THE TRARALGON & DISTRICT HISTORICAL SOCIETY INC |
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MONTHLY MEETING REPORT - APRIL 2004 |
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Jeffery's Store
- 1926 to 1989 - 60 years of business in Traralgon
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In the early l900s, J H Waite had the first drapery store on the corner of Franklin and Seymour streets. Then in 1926, Mack Christensen divided the large store into two stores - one becoming Moran & Cato grocery, and the other Jeffery's drapery store. Jack Keating and Norman Frederick Jeffery set up business on 18th October 1926 in a booming railway town. Victor MacLeod was employed. Business was excellent in the years of the building of the Glenmaggie Weir but the depression years affected business. In the first nine months of business the profit was £10 with sales at £6,500. A couple of years later, in 1928, profit was £139 with sales at £9,503; and in 1929, a profit of £131 was made. However 1930 saw a loss of £580 and in 1931 a loss of £943 with sales at only £4,412, this being the record lowest year. There were two employees, Anne Gibbs end Roy Chester. When the State Electricity Commission (SEC) township of Yallourn was established, Jeffery's employed a boy to ride his cycle from Traralgon to Yallourn to deliver hand bills to every house to advertise their special sales. Traralgon traders paid part of the cost to have buses bring people from Yallourn to shop. Customers presented their ticket at a store and half the fare was returned. The buses were usually crowded as Yallourn did not have a large shopping centre until years later. In 1932 Gordon Jeffery came into the business and that year things boomed once more, and a profit of £100 was made. Staff increased - Florence Hart, Mary Stoddart, Val Bertrand, Ethel Hine (nee Christensen), Les Davidson, Harold Graham, Mel Turnbull and Trixi Carr all assisted in making a larger profit year by year.
In 1937 the Australian Paper Mill (APM) built a large factory in the area and two years later sales for the year were £16,940 with a profit of £1,026. By 1958 the sales were £185,714 and the profit £13,345, and by 1989 the sales were $2.75 million. Also in 1937, a huge "Opening Sale" was advertised and unbleached sheets were 1/11 each, men's athletic singlets 1/-, bordered supper cloth 6d, towels 1/6, striped silk frock 5/-, silk slip 3/11, men's socks 1/-, and fast colour print material 9d per yard. Supplies were becoming hard to get because of World War Two. The shop only opened two hours per day and only £20 was allowed to be spent. Rationing was introduced in 1942. Staff would drive to Melbourne with a trailer attached to the car and purchase stock from the warehouse, but it was cash only sales. Towels and sheeting were in very short supply. Gordon Jeffery joined the RAAF and most of the male employees joined one of the services. Percy Pyke managed the store during the war years to 1945. Traralgon was expanding rapidly. In 1945 a large block of land with two old houses (which had been transported from Walhalla after the gold rush finished) on it was purchased for £12,000 in Seymour Street. The Franklin Street shop was very cramped. Gordon decided to leave the ladies' wear and manchester at this shop, but house the men's wear at a shop on the corner of Hotham and Franklin Street which he rented from Jim Rogers. The Government Housing Commission and the APM built estates of houses in Traralgon. Gordon rented a shop at the lane-way in Seymour Street to manufacture blinds, as they had gained a contract to supply blinds to fit all the houses. The business people of the town wondered why Gordon was building his new department store out of the main commercial area. They predicted the store would not be a success as there were a few shops but mainly houses in Seymour Street. In 1955 the new large department store was completed, with ladies' wear, materials and manchester comfortably displayed and the men's wear was once again in the Franklin Street store.
Toys were kept at the Christmas period but that was not a success. Fashion parades were popular, and professional and local women modelled the fashions of the day. These were held in These were held in local halls but later were confined only to the store. Four huge "Sales" were held each year, and the farmers' wives who came to town on a Wednesday for the cattle sales complained that the sales were held on a Thursday. Thursday was 'money day' - the average worker was paid Wednesday. In the peak years, thirty-eight staff were employed and the record year for sales of balls of wool was $50,000 in one month. $50,000 a year was spent on advertising. In 1988 the Franklin Street store was leased to Panthers Men's Wear (Jeffery's still held the freehold) and in 1989 the Seymour Street drapery store had a monster sale to sell all stock and the store was closed. Jeffery's leased the building to Findlay and Weymouth, retaining the freehold until its sale in 2003. Richard said he enjoyed meeting people - suppliers, the public and his staff, making his thirty years a very enjoyable time in his life. |
In
1935, F C Jeffery (cousin to Norman) purchased the freehold from Mack Christensen,
and his son Gordon commenced buying shares from Norman. He made the last
purchase in 1954 and named the store G Jeffery Pty Ltd. Mr F C Jeffery
died in 1959 leaving the store to his son, Gordon, who renovated the weatherboard
building. When the store needed re-stumping about fifteen years ago, an
old well was found under the floorboards.
Richard
Jeffery had been working at the National Bank for six years, and Rockman's
Warehouse for a short time, prior to his father asking him to join the business
in 1957. Gordon retired in 1959, the year his mother died. Richard managed
the business from 1959 to 1989 and in those year extended the store back
to the rear lane-way. An area was built upstairs for office and curtain
making facilities. Carpets, heating and airconditioning were installed,
and the overhead pullstring money exchange system to the upstairs office
was replaced with mechanized registers in each department. Modern fixtures
were in place and excellent window displays attracted the public.