"Are You Being Served?"

One of the most popular television series of all time and watched by millions (and still watched every time it’s re-run), the show was popular worldwide. For those of us who remember, such actors as John Inman, Mollie Sugden and Wendy Richard made it very popular and such fun to watch. Recently, it has had another rerun of most of its episodes. Having worked in retail for over 30 years, I love to watch it — “Are You Being Served?”

The show is set in London, a department store called Grace Brothers, and it follows the ‘adventures’ of the staff of the ladies’ and gentlemen’s clothing department. It has a total of 69 episodes and was first on television from 1972 to 1985. This series was popular in U.K., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the Republic of Ireland. Surprisingly, it was also popular in the USA and Israel. It was ranked 20th in a television countdown of Britain’s Best Sitcom in 2004.

“Are You Being Served?” features humour based on sexual innuendo, misunderstanding, mistaken identity, farce and even the occasional slapstick. There are outrageous costumes that the characters have to wear for store promotions (sound familiar to anyone working in retail?), and ‘gaudy’ store displays (they do catch the eye!).

Some of the characters may remind us of people we have worked with. For example: the character John Inman played was Mr. Wilberforce Claybourne Humphries, who was a sales assistant in ‘gents’. He played a camp-acting man who lived with his mother, and there are lots of double ‘entendre’ about his ‘implied’ gay lifestyle.

Mollie Sugden played Mrs. Betty Slocombe, a senior sales assistant and head of the ladies’ department. She was known for changing her hair colour (in every episode) and always talking about “my pussy”, her cat called Tiddles.

“Young” Mr. Grace was played by Harold Bennett, who was the very old, very rich and very stingy owner of the store. He was always surrounded by young, attractive women. Just three of the many characters which became so popular.

Funny though this series is, how real to life was (or rather is) it? Every job has its challenges and it’s good points and it’s bad ones. What is retail work really like?

I have always enjoyed working in shops. It’s the ‘working with people’ thing that I really enjoy and helping them to find what they are looking for. In my last job, I was lucky enough to get a tremendous amount of training, especially in customer service, and I stayed with the same company for 20 years. I only left because of my health, otherwise I’d be well on the way to 25 years.

Having served behind the counter for so many years, I go out of my way when dealing with sales assistants in any shops I go into. The busyness of the day just makes the hours fly by. Deliveries were always a challenge. We’d get deliveries twice a week from the warehouse, and (in the small shops I worked in) we had to open the delivery crates and put out the stock on the shop floor, with only a ‘cupboard’ for a stockroom. Doing this whilst the shop was open, with customers walking in and around, was a real exercise in Health and Safety.

Being so long in one company meant learning three different till systems, the latest one being the easiest to use — until there’s trouble with the electrics. It is fascinating what you have to learn to do to ‘keep the shop going’. A fun time was when the company got involved in a certain charity, and we all dressed in onesies to get more money for the charity. We all enjoyed doing that once a year because it was something different.

When I first started in ‘the company’, I did a three month training course about the history of the company, the stock that was sold and “how” to actually serve customers and talk on the phone to them. Over the years, I went on other courses to learn about new technology, stock and better customer service, until I became a manager and went on the regular managers meetings.

So much is involved in working in retail and for the shy person, it is an achievement to overcome those nerves and approach complete strangers. We are often so busy that we forget or don’t think about the person behind the counter or stocking the shelves. They are just as human as you or me and (probably) very nervous, especially if they are brand new to shop work. So the next time you are asked: “Can I help you?”, remember to smile and be pleasant.

After all, it is really just two humans talking to each other!

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