I was a Saturday girl in Woolies

As a former Woolies Saturday girl I am really sad to see that it looks like it's curtains for them. Woolies is a great shop, you can get anything you want there. All the really obscure stuff like fabric dye, zips, spare buttons as well as the legendary pick'n'mix along with children's clothes, household goods, and more importantly for me when I was a bit younger, the "record counter".

As a 16 year old I worked every Saturday in Woolies in Greenock. The really cool people got to work on the record counter. I was not one of them! I worked on the jewellery counter but unfortunately, I was so distracted listening to the record counter that they demoted me to the sweetie counter. There my job was really just to be nice to old ladies who weren't really bothered about the sweeties, they just liked their routines, their wee chats and a friendly smile. Being nice to old ladies, chatty and smiley - I was good at that.

Getting the right guarantees for the watch or clock I'd just sold on the "jewellery" counter - wasn't quite so hot at that one. Apparently there was a regular stream of complainers each Monday morning (when I was safely back at school) with complaints ranging from "that wee lassie gave me a timex guarantee for a sekondo watch" to "instructions for cleaning silver chains are nae use to me when I want to wind up my cuckoo clock".

It was a trifle embarrassing to be demoted in a Saturday job and I knew then that I'd never reach the heady heights of the record counter but the worst thing was the full time workers who LOVED to utter the words: "all them 'O' Grades and nae common sense"! Oh how I loved hearing it!

Still, it was a great first job and I felt very grown up wearing my uniform and clocking in (just) on time each Saturday morning. I'm not sure their memories of me (if they've not blanked them out yet) are quite so sweet but I liked my time at Woolies anyway.