I started working for Coles on the 28th November 1945. Hay Street, Perth. 683 Hay Street. Store No. 26 and I understand it was actually the 26th store that they opened in the chain. They had some country stores, but none in the city when I started.I was fourteen years and ten months and I went in as a junior casual shop assistant, working on the Christmas card counter and then transferred to fulltime after Christmas because I thought the job was wonderful. I had helped in a small shop after school for quite a period of time so that sort of gave me a liking for it.

 

The card section was like an oblong counter – counters right around with glass fittings, wooden counter and under counter where all spare stock was kept and all divided on the top for the different items on display. We had several people serving. Actually for a time Eunice Marks who married Jack Marks, who was the mayor of Vincent - in the early days I worked with her when she was a casual shop assistant before they married. There were several other permanent fulltime staff then.

 

It was mainly customer service and if necessary counting of stock, ordering, because we ran stock controls in those days, getting requisitions from the store-room and resetting the counter, cleaning the counter, cutting glass to fit in the sections, working in the under counter; anything you like. (laughs) But in the original store, there were probably – oh boy; about three hundred staff perhaps to start with.

 

To get in of a morning the Night watchman or cleaner was on the door and everybody knew everybody, and you had to be recognised by him to let you in. You just knocked on the door, or if the door was open as it got nearer to starting time. We had a clock and we clocked the time that we came in. Down the back of the store was a stairway leading up to the staff room which was on the first floor and at the top of the stairs was a big clock and each person clocked on with their number. The hours would've been 9.00 till 6.00 once you were fulltime and 9.00 till 1.00 on a Saturday. For casuals it varied according to how busy the store was but it was pretty well fulltime hours over the Christmas period and straight after that I went fulltime anyway.

 

We could wear anything at all providing it was neat and tidy. If you were neat and tidy they didn't have any particular uniform other than for the gardening and food counters and confectionery counters. That changed later. They didn't insist but they preferred people to wear black and white but because they didn't supply a uniform, it was really up to the individuals but most people did wear it. But it was our own clothes other than for those special departments and they had to change; they weren't allowed to wear them home. Makeup and hair styles were not to be too outlandish but you know, pretty average. Everyone was pretty average. You only got one in a hundred that might be a bit way out.

 

Coles traded in general merchandise, not white goods, and not furniture of course, but that was early in the piece – this advanced in later years but mainly clothing, women's, men's, children's, confectionery, all general items like stationery, hardware and fancy goods and food items and they had a cafeteria in the basement.

 

Mainly at the end of the day was closing up the registers, counting the money in the till and putting it in a bag and then they went to the back of the store and handed them in to a couple of men standing there and they handed them into the cash office and of course make sure all the lights and anything like that was turned off.

 

When I started – I just can't remember the hourly rate as a casual, but within a month or so I went fulltime and I got 12/10 a week for a forty four hour week which is now equivalent to $1.29; we worked hard for it. (laughs) We were paid weekly.

 

Everyone's bags were checked as they left and any shopping they had they had to have check seals on them which were issued by the company. The check seal then had to be signed by floor staff or a matron in the staff room or whatever and they were crossed off as you went out.

 

Staff thieving goods or cash was fairly common. We weren't as aware of it in the early days but sort of midway in the time. We had one particular chap there who was going for a trip overseas and he collected all his souvenirs after hours to take back with him. He had this habit that he would answer the bells for change and as we rang the bell to come and get us change he'd - or else he'd go into the tills himself and take – well, it would've been 20 pounds out and he would come back with 10 pounds of change for the till and 10 pounds for his pocket. It took them a long long time to catch up with him. 

 

There was.loads of them - somebody else was planting meat down the back of the store room and when he was going home he'd just pick up the big parcel of meat and go. We had what was called a Breckler roof, and it was sort of like a blind roof that had a door leading just out on to another roof and he used to get his son to come in with their ute and he'd drop the stuff out of there down to it. He was just unlucky one night – the police were doing their beat and they happened to see it there and went to see what it was parked for but he'd taken a fortune in goods and when they went to his home there were sheds full of stuff that he'd stolen. Even the big jars of Vegemite, like he'd never use in years. Dozens and dozens pairs of thongs and everything he could possibly get out. They knew someone was knocking stuff off and he was trying to swing the blame on to the other men and he'd be reporting them for funny little incidents. 

 

Young boys - one particular boy, he was only about eighteen I think he was. There was a terrible lot of money going out of the register in this particular area he worked and the only way they picked him up was over at the hotel he was being a big fellow and bringing out the big money and buying the drinks and they twigged to it. There was numerous places they were continually picking people up for stealing.

 

Sometimes they'd charge them but they whenever they brought the police in of course they were dismissed straight away. But quite often they were ordered to pay restitution but they made two payments usually and you'd never see any more money and it's not worth the cost of trying to follow it through so virtually they really got away with it. We even had a girl in the cash office, been there five minutes, came in and she stole a lot of money and they caught her and then she came in the day after she was dismissed to see what pay she might have owing to her so you know, they were pretty brazen and we had to pay her, because that was the rules, you know. Stole thousands.

 

Pat Giles interviewed by Helene Charlesworth, 1999

OH199907 | City of Perth Cultural Collections