Working at Woolies in the 1930s
After floating on the British stock market in 1931, F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd.
grew very rapidly, quickly becoming the biggest store chain and one of the
largest employers in Britain, with a workforce of more than 100,000
people, the great majority of whom worked on the counters, serving the public.
Despite its threepenny and sixpenny prices and down-market image,
Woolworths was widely recognised to be an enlightened employers.
They paid holiday pay and sick pay long before this was the law, and
most staff remember a family atmosphere and a home-from-home.
The Store Manager - father - was strict but kind, while his boss, the
Superintendent - grandfather was fearsome and enforced strict standards.
'Woolworth: A portrait in oils', commissioned by the company in 1931, captures the atmosphere
of the stores vividly. Note the colleagues in their maroon uniforms, the wide aisles and the wooden floor,
brightly polished with 'Felspar', which had a very distinct smell of beeswax and paraffin!
To see much more detail in the picture above, please click on it to open a larger version in a new window.
This picture was digitally restored to appears on a double-page inside the back cover of
A Sixpenny Romance, celebrating a century of value at Woolworths, by Paul Seaton
and appears here courtesy of 3D and 6D Pictures, the people who have
funded WoolworthsReunited.com and its crusade to help the firm's
23,000 workers after the demise of the store-based company
during the credit crunch of 2008.
Meet me at Woolworths - words used up and down the UK for almost 100 years.
To this day customers continue to call the stores Woolworths, whoever the new tenant may be,
and many of the premises are officially called 'The Woolworth Building'
We make no apologies for repeating this great picture from our Pic'n'Mix sweets page,
showing the girls on the sweet counter. Weigh-out sweets counters like these
were a standard feature of every Woolworths store between 1909 and 1959,
and were progressively withdrawn from 1960 to 1973 as the firm converted
to self-service operation.
This shot, typical of many, shows the whole team from a medium-sized store.
Pictures like these were normally taken on the store's roof, the only place big enough!
The Store Manager, Clifford Quartermaine and his management team sit
in the middle of the front row, surrounded by staff from the salesfloor, stockroom,
tea bar and cash office. Clifford Quartermaine served the company with great
distinction, and went on to save several Birmingham stores from incendiary bombs
at the height of the bombardent of World War II, just three years after
this picture was taken. We were able to find the picture for his son,
now living in Canada, who has been researching the family history.
Customer service at Woolworths in the 1930s. Although displays were
self-selection, staff were on hand at every counter to give advice,
take the money and, of course, look out for shoplifters. These girls
described where they worked as 'On the Toilet', meaning that they
were normally based on the firm's Toiletries Counter!
A rare indoor team shot, surprisingly well composed, shows the whole
team from the store at 123-125 High Street, Cheltenham, inf ront
of the Gramophone Records Counter. You can see a selection of the famous
78 rpm
discs on the wall to the left of the picture.
A rare picture, perhaps taken be a relative, shows an unknown sales girl outside her store
in the mid 1930s. At the time company rules required 'Uniform - maroon, which will
be washed and starched by the Company at their expense weekly, 'stockings
pressed and not crinkled', 'responsible shoes in a sober hue; and 'hair,
brushed, tidy and tide-back if long'. Jewellery must not be excessive -
'the Fancy Goods Department can oblige with many articles to chose from'.
Finally, here's one of our favourite new store pictures from the F.W. Woolworth
Staff Magazine, The New Bond, Iwhich was a worker's co-operative and sold to the staff for sixpence.
This picture was captioned "A happy store that will be great - we're the girls from 688!"
Newport Pagnell was the 688th Woolworths to open when it joined the chain in 1937.
It survived a World War, the building of Milton Keynes and the opening of a huge
superstore just three miles away, only to fall victim to the credit crunch in 2008/9.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:
This feature, is divided into a number of
separate galleries of pictures.
Thumbnail pictures are displayed in the gallery. If you click on them
you can zoom in to see a very high resolution version of the image in a new browser window.
The images are © Copyright 3D & 6D Pictures, 2010 - All Rights Reserved.
The pictures shown may not be copied or reproduced without consent. Many appear in the book
A Sixpenny Romance, celebrating a century of value at Woolworths
which was published on 5 November 2009.
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