Are You Being Served
Tuesday 03 August 2010
“Are you being served?” was the British TV sitcom, which ran from 1972 to 1985, set in the fictional department store of Grace Brothers, featuring the ultra camp John Inman as Mr. Humphries, Mollie Sugden as Mrs. Slocombe ‘Head of the Ladies Department’, who was known for her blue bouffant hairdo and her cat which naughtily she always referred to as her pussy, and her cheeky blonde Cockney assistant Miss Brahms, played by the late Wendy Richard. Captain Peacock was the haughty floorwalker whilst Young Mr. Grace was the ancient, very rich, mean and lecherous owner. It parodied life in an old style Department Store and was said to have been inspired by time spent by one of the writers, Jeremy Lloyd, working in the posh Simpson’s of Piccadilly. While it was hilarious and exaggerated, it is hard to believe nowadays that it was an era when everybody working was called by their full title ‘Miss So and So’ or ‘Mr Dingbat’, one wouldn’t have dreamt of being over familiar and addressing each other by their christian name. Unbelievable to think of floorwalkers too, somewhat before my time, who literally did just that all day, making sure that the staff were doing their job, customers were happy, and there was no messing around. All of that, of course, was before the arrival of the modern day department store where the long wooden topped counters are gone, you help yourself, and find a cashpoint to pay.
Arnott’s has been one of our great long term Department Stores which has employed thousands of people since it first opened its doors in Henry Street in the mid 1800’s and it is really traumatic for the people of Dublin, and indeed its countrywide customers too to think that it might have been jeopardised in these times as the company endeavoured to embark on further expansion. The Nesbitt family have been synonymous with Arnott's down through the years and it was regarded in those times as very much a family business, for whom the staff had great respect, and considered a good place to work.
That apart, Arnott’s has played such a major part in many people’s lives, being very much as a middle class store whilst Brown Thomas was that little bit posher. It’s hard to believe in these days of going into M & S and grabbing your 36B bra off the racks that every young girl was taken into Arnott’s foundation department to be measured and fitted out, with due solemnity and anticipation, by a lady in a dark cardigan and white blouse for a good Berlei Bra! You went in still a child and came out feeling ‘all grown up’ – you had a secret under your blouse – a real brassiere like Mummy! So many special events were marked with a visit to Arnotts, including the purchase of an evening dress for my first Dress Dance when I was 16! Mother, father, and I, were ushered into a private room with “Mrs Slocombe and Miss Brahms” in attendance and shown an array of expensive gowns before a magnificent emerald green dupion satin dress with a full skirt, thin straps, and peaked leaves pointing upwards modestly over the bust, was chosen to match my titian tresses. I felt like Scarlet O’Hara as I looked into the Cheval mirror only I didn’t have to tear down the green velvet curtains as she did to make a dress worthy of impressing Rhett Butler or the 18 year old boyfriend. My first make up was bought in Arnott’s Cosmetic Department – it had the biggest turnover of any of the Dublin Stores for years – run with a rod of iron by a glamorous buyer called Nancy O’Grady - whom my parents knew. A few years later another right of passage came about when I opened my first Budget Account with Arnott’s, or Store Card as they are now called. The late Olympia Theatre comedian, Jack Cruise, used refer to them as “Budgie Accounts” in the Pantomime for – “when the time came to pay, the bird had flown!!”
When I got married, of course the bed, the Stag wardrobe, and the sofas were bought on the Budgie Account in Arnott’s and paid off on a card over 24 installments. My two boys, now 23 and 25, were brought into the Children’s Show Department, where you took a number and waited, to be measured properly for good shoes! And at Christmas it was time for a visit to their Lego Exhibition and Santa Claus. They had the best Santa in Dublin in Arnott's, with a real beard, and a really nice man – his photo is on my bedside table with the boys smiling out happily. No other Santy would ever do – it had to be Arnott’s. All of these trips, of course, involved breakfast or lunch in Arnott’s Café – at one stage when I was a child it had a waitress service section. They have so many areas covered from School and Nurses Uniforms to the lovely new Conran Shop and they seemed to grow so well for and with the times. It seems absolutely horrenduous that Arnott’s is now under the control of Banks who have made such a cock up of their own businesses.
There are always great characters too to be seen in Arnott’s from the Bargain Department to the Furniture Department to the queue in the Ladies Loo. The salt of the earth, our new immigrant population, people on the day up from the country, the sniffy ladies looking for bedlinen and towels at a good price. Their Sales are legendary. One of my friends worked in Arnott’s Jewellery Department in Grafton Street before she married and used regale us, Miss Brahms style, of the chit chat and goings on of the staff and the customers. “I’m a personal friend of Mr. Arnott” was a favourite of the snooty Mrs. Bouquet type seeking extra attention not realising they were only making fools of themselves. “Its pure lure” was another Dublinese enthusiastic expression overheard whilst the gold and glitter of necklaces were fingered and dangled. For many Dublin women, Arnott’s is certainly a weekly visit, indeed one older member of my family travelled in from Sandymount every single day of her married life to shop and have coffee in Arnott’s.
Arnott’s is not just a shop – Arnott’s is a way of life.
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON AUGUST 1, 2010.