Back in the mid 1960′s the name of Lipton the Grocer, along with Home & Colonial Stores and Maypole would have been been well known. At that time they were part of a large combine of 1000+ small shops that were operated by a company known as Allied suppliers. In 1964 I had a Saturday job in my local Liptons shop doing menial jobs like stacking shelves and serving on the till. In those days scanning did not exist and we had to press buttons on a huge till to enter every item that was purchased. Fortunately the variety of goods available was quite different to today’s supermarkets and average orders were much smaller.In those days big supermarkets were quite rare and most of the business was done in small stores that were only 500 sq ft to 1000 sq ft. At the age of 16yrs I left school and went automatically to work in the shop on a full time basis. I was issued with a white coat and a huge apron and put onto the provisions counter. Here I learned my skills from an elderly gentleman called Gerry Tolman and he showed me how to display cold meats and cheese, and to how lay out bacon. I also learned the importance of product display and presentation and these skills remain with me today. I remember vividly some of the less pleasant lessons he also provided, his habit of taking snuff (often while on duty) frequently lead to me scraping snuff off the cheddar cheese! Blow flies eggs on the bacon and cold meat and mould on cheese were minor irritions and I was encouraged to simply remove the offending eggs or scrape away the mould from the cheese.
At the age of sixteen I decided that as my future was going to be in the grocery trade (and a better qualification would lead to higher wages) I would sign up for a two year apprenticeship. This would involve me learning everything about running a store from the paperwork, staffing, skinning cheese and boning bacon. Sadly many of these skills no longer exist in the retail trade as everything is delivered in plastic bags but as a result of my training I am still able to bone a joint of bacon today. My proudest possession is a boning knife I used at that time.
My apprenticeship was overseen by another elderly gentleman called Mr (Bud) Bowdon although I suppose that with me being just 16yrs old anyone over 30yrs would have been old. On the 1st December 1965 I signed up for the apprenticeship and spent the following two years learning lots of things that were to lead me in good stead in my future.
At that stage, of course, I had no idea how my life would develop and that today I would be running a multi million pound chocolate company. I am sure, however that the disciplines I learned then have helped me today.
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