as told by Ishbel Kerr

I worked in Coopers for 15 years till I was made redundant in 1972 when the shop closed. The building was called Tigh an Uillt then & it still is. Oswald Hamilton, St Quivox owned the building & he sold it to Coopers.

Alex McIntosh was the manager at that time & his wife Betty helped in the back shop with orders. They had 2 children Alex & Janis who will be remembered by people who went to school with them. In the office were Kathleen Allison, Betty Rae, Kathy Scott & the manager. As office staff married & moved away , girls from the shop floor moved to the office. When May Miller married & left the office I moved to the office from the shop floor.

On the shop floor there was myself, Betty Lennox & the chargehand Stewart Speed. Murdina Currie, May Millar, Grahamfield, Eleanor Douglas, Helen McQueen, & Allister Tilbury also worked in the shop. In the summer students joined the staff: Jim Arnold, Mike McLean, Jim Roberts, Kathleen Cameron. Alastair Thomson, Largiemhor worked as a storeman. There were also delivery vans, the drivers were Andy Currie , Davy Scott, Donald Black, Oakbank, Mac McMillan Sandbraes. Andy Currie & Davy Scott sold groceries from their vans, the other drivers did deliveries only.

A day on the shop floor was 8.30am-1pm with a 10 minute tea break, lunch 1-2pm , then 2-5.30pm with a 10 minute break. When it was quiet in the shop the front shop staff would make up pats of butter which came in a barrel. The men took the wood off the barrel & the butter was weighed into ½ lb & 1 lb blocks & put in the fridge. The cheese came in large blocks from the mainland, wrapped in a net binding which was cut off. The cheese was cut with cheese wires, not knives , into ½ lb & 1 lb blocks & put in the fridge for the customers.

There was a meat slicer for the bacon & cold meat but only the chargehand was allowed to use it. Some people preferred the Ayrshire bacon as the Wiltshire bacon had a rind on it. The coffee came as beans which were ground to powder & weighed then put into small bags. Loose tea came in boxes lined with tinfoil & it had to be weighed out also. Some tea came in small packets. Biscuits came in as full tins and half tins. There was a wooden frame with glass lids that the biscuit boxes fitted into, customers took what biscuits they wanted & staff weighed them out.

Bread came from Wooleys in Brodick, it was unwrapped, unsliced & arrived in long wooden trays. Rolls also came in trays & were put in paper bags. Flour came in large bags which the store man put in metal bins, then it was weighed out as required. Oatmeal was also kept in a metal bin. Salt herring came in a large wooden barrel & was very popular in the winter. The brine used to nip your fingers. When it was quiet any staff member weighed out products except the bacon as only the storeman used the slicer. A vegetable lorry delivered fruit & vegetables although some potatoes possibly were local. Sugar came in 28lbs bags from Greenock, again it had to be weighed out. No milk was sold in the shop as there were 2 milkmen in the village delivering milk, Allistair Black & Willie Kelso. Some customers handed in orders. In summer the youngest member of office staff phoned the boarding houses for orders. Other times a free staff member went out to older peoples homes & collected their orders. In summertime 4 students worked in the back shop making up orders. Whenever staff members were free they stacked shelves, if the shelves couldn’t be fully stocked staff were told to pull products forward to make the shelves look full. Every night every corner of the shop floor had to be swept. I enjoyed the 4.30pm task of going to the shop floor & going round clearing the tills.

We had some fun times working there, some of which I won’t mention. I recall there were 2 seats , one on either side of the shop for people to rest. They were often occupied by Neil McKechnie & Peter Currie, Ingleside who like to chat about past times. On one occasion they both stated they could dance the polka & proceeded to give a demonstration dance round the shop. Sometimes the shop was closed and blinds pulled down a minute or two early & a regular customer who lived close to the shop used to stand outside tapping on his watch & pointing to the clock in the shop. At the end of the summer when the students were finishing up to go back to their studies the staff had a night out, a few of the venues were Trareoch, Pirates Cove & Carraighmhor. The socials were enjoyed by all. I’m sure anyone else who worked there will have some fun tales to tell.

About this story from Whiting Bay Memories.

The late Graham Currie joined our group when he moved back to Arran, he spent hours with us helping and identifying dozens of school photos in preparation for our big exhibition. Unfortunately Graham was taken ill and subsequently spent a year in hospital. Then one Monday he came back, and we were delighted to see him again, he and his fun chat and memories had been missed. He had an idea, he had been thinking about it for sometime. “I know what we should do, we should do story of working in Coopers, it was a special place and we can talk to Ishbel” But sadly Graham never got a chance to capture the story. So Christine Black spent time with Ishbel and has sent us this delightful snapshot of a special time. We are so pleased to have been able to carry out Graham’s wishes.

The memories group would like to thank Christine and Ishbel for these wonderful memories.