for good today.
No great reverberations will be felt on the Stock Exchange, but the coming down of the shutters marks the end of an era for a classic style of Glasgow trading that dates back to the beginning of the last century.
Roberts Stores was the ultimate emporium: the pull-out tray littered with English club badges where nothing cost more than 10p; shin guards to provide protection against the more robust tackles you were likely to face in the school team; or the new Leeds away top as modelled every Saturday by 1970s hero Allan Clarke - all sporting life was there.
Former Celtic and Motherwell striker Andy Walker, a Roberts' fan, can still rattle off the names of the footwear he was advised to buy there as a schoolboy star in the mid-1970s. ''Mamba, Bamba and Samba,'' he said. ''My brother Kenny told me the only shoe to buy was the Mamba because it had a great sole as well as that funny white bit that curved from the front round the side.
''I also remember buying rubber studs there. You would get pocket money of about 60p a week and the studs were 40p, but I had to get value for money because you were playing most of your games on red ash pitches that wore the nylon studs away. Then, if you were playing a cup final at Rosebery Park it was a treat to go into Roberts Stores and buy the thin aluminium ones that gave you a better grip on grass.''
The end of Roberts is more than just an occasion for nostalgia. The closure signals a seismic shift in shopping patterns which, left unchecked, could bring down businesses which have been trading even longer than Roberts.
Mr David Jaffe, who has run the family store for more than 20 years, forecast yesterday that ''a substantial number'' of other shops in the Trongate could close in the next nine months.
He said: ''The number of people coming across our door has fallen dramatically in the last four or five years. When Weisfeld closed this time last year, we experienced another big drop in custom.''
It was David Jaffe's grandfather, Robert, who gave the store its name in the late 1920s. The firm traded at a number of locations in Argyle Street and the Trongate before finally settling into its current site at the corner of Trongate and Albion Street in 1970.
This was the golden age of retailing in the area; names like City Cash Tailor and the Krazy House turned the so-called golden acre into one of the most profitable shopping streets in the world. At peak times such as Christmas and the Glasgow Fair, a doorman was required at Roberts to cope with the queues of shoppers seeking Rangers and Celtic replica kits and the latest football footwear from Adidas and Puma. Young upstarts like Sports Division and JJB Sports were yet to be born.
Even by the 1980s, Roberts was still a big enough name to attract soccer stars such as Terry Butcher and Maurice Johnston to make personal appearances for their fans.
Since the ''everything must go'' signs went up, a stream of past customers have been coming along to pay their last respects.
Mr Jaffe said: ''Many people have attended the closing down sale. They have bought well and they have told us how fond they are of our shop and the way we have always done business.
''Kind as these words are, I really want to ask each one of them where they have been for the last 10 years.''
That decade has seen a shopping revolution in Glasgow, and the Trongate, more than most areas, has been severely injured in the fray. Twelve months ago, Roberts' neighbour, the ironmongers Peter Fisher, closed its doors, bringing to an end almost two centuries of trading at Glasgow Cross.
That same week the Buchanan Galleries opened, confirming once and for all that the centre of Glasgow has shifted away from peripheral parts such as Glasgow Cross and Charing Cross and towards Buchanan Street.
While the ''wrong'' end of Sauchiehall Street seems to have reinvented itself as a night-time leisure and pleasure zone, the Trongate's future looks less bright.
But that could change. Within the next few weeks, two major public agencies will attempt to reverse the tide of decline in the Trongate by announcing a #3m, five-year regeneration scheme.
Under the Townscape Heritage Initiative, grants will be available to private property owners to improve the appearance of buildings, on ground and upper levels, from the Trongate to Ingram Street.
Ms Eleanor McAllister, Glasgow City Council's head of economic and social initiatives, said: ''The city council is a major property owner in the area. The last thing the council wants to see is the area dying on its feet.
''Above ground level, you can see why shops are moving out; the private sector has allowed many fine buildings to fall apart.
''We are simply not prepared to allow this to happen in the historic heart of Glasgow. Though we do have money to offer assistance, we cannot just move in and take over.''
Doubtless the surviving shopkeepers of the Trongate will be encouraged by this lottery-supported development, but for Roberts Stores, it is one initiative too late.
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