The Richard Spooner Column: Unlikely heroes at the corner shop�
Hundreds of years ago I embarked on my first job. I was still at school and successfully applied to become a part-time “errand boy ” at our local grocery shop.
It was one of a national chain called Perks, now seemingly wiped from history. I can find little about them, even through the fantastic technology currently known to man. If you know their demise, please get in touch.
For my toils, I received the equivalent of 50p a week (topped up by tips at least three times that from my delivery round). I seem to remember that the hours were one-and-a-half each weekday and two-and-a-half on Saturday morning.
It was a very different experience to today 's supermarkets. My duties included using a hand-powered slicer to cut joints of ham or corned beef into quarters of a pound in weight and separate each with a piece of grease-proof paper ready for despatch to the glass-covered front counter for sale.
One of my most important duties, mainly on a Friday night, was to put together and deliver grocery orders to several nearby addresses. My mode of transport was a bicycle with a metal frame on the front which should have held a wicker basket. Sadly, it was missing but it still resembled Granville 's form of transport in BBC TV 's Open All Hours, starring Ronnie Barker and David Jason.
Little did we know in those bygones days that shop-keepers would become heroes as we recovered from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year everyday British store workers who put their customers, communities and colleagues ahead of themselves throughout the pandemic have been celebrated at the 26th annual Retail Week Awards, sponsored by Salesforce, and supported by the Retail Trust.
They were rightly honoured this week at a glittering ceremony at Battersea Evolution in London. It recognised the incredible heroism and selflessness shown by the four million-plus people working in stores, head offices, distribution, and delivery across the UK retail sector.
It 's a testament to the fact that Britain has largely been kept fed during the past two years. Shopworkers are among many trades and professions that the pandemic has taught us to offer more respect for what they do.
The logistics industry has performed magnificently, along with thousands of others who have toiled to keep the streets clean, transport services running and post delivered and much more.
At the awards, M&S 's Becki Gorman won in the Frontline Hero Store Manager category. The judges called her “an amazing role model and inspiration ”, praising the way she overcame a brain tumour to return to work and deliver exceptional commercial results while also volunteering for the NHS and fulfilling her role as mother and grandmother.
I 'm sure there were many more like Becki and never again should we take their roles for granted�
JL