John Menzies in the Murraygate

I had a photograph of the Record Department in the old Woolworth Store sent to me by my son, and it has brought back a load of wonderful memories for me. I was General Manager of both the old 1-9 Murraygate store and the other one - Woolies store from 1975 - 1988 , after which I became an area manager - a move I regret to this day ( except that it helped the pension ). I was very lucky with my staff, the majority of whom stayed with the Company during the whole of my remit there. Whilst assistant managers came and went ( mostly for promotion ) the department managers were with me pretty well all the time - and a great team they were - they worked hard and played hard. My staff manager , too, was with me for fourteen years, and still keeps in contact with my wife and I, even though we are now long time retired.

The 1-9 Murraygate store was by far the best, I fought hard to prevent the move to the Woolworth store as I knew it could never match 1-9, where we had major departments throughout the three trading floors , plus Parrs Hairdressers on the fourth floor. The thinking at the time was that 1-9 needed a new roof, as we had frequent floods, and, besides, W.H.Smith were hunting for a site in Dundee and the Company were frightened they would get the Woolworth site. It was far more expensive in rental terms , although less costly in staffing, but the atmosphere there was nothing like the old store . Just last month I was having lunch with the retired director who made the decision to move and he (at last ) admitted it had not been a successful move.

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