JSjournal May/66

House magazine of J Sainsbury Ltd

2 News and Developments 8 The Produce Revolution

14 The Wicked Retailer 19 Griffin Sports Report 26 New Appointments 27 Staff News 32 Veterans' Meet

Miss Janice Whiteman, cashier at Shirley branch, being chaired by her colleagues. Janice was crowned Miss England 1966 at the Lyceum, London on April 25.

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NEWS bUHHOPMBilS Wembley branch opened on February 24th in a big new development built over the railway lines at Wembley Central Station. The branch is in a traffic free precinct, has a shopping area of over 7,000 square feet and 12 checkouts. Architects were JS Architects Department. Our shop at 2 Ealing Road, opened in 1913, has now closed and so has Forty Avenue, opened in 1927.

Manager, H. C. Crowe, taking tea on the opposite page, opened the new Wembley. He joined the firm in 1933, and became a manager after the war in 1946, at North Harrow. Since then he has managed 357 Harrow, High Street Kensington, St. Albans and Paddington self-service branch. Deputy Manager is Mr. R. Bryant, above right. Assistant Managers are Mr. J. Tomb far right and Mr. J. Prendergast below right. Head Butcher is Mr. D. Barwick.

Edgware has a new branch at 296 Hale Lane, opened on March 15th. The branch has a sales area of about 5,000 square feet and eight check-outs. Architects for the building were Fitzroy Robinson and Partners, who designed our Winton branch. We have been trading in Edgware since 1929 when the branch in Station Road opened. This is now closed as is our branch at 655 Watford Way, opened in 1936.

NEWSBDEVELOPMBfTS

Manager at Edgware is Mr. S. K. Saunders who joined JS in 1941. He became an Assistant Manager in 1954 and in 1960 was promoted to Manager. He has managed Swiss Cottage branch and comes to Edgware from there.

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Mr. H. McCulla, Spare Manager.

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Mr. D. Holley, Assistant Manager.

Mr. F. White, Assistant Manager.

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Mr. A. Williams, Head Butcher.

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Shirley. Checkout operator Janice Whiteman at work at our Shirley branch shortly after her coronation as Miss England 1966. Winners from 32 heats held in all parts of England during March met for the final on April 25th at the Lyceum Ballroom, London. The competition has been sponsored by Peek Frean Ltd, who have run a sales drive for Vita Wheat throughout March. Miss Whiteman, as Miss England, qualifies for the Miss Great Britain competition this year. We wish her the very best of luck.

Chelsea new Self-Service and our biggest branch in Central London, opened on Tuesday May 17th - we shall be publishing pictures of the occasion in our next issue. Chelsea, being Chelsea, we are offering a wider than usual range of

continental foods, probably the most notable being (in addition to our usual fresh meat dept.) a special selection of continental cuts of meat. Two of these, a saddle of lamb and french ribs, are shown below. The complete range,

comprising some 30 cuts of beef, lamb and veal are displayed in refrigerated counters. This attractive department demonstrates that the "skill of the butcher" is no forgotten art.

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NEWS ftHEVBOPMBflS

Kinermony. Our pedigree herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle has a new stock bull purchased recently. His name is Newhouse Edwin Elector and he is a very good example of all a young bull ought to be.

Buntingford. The main block of our new depot. The building will cover half a million square feet and will supply branches in the Midlands, East Anglia and the northern fringe of London. It is hoped that it will be partly in operation in the late spring of 1967.

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The Produce REVOLUTION The late fifties saw the start of a revolution in marketing and also in

cultivation methods for produce. This is the first of a series of picture

reports about how this growing section of our trade looks in the mid-sixties

Think of a celery . . . multiply it by 6/7,000,000 and you have a part of the crop grown by Darby Bros, of Methwold. They also produce carrots, parsnips, leeks, lettuce, radishes, sprouts, beans and a few other items of vegetables for JS. About 60 per cent of the commercial crop of celery comes from these fenlands of East Anglia. Land which was long under water and where even now the plough may hit a Bog-Oak which, after some 3,000 years, has "floated" to the surface. Round the limits of this land flint arrow-heads are often found from days when our ancestors hunted wild fowl. Celery should never be checked by lack of water, and here water can always be reached a very little way below the surface. The seeds (about 250,000 to 1 lb.) are raised under glass,

pricked out by hand and bedded out when about 2 inches high. The average skilled woman will bed out 15,000 plants per day (24,000 is not uncommon) kneeling all day in a potato tray, dibbling and planting, hour after hour. Land has been prepared by deep ploughing and towards the end of May plants are lifted from the beds and planted out in the fields

where in due course the long rows mature (opposite page) and the time has come to market the celery before severe frosts touch it. Again the women are in the fields, each armed with a short sharp spade (left) which is thrust into the root of each plant. The orderly rows begin to fall (above), the rough dirty celery is boxed and hauled to the packhouse.

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At the packhouse women strip off the damaged outer sticks, chop each celery to size and place it in the washing machine. In this machine water under pressure hits each celery from all directions as the belt moves through the water jets, then out they come gleaming white and draining. Then they are bagged, boxed and inspected before being sent to Hoddesdon for distribution.

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Carrots are grown and lifted in a somewhat different manner. The tiny seeds are sown directly into the rows prepared for them. Several varieties are sown according to their season and planned to be ready for lifting at the appropriate time. Then the women go into the fields, almost regardless of weather and start to lift the crop. The carrots are hauled back to the farm buildings where they are washed, sorted, and graded for size. This is followed by pre-packing and delivery to Sainsbury for distribution to our branches selling produce.

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the purpose and use of the big annual fairs and the gradual diversification of shopkeeping as more commodities became available. The book is packed with fact and speculation about that constantly interesting subject - the consumer/retailer relationship. Naturally enough, early retailing was nearly all food retailing. Most of the population worked on the land and in a good farming year there'd be a small surplus of food to dispose of. There was only a small quantity of other goods like clothes or tools or weapons on the market. These were usually custom-made by craftsmen, so that surplus was largely one of second-hand goods. The rag trade really was a rag trade and even the 'quality' took it for granted that some of their small wardrobe would be second- or third-hand. But even if you could set up in the retail food trade you wouldn't find it easy to carry on a business. Mediaeval England was fairly close to starvation level; a couple of bad harvests would have all the townspeople in a state of nervous anxiety about the next

The housewife's quick trip with a trolley round the gondolas of a self-service branch looks so pleasant and easy, and is taken so much for granted, that it is difficult to imagine the nature of a world in which going shopping was a chancy matter of bargaining over a tiny range of products on one day of the week. Or looking at it from the retailer's end, a chancy matter of finding enough stock to stay in business, enough customers with the small change to pay cash and enough of the grudged goodwill of the town's governors to get into business at all.

But such was the retail trade six or seven hundred years ago and this is how it still is in many parts of the world where there's only a small surplus of production to put on the market. Mrs. Davis's book* is packed with information about how the retail trade grew up in England. It describes in detail the early growth of trading; the gradual development of town markets and shops,

M History of Shopping Dorothy Davis, Routledge & Kegan Paul 40/-.

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one and in a mood to treat even an honest shopkeeper (there can't have been many) as an opportunist, black-marketeering twister. So in the towns, trading became subject to all sorts of regulations. The laws were, on the whole, on the side of the customer, so that each one would get an equal chance of buying what had come into the market. Most of the traders would be producers who were selling off surplus corn or meat, a few would be retailers who lived in a town and bought for resale. The market was set up in the early morning and no trade was allowed till the market bell sounded. In Norwich, trading began as the Cathedral bell rang for early mass. Nobody dared to open a sack or show as much as a feather until the signal was given. From then on it was hard going for a couple of hours.

The laws governing trade weren't the same in every town. Local interests and the pressure of trade organisations to protect their members' pockets resulted in absurd regulations. In London for a time, the fishmongers were forbidden to sell fish

before it had been exposed for sale for three days by the fishermen who had caught it. Bakers and brewers who produced the chief items of food were rigidly controlled, prices being fixed by the town officials each year. Since there was a chronic shortage of small change, loaves had to be priced at a farthing, a halfpenny or a penny. The size of the loaf or the strength of the ale had to be varied according to the harvest. In a bad year the beer was weak and the bread dear. The weights and measures problem* kept everyone, customer, trader, burgers, baron and monarch hopping up and down in a frenzy of suspicious rage. In Bury St. Edmunds the effect of introducing the London standard of weights and measures in the fifteenth century was to cut the town off from all trade. The producers went off to other places where buyers held more traditional notions about the size of a bushel and the weight of a stone. In most towns markets were run on a small •The history of this particularly tangled aspect of trading was the subject of an article in JS Journal for August 1965.

scale by farmers with a few acres who offered for sale limited quantities of corn, meat and poultry. The best part of the corn went to regular buyers like bakers or brewers, and in the 14th and 15th centuries the seller probably knew all of his customers pretty well. Even in London the suppliers of the city who lived and farmed not far from its walls, the fishmongers who brought their catches to Billingsgate for sale, would know most of their customers. And the big buyers at any market or fair would be sought after by the keen trader. They would be the Stewards or Chief Clerks of the big households who shopped for establishments of a couple of hundred hungry retainers.

A 'shop' could be fairly primitive. It might just be a market stall or even a hawker's tray; a board slung from a wall to carry the goods or a shed built out in front of a house; a roof with a couple of posts or, in grander style, the ground floor of a house. It wasn't until the 1600's that this last form became the standard kind of shop and as glass was getting cheaper, it was given a glazed front of small panes and a counter inside. Until that time and possibly later in the provinces, English shops were very much like the ones still to be seen in the souks of North Africa and the Middle East. In a small mediaeval city or village the principle that goods should only be exchanged between producer and consumer was sound enough. But with the growth of population and production, distribution became more complex and this principle came to bear little relation to reality, so that laws based on it were dodged by anyone who thought it safe to dodge. One important factor which helped the retail trade towards greater freedom from the control of city fathers, was the demand by processors, like bakers, brewers, cooks, piemen and others, for increasing amounts

of raw material. By Queen Elizabeth's reign they simply hadn't the time to buy from a lot of smallholders and they soon found ways of evading obsolete laws. Wholesaling grew up in places beyond city control. Barnet and Leighton Buzzard became sales depots for cattle, and towns in Surrey and Middlesex grew rich on corn dealing. And as land became dearer in London, malting and milling came to be done more cheaply out of town. Mrs. Davis gives a fascinating account of these first steps of the trade to free itself from the restricting effect of mediaeval laws. The corn chandlers wriggled themselves free before the end of the 17th century and although they were often reviled for 'buying cheap and selling dear' there was no doubt they were indispensable to the economy of the city of London. Their stock is described briefly by one Elizabethan writer as 'namelie butter, cheese, faggots, pots, pans, candles and a thousand other trinkets besides'. Though the corn chandler was a general supplier until very recent times, his basic trade was in corn for human and for animal consumption. He was in fact doing the jobs that Sainsbury's and Shell do today.

Besides the shop and the town's weekly market day, there were the great annual fairs. These were of great importance in the Middle Ages, but as regular daily retailing developed they faded out until they became nostalgic names. They were run as profitable businesses by their owners. Bartholomew Fair which was held on the present site of Smithfield Market, was a source of revenue for St. Bartholomew's Hospital, a religious institution at that time. St. Giles' Fair at Winchester was the property of the Bishop who took over the town administration for the duration of the fair. People came for miles to buy and sell and they must have had the time of their

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rather dreary mediaeval lives. They met their friends, they saw marvels from the East and fakes from the big cities, they could buy their annual supply of spices from a Venetian trader, furs from a Baltic merchant or casks of good wine from Crete or Spain, and rougher stuff from Bordeaux. The fairs went on for days and if the weather was bad it was hell - they were all up to their ankles in mud and the goods got damp and filthy. How and where they all ate and slept is a mystery. But as their menu was a limited one - bread, meat, fish and beer, they probably did fairly well. It was, by the way, illegal to sell or eat meat on Friday's and in Lent. One fact which Mrs. Davis records is that the big sirloins of beef and saddles of lamb the mediaeval barons are supposed to have lived on, are a figment of the lush, romantic Victorian imagination. The beef was stringy and tough, and what the barons ate as a rule was meat reduced to a finely ground pulp. 'So the fashion was for stews and purees of minced and sieved meats hotly flavoured and coloured violet, red or yellow, to resemble the original ingredients as little as possible.'

The Stewards of the big households went to these fairs, taking their head cattlemen and shepherds to judge the quality of the livestock. They bought large quantities and when they got home, sat down to do their accounts on an abacus and often, it appears, got them wrong. 'Even a straightforward multiplication was a tongue-twister in roman numerals and there was nothing straightforward about quantities in long-hundreds, scores and dozens, instead of units, tens and hundreds, nor about prices quoted in pence, marks (13s. 4d.) and nobles (6s. 8d.) with a scattering of continental coins in the money bag for good measure.' To both trader and consumer the money

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problem must have been maddening. In a small town where everyone was known, it was perhaps less difficult to give credit or keep a tally. The tally stick was in general use for regular exchanges of goods. It was a stick a few inches long, split longwise, and when a payment or a delivery was made the two parts were placed together to match and a notch cut across the split. The tallies were broken when the score was settled. But of money and small change there was a famine. For a long time only the silver penny was in circulation. Sometimes it was indented with a cross so you could break it into four silver farthings, but even this wasn't much help at a time when a good day's wage was twopence. Later, in the early 18th century, when more money was in circulation, there were large amounts of counterfeit coin being passed around, so the customers and the shopkeepers kept both good and bad money, proffering the bad coins first and the good only if the bad were refused. No one appears to have felt any embarrassment over this. By the end of the century even the good coins were worn so thin that if you paid in silver, its value would often be assessed by weight, rather than accepted at its nominal value. A good many privately-made coins issued by shopkeepers were in circulation and local banks issued their own notes. Copper coins, though illegal, were in general use. Counterfeit money circulated in such profusion that street hawkers went about buying it, crying 'Brass Money! Broken or whole! ' They sold it back to the coiners, who seemed to suffer shortages peculiar to their crooked craft.

A s a result credit was long and risky. Many a shopkeeper in the 18th century was ruined by the debts his customers had piled up. Daniel Defoe is quoted as saying in The Complete English Tradesman, ' thus I have known a family, whose revenue has been some thousands a year, pay their butcher and baker and grocer and cheesemonger by a hundred pounds at a time and be generally a hundred more in each of their debts'.

High Street shopkeeping as we were

familiar with it a generation ago grew

slowly out of the makeshift mediaeval shops

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of which the grandest were in the front parlour of the merchant's house. Today, retailers premises are more specialised in design or in fitt ings and the High Street is frequently being replaced by the shopping precinct, a development which has an ancestry as old as Old London Bridge, which was lined with small shops on each side. There were about 90 of them, mostly sellers of some form of wearing apparel. Grander than this was the Royal Exchange, built by Sir Thomas Gresham in 1568, on the site facing the Bank of England, where its successor stands today. Gresham's intention was to attract business to London by providing accommodation for bankers and merchants and so establish the city as an international finance centre. Along with the offices for bankers and brokers who had been out in the rain in Lombard Street, he built two tiers of small lock-up shops round the courtyard of the Exchange. The bankers moved in gratefully, but the shopkeepers were slow to take up the idea of a lock-up shop in which they would leave their stock overnight. So Gresham, shortly before a ceremonial visit to the Exchange by Queen Elizabeth I, went to his tenants and offered them shops rent free for a year if they would dress them and light them. They were letting then at 40 shil l ings a year but so effective was Gresham's way of creating an effect of prosperous trade, that within very few years he could ask and get 90 shill ings a year from the retailers who rented his shops. They included haberdashers, milliners, booksellers, armourers, goldsmiths and other trades of this kind. They built up a fine European reputation for The Royal Exchange, which was England's first shopping precinct. Mrs. Davis writes vividly and interestingly about the retailers of the past. Of the more recent past - the last hundred years - she writes with less detail and of course the subject would need a second volume to cover it effectively. A s it is, her delightful book is so entertaining and informative, that everyone in the retail trade should find it a pleasure to read.

GRIFFIN SPORTS REPORT

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sh-a-sHefoitball A dry day at Dulwich on Good Friday saw a good turn out for the six-a-side football finals. Mr. A Trask very kindly spent most of the day at the sports ground and is seen below presenting the Sainsbury Football Cup to the captain of the Basingstoke team who won the final with a margin of ten points.

Basingstoke's team, on the opposite page, looking very pleased with their victory were, standing, I to r, M. Hockam, G. Jenkins, (Captain), D. Hall. Kneeling, I to r, R. Jones, A. Walker, M. Marchant. They met the Factory team in the final. Both teams had piled up impressive totals of points in the course of the day's play. Basingstoke had 50 points and 1 against and the Factory 76 for and 5 against. This is Basingstoke's first entry in the annual six-a-side knock-out and their victory over last year's winners was won in convincing style.

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tarts A big crowd came to watch the Griffin darts finals which were held at Blackfriars on April 24th. Pictured below are winners, standing left to right as follows: T. Oborne, M. Martin, J. Pratt, J. Letts, F. Giles, B. Smith, J. Johnson, P. Suckling.

Left, on the opposite page, Mr. Kettley is seen presenting the Arcady Trophy to J. Letts, captain of the J Section which beat Hoddesdon. Opposite left, standing in the middle, is A Spanton who, with A Masters, came top in the Pairs Competition. On the right D Grover (Bedford), Club champion, is receiving the Gurr Cup. Remaining pictures show competitors in action during the finals.

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kadniitii Griffin Badminton Section met at Blackfriars on February 6th. Winning players are pictured below. Standing, I to r, D. Thaddeus (O Section) and E. Preece (Dorking), D. Cutts (O Section), winner of the men's singles and men's doubles. Next to him is W. Keen (O Section) and A. McDowell (V Section), one of the winners of the mixed doubles. Seated, I to r, Miss J. Woolmington (0 Section), Mrs. B. Malham (O Section and the other winning partner in the mixed doubles), Mr. Trask, Miss H. Rogers and T. Bryant (both of O Section). On the left is Miss Woolmington and, bottom of page, W. Keen and Miss Woolmington.

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table leinis Table Tennis finals were held this year at Blackfriars. Club Chairman, R. Gibson, gave away the prizes. Standing left to right are T. Kinchen (T. Wells), J. Strain (Q Section), C. Hora (also below right) of Q Section who distinguished himself by winning the Symonds Cup for the fourth year running. Next to him is Mrs. C. Dawes (T. Wells), Mrs. J. Torr (O Section), R. Gibson (O Section) at the back, Miss H. Rogers (O Section), Mrs. B. Judge (Ashford), B. R. Brearley (O Section), K. Penfold (Bognor) and Mrs. J. Frost (O Section). An unusual feature of this year's tournament was the presence of the Cine Club who filmed some of the games (below left).

Recent Appointments to Senior Executive

Mr. E. J . Russe l l ABOVE LEFT

Senior Executive in the Grocery Buying Dept. responsible to Mr. Harrison for the purchasing of canned goods.

Mr. K. D . Curtis ABOVE RIGHT

Senior Executive, Manager Designate of the new Buntingford Depot. Mr. Curtis managed the old Buntingford Depot from its inception.

Mr. M. S . Hughes LEFT Senior Executive, Poultry Buying Office Blackfriars.

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STAFF NEWS

Movements and Promotions Managerial Transfers s.

c.

H.

F.

E.

A.

S.

J.

I.

G.

T.

M.

A.

I .

H.

G.

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C.

w

R.

G.

BROWN

CARTER

CLARK

COOMBS

CORNELIUS

COSTER

COX

ENFIELD

EVANS

FAULKNER

FLETCHER

.GARDNER

GILBERT

HESSEY

HOLBROOK

HOWARD

JUDGE

MINTER

'. MITCHELL

MOTA

PAWSEY

from East Finchley to 339 Palmers Green from March 25 from further self-service training to the management of Nottingham from March 28 from Spare a t Catford to Spare a t Lewisham from April 12 from Spare to the management of Eastcote from April 5 from Spare to the management of Westbourne from April 20 from Special relief duties to the management of Tunbridge Wells from March 28 from Westbourne to Boscombe from May 2 from Spare a t Lewisham to Spare a t Purley from April 12 from Gloucester Road to 51 Ealing from May 30 from Dorking to Surbiton from May 23 from Tottenham to 16/20 Holloway from May 23 from Edgware Service to East Finchley from March 23 from 51 Ealing to Byfieet from June 6 from further self-service training to the management of Lewisham from March 28 from Edmonton to Tottenham from May 12 from Surbiton to Grocery self-service training from May 23 from Eastcote to Southall from April 5 from Hoxton to Barkingside from May 30 from Somers Town to Edmonton from May 10 from Spare to the management of 296 Holloway from April 25 from 296 Holloway to Somers Town from May 3

C. SUMMERTON

F. THOMPSON

T. WELHAM

C. WICKERT

W. YEATES

from Spare a t Wimbledon to Spare a t Chelsea self-service from April 25 from Cockfosters to further training from April 25 from 68 Croydon to Chelsea self-service from April 25 from 339 Palmers Green to 16 Enfield from March 28 from Chelsea service to self-service training from May 20 from Collier Row to further self-service training from March 21

Managerial Appointments

f^S P*\ A*me l. 4 ~k

/ . Airey C. Charteris

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*» 4V / . Cook E. Perou

W. Savager E. Spriggs

j . AmEY from Spare a t Harold Hill to the management of Collier Row from March 21

c. CHARTERIS from Spare a t Southampton to the management of 68 Croydon from April 4

j . COOK from Assistant Manager a t Leatherhead to the management of Dorking from April 25

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E. PEROU from Spare a t Watney Street to the management of Hoxton from May 23

w. SAVAGEB from Assistant Manager a t St. Albans to the management of Cockfosters from April 25

E. SPEIGGS from Spare a t Southgate to the management of Muswell Hill self-service from May 2

Promotions to Spare Manager M. BOTWBIGHT Basildon from March 21 D. COCKS Hoe St. Walthamstow

from March 21 B. CURTIS Display Specialist from March 21 H. MCCULLA Edgware from March 21 L. SELF Slough from March 21 3. TOLMIE Victoria from March 21 G. VILE Chichester from April 25

Assistant Managers' Transfers D. AKROYD from Coventry to Rugby

from May 20 s. BURTENSHAW from Edgware service to

Hampstead from March 16 F. BUTLER from self-service training to

Oxhey from April 4 p. COLES from Welwyn Garden City to

Display Specialist in training on Mr. Wrench's area from April 4

M. CROUCH from Bedford to Northampton from May 16

c. CURRAN from Apex Corner to Burnt Oak from March 16

D. DALE from Richmond to Chelsea self-service from April 25

A . DANIELS from Oxhey to Brondesbury from April 4

T. DELVES from Nottingham to Solihull from May 16

T. EVANS from Stamford Hill to 16/20 Holloway from April 21

J. GERRISH from 67 Sutton to Coulsdon from April 25

s. GREEN from Hemel Hempstead to Kettering from April 11

L. HENWOOD from 259 Dford to Watney Street from May 17

D. JONES from self-service training to Marylebone from April 4

j . JONES from Richmond to Chelsea self-service from May 2

c. KNOWLDEN from Victoria to Chelsea self-service from April 25

D. LAMBERT from Chelsea service to 259 Ilford from May 17

E. LITTLE from self-service training to Solihull from May 16

j . MANN from Bitterne to Shirley from March 14

a. MCGINNIS from Ballards Lane to Muswell Hill self-service from May 2

R. MCKINLAY from Coventry to Solihull from May 16

a. MILNE from Shirley to Southampton from March 14

G. MORRIS from 114 Ilford to Harold Hill from April 19

c. PHILLIPS from Bedford to Coventry from May 16

j . PIERCE from West Wickham to Catford from March 21

M. SHINGFIELD from self-service training to Welwyn Garden City from April 12

D. SKUCE from Ballards Lane to Muswell Hill self-service from May 2

R. SLEMMONDS from Wimbledon to Victoria from May 17

R. SOWERBY from Northampton to Kettering from May 20

M. WRIGHT from Southgate to Baliards Lane from May 2

Promotions to Assistant Manager D. AKROYD Coventry from May 16 A. BUSHELL West Wickham from May 16 M. CROUCH Bedford from May 16 j . CULVERHOUSE Muswell Hill self-service

from May 16 D. FRIEND Wallington from May 16 j . JONES Richmond from April 25 R. LAPRAIK 176 Streatham from May 9 J. MANN Bitterne from February 28 j . MARK Guildford from February 28 w. MCGOVERN Chichester from February 28 G. MORRIS 114 Ilford from April 18 p. PARKER Chelsea self-service from May 16 c. PHTLLIFS Bedford from May 16 H. RAWSON Redhill from May 2 p. SARRATT Wallington from May 2 A. SMALLEY Nottingham from April 4 D. SMEATON Purley from May 16 R. SOWERBY Northampton from May 16 3. WILSON 1/4 Ealing from May 16

Head Butchers' Transfers 3. BERNADINE

R. BOURNER

J. BULLOCK

S. BURRAGE

E. FORREST

D. GLOSTER

A. HIGGINS

from self-service training to Muswell Hill self-service from May 23 from Chatham to Maidstone from April 12 from self-service training to Chelsea self-service from May 16 from 4 Kingston to New Maiden from February 28 from New Maiden to Teddington from February 28 from Teddington to Esher from February 14 from Spare a t Chelsea to Camberley from February 14 from Spare a t Rugby to Nuneaton from April 18 from Ewell to 4 Kingston from February 21 from Chelsea to Spare a t Chelsea self-service from May 16 from Esher to Ewell from February 14

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from North Cheam to Tolworth from May 2 from Spare a t Maidstone to Chatham from April 4 from Spare a t 67 Sutton to North Cheam from May 2 from Spare a t 15 Epsom to East Sheen from February 28 from self-service training to Edgware self-service from March 15

Congratulations to the following colleagues who have completed long service with the firm.

B. MITCHELL

S. SKINNER

A. WILLIAMS

Forty Years' Service W. W. BROWN

S. G. CHAPMAN

S. COX MISS M. E. ENGLISH H. C. POLLOCK J, F. STEEL

W. J. VINCENT

L. E. WATERS

C. P. WATSON S. JT. WELLS

Leading Salesman at Surbiton Manager of Depot Stock Office, Streatham Manager, Westbourne First Clerk a t Beigate Manager, 16 Enfield Driver/Cleaner, Basingstoke Senior Scalesman at Union Street Manager, Brondesbury, temporarily in charge Lambeth Manager, Colchester Head Butcher a t 24 Brighton

Twenty-Five Years' Service MRS. E. CRESSWELL Part-time Packer-weigher

a t Stockwell MRS. R. E. DRIVER First Clerk, Crouch End MRS. i. REES Part-time Saleswoman

at 87 Ealing MISS E. M. SPOONER Clerk a t Coventry MISS O. D. SMITH Supervisor a t Wisbech

Correction: Mr. D. Woods' new post (see p. 32 March/ April issue) is Display Specialist and not Display Superintendent.

J^VrW

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Retirements We send our best wishes to the following colleagues who have just retired.

F. R. Parker, Head of Building and Engineering Developments, retired from the firm on 29th April. A review of his career with JS will be published in JS Journal for June.

C. Brett, Meat supervisor, retired from the firm on 29th April. A review of his career will be in JS Journal for June.

I. E. Funnell began his career with the firm on the 6th February 1922 as a learner a t Winchmore Hill. In 1923 he was transferred to Bexhill and worked at various branches in the coast area until he was appointed Manager of Bexhill in February 1934. In June 1934 he took over the management of Winchester, remaining there until August 1941. He returned from National Service in July 1946, going back to Winchester as Manager in September of that year. In September 1953 he became Manager of Fulham, being transferred to Bournemouth as the Manager in September 1963. In July 1964 he became Manager of Boscombe where he remained until his retirement on the 30th April 1966.

H. L. Mandeville was engaged as a learner in October 1920 and commenced at Weybridge, which branch opened in that month. In June 1935 he went to Woking and in May 1942 he was transferred to Guildford, where he was appointed Assistant Manager in November 1951. He returned to Woking until January 1952 and was appointed Manager of Byfieet in June 1954, managing this branch until his retirement on the 4th June 1966.

H. C. Pol lock began his career with the firm as a learner on the 8th March 1926, a t 14/15 Leytonstone. In May 1930 he was appointed Manager of Stoke Newington, remaining there until June 1934, when he was transferred to 73 Kingsland as Manager. In April 1940 he was appointed to the management of Kingsbury, staying there until August 1941. During the rest of the war years he spent some time a t Morden, Paddington and Chelsea as Head Butcher, before returning to Kingsbury as Manager in January 1946. In September 1950 he took over the management of 16 Enfield where he remained until ill health made it necessary for him to retire on 26th March 1966.

^mmm^

I. E. Funnell H. L. Mandeville H. C. Pollock A. R. Wickens Mrs. K,

A. R. Wickens commenced with the firm as a Delivery Lad a t Blackheath on 6th October 1920, and a few months later was transferred as a learner. He remained in this area until November 1927, when he was transferred as Assistant Manager to 13/15 Blackfriars. In February 1929 he was appointed Manager of 176 Streatham, staying there until May 1931, when he was transferred to 9/11 Croydon as Manager. In November 1932 he took over the management of Tottenham, staying there until June 1941. He returned from National Service in January 1946, going back to Tottenham as Manager in March of that year. In December 1946, he was transferred to 16/20 Holloway as Manager, remaining there until his retirement on 20th May 1966.

R. E. Short commenced as a porter a t Edmonton in May 1947. He was transferred to Marylebone two years later, where he became a van checker in 1960. He retired on 1st March 1966.

Mrs. K. I. Fern was engaged as a resident housekeeper a t 9/11 Croydon in June 1953, moving shortly afterwards to Barkingside. After periods a t West Wickham and Harold Hill, she moved to 1/4 Ealing, from which branch she retired on 1st March 1966.

Miss D. M. Dunn began with JS as a Junior clerk in August, 1921, in Ilford. Shortly afterwards, she moved to Forest Gate before transferring to 16 Ilford. In 1925, she moved to Wembley, where she was later appointed first clerk. In 1938 she was transferred to 357 Harrow, and in 1960 she moved to South Harrow, remaining a t this branch until her retirement on 1st March, 1966.

F. C. Pearce was engaged as a meat porter in August 1920. In 1950, he became a meat checker in Union Street cold store, and was regraded to senior meat checker in 1961. He retired on 1st March 1966.

Mrs. M. Brailka commenced as a daily woman a t 12/16 Kingsland in September 1956, retiring on 5th February 1966.

Mrs. D. M. Fowler was engaged as a part-time saleswoman at Cambridge in 1949, and was later regraded to part-time supply woman. She retired on 12th February 1966.

F. C. Pearce Mr. & Mrs. Fowler

30

Congratulations

To Colin Robert Thomlinson, Leading Butcher, Collier Row and member of the 11th Company Boys' Brigade. He went to Buckingham Palace on April 22 to receive a Gold Medal in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme. Mr. Thomlinson has been working for this award for two years, taking part in three cross-country exercises, athletics and first aid. His group hold the record in Havering for the highest number of gold passes.

To Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Kitching, now living at Polegate, Sussex. They celebrated their Golden Wedding on Wednesday 27th April.

Obituaries We regret to record the death of the following colleagues and send our deepest sympathy to all relatives. Mr. H. J. Dyer, Superintendent, writes:— The passing of Mr. J . T. Breckill on 21st March, came after some months of illness, during which time he continued to display the courage, cheerfulness and confidence in the future which had become so characteristic of him. Until the very last he fought hard to retain tha t which is so dear to us all. He began work with the firm in July 1927, as a learner a t 99 Kensington, better known as Gloucester Road. During the ten years prior to his appointment to the management of Morden in 1937, he worked a t a number of branches, including Kensington. Hastings, Paddington and Chelsea. During this period he gained the experience and skill which made him such a first class tradesman. In July 1940, together with so many of his colleagues, he went on National Service, was commissioned in the R.A.S.C. and rose to the rank of Captain. After his return from National Service he spent a period of re-training a t Chelsea, and in March 1947 was appointed Manager of Fulham, where he spent six years. This was followed by 12 years a t 128 Kilburn until March 1965, when he took over the management of Southall branch. His passing brought to an end 39 years of service with the firm, nearly 29 years of which, apart from National Service, was as a Manager. His death will be deeply felt by many of his colleagues who knew him well.

R. J. Hopker who retired in March 1946 died on 26th February 1966. He joined the firm in September 1909 and was appointed Manager of 42 Walthamstow in November 1916, remaining there until October 1925 when he was appointed Manager of East Ham for the opening. From October 1932 until October 1940 he acted as a relief Manager. He was then appointed to the management of Woodford, staying there until August 1941, when he took over the management of Dagenham, where he remained until his retirement.

A. E. Adley was engaged as a factory labourer in August 1951, and was regraded to floor clerk ten years later. He died on 17th February 1966.

R. C. Clarke began with JS as a poultry salesman at Gloucester Road in July 1920. He retired in September 1946, and died on 22nd February 1966.

/ . T. Breckill

d

R. J. Hopker

31

JS Veterans hold their Annual Meeting

The annual gathering of JS Veterans took place on 5th April at Porchester Hall, Bayswater. Business matters attended to, the Veterans sat down to a hearty tea. Lord Sainsbury was there and is seen top left presenting one of the five £1 JS vouchers won in a draw.

Printed by King and Jarrett Ltd., London, S.E.ll

The housewife's quick trip with a trolley round the gondolas of a self-service branch looks so pleasant and easy, and is taken so much for granted, that it is difficult to imagine the nature of a world in which going shopping was a chancy matter of bargaining over a tiny range of products on one day of the week. Or looking at it from the retailer's end, a chancy matter of finding enough stock to stay in business, enough customers with the small change to pay cash and enough of the grudged goodwill of the town's governors to get into business at all. But such was the retail trade six or seven hundred years ago and this is how it still is in many parts of the world where there's only a small surplus of production to put on the market. Mrs. Davis's book* is packed with information about how the retail trade grew up in England. It describes in detail the early growth of trading; the gradual development of town markets and shops,

*A History of Shopping Dorothy Davis, Routledge & Kegan Paul 40/-.

the purpose and use of the big annual fairs and the gradual diversification of shopkeeping as more commodities became available. The book is packed with fact and speculation about that constantly interesting subject-the consumer/retailer relationship. Naturally enough, early retailing was nearly all food retailing. Most of the population worked on the land and in a good farming year there'd be a small surplus of food to dispose of. There was only a small quantity of other goods like clothes or tools or weapons on the market. These were usually custom-made by craftsmen, so that surplus was largely one of second-hand goods. The rag trade really was a rag trade and even the 'quality' took it for granted that some of their small wardrobe would be second- or third-hand. But even if you could set up in the retail food trade you wouldn't find it easy to carry on a business. Mediaeval England was fairly close to starvation level; a couple of bad harvests would have all the townspeople in a state of nervous anxiety about the next

14

one and in a mood to treat even an honest shopkeeper (there can't have been many) as an opportunist, black-marketeering twister. So in the towns, trading became subject to all sorts of regulations. The laws were, on the whole, on the side of the customer, so that each one would get an equal chance of buying what had come into the market. Most of the traders would be producers who were selling off surplus corn or meat, a few would be retailers who lived in a town and bought for resale. The market was set up in the early morning and no trade was allowed till the market bell sounded. In Norwich, trading began as the Cathedral bell rang for early mass. Nobody dared to open a sack or show as much as a feather until the signal was given. From then on it was hard going for a couple of hours. The laws governing trade weren't the same in every town. Local interests and the pressure of trade organisations to protect their members' pockets resulted in absurd regulations. In London for a time, the fishmongers were forbidden to sell fish

before it had been exposed for sale for three days by the fishermen who had caught it. Bakers and brewers who produced the chief items of food were rigidly controlled, prices being fixed by the town officials each year. Since there was a chronic shortage of small change, loaves had to be priced at a farthing, a halfpenny or a penny. The size of the loaf or the strength of the ale had to be varied according to the harvest. In a bad year the beer was weak and the bread dear.

The weights and measures problem* kept everyone, customer, trader, burgers, baron and monarch hopping up and down in a frenzy of suspicious rage. In Bury St. Edmunds the effect of introducing the London standard of weights and measures in the fifteenth century was to cut the town off from all trade. The producers went off to other places where buyers held more traditional notions about the size of a bushel and the weight of a stone. In most towns markets were run on a small "The history of this particularly tangled aspect of

trading was the subject of an article in JS Journal for

August 1965.

15