I worked as a “Saturday boy” in a Millets store in the 1960’s.
Millets/Milletts
In the UK after the first and second world wars there were many retailers trading under the name Milletts or Millets. There are tales that the original Millett family had many daughters and they gave each a dowry of one or more stores that were then run by their sons-in-law under separate company names with qualifiers in brackets after the name such as (1928) Ltd or (Bristol) Ltd etc. They all sold government surplus clothing and equipment including camping and outdoor leisure goods.
A pneumatic tube system was used for receipt of cash/return of change and receipt:
The pneumatic tube was introduced into department stores in the 1880 by John Wanamaker, the Philadelphia retail magnate (Golden book of the Wanamaker stores, 1911, p.68). He had previously installed such a system in the US Post Office while he was postmaster general. The Manufacturer and Builder (Jan. 1881) states that there were two tubes to each counter - one for each direction. Each carrier was of the exact diameter of a silver dollar and could hold 30 such coins (so the tubes must have been quite narrow compared with later systems). “By means of steam engine and exhaust pump in the cellar, with proper attachments leading therefrom, the air is being constantly exhausted at the cashier’s end of the tube and the counter end of the tube of each pair.” The system ws also claimed to improve the ventilation of the building.
The shop interior looked a lot like this - old, dark and dingy …
I remember the cash tube system in shops, but also years ago I worked in a company that sent tubes to another floor and when my floor ran out one of us would call on the intercom ‘tubes please’. Found that fascinating but also wondered if that was preferable to going up and down stairs to pass documents on?!
I’m sure our Tesco’s still used those up until a few years ago (SE). I thought it was an excellent way of moving money out of the till and therefore reducing any chance of theft.
Of course, accidents did happen occasionally. I remember one day, as the tube was moving up the pipe, the screws came loose and the pod went flying across the store, hitting an elderly man in the cobblers. He was ok though, just having a new heel put on his shoe.
I think many stores in large towns used to have cash ‘shoots’, it saved having to have tills all over the place and staff handling cash.
I used to find them fascinating when I was a child
I remember that in a men’s clothes shop in my home town in the 50s and 60s. Because the shop was on a corner and had a reflective window it was also a favourite place for people to do the Harry Worth splits (if you remember that from the intro to his show). I had a couple of accidental slaps from kids trying it without checking if there was somebody behind them…
I used to have to do that when I first came down to live in London. When we had a lot of notes in the till we’d count most of them out, put them and a note with the value in the tube and post it.
Our Tesco still has one, noticed it today while waiting to buy my tobacco. The cashier was putting cash into tubes & putting them into a tube I’d never noticed before on the wall, it goes up to the office & then gets put in a safe I guess. I mentioned it to her.It doesn’t come back though, one way only. This was the tobacco & enquiries desk area, the other tills give the money to a supervisor who them must give it to that desk area, I’ve seen them doing that. Fancy me never noticing that before.:surprised::surprised:
