Chairman’s Chit Chat June 2026
I imagine we all remember our first job.
My working life began with a career in retail. Somehow I managed to scrape together enough ‘O’ level passes to be accepted on the Lewis’s/Selfridges Group of department stores Management Training Scheme. Many of you, I am sure, will recall the Lewis’s store in Leeds but I worked in the Birmingham branch.
There was a very successful sitcom called “Are You Being Served,” set in the fictional department store, Grace Brothers, which was aired from the late 1960s through to the mid-1980s. The writers, David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, must have had first-hand knowledge of working in a department store because it was unerringly true to my experience.
There was a rigid hierarchy among the workers with department managers being god-like figures.
This hierarchy is well illustrated by the dining arrangements. The canteen was situated on the sixth floor and everyone had the same choice of food on offer.
However, department managers dined in a separate room with comfortable chairs and wooden tables adorned with white cloths. They also enjoyed waitress service.
Assistant department managers dined in a separate corner of the canteen screened off by a few slats.
They too were entitled to tablecloths, but on standard issue tables, the chairs were moulded plastic and they had to queue up for their food along with staff.
Staff had to endure bare standard issue tables and moulded plastic chairs.
Dress code for gentlemen was strict. A dark lounge suit, white shirt and a modest tie was the order of the day. Male facial hair was frowned upon but a moustache was tolerated. I recall the General Manager, Mr. Hanson, sporting a small, clipped specimen. However, beards were definitely verboten.
Being on the Management Training Scheme meant that I went to Matthew Boulton Technical College on a day release basis to study for a Diploma in Retail Management.
It was a three-year modular course and subjects studied included the likes of Accounting, Textiles and Law. Law was probably my favourite subject. I fondly remember the legislative delights of The Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act and the Sale of Goods Act. The famous contract case of 1892 – Calill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Company – is forever imprinted on my memory!
P.S. I got the diploma.
