Saturday Jobs

My Saturday job, in the 50's, was working in an old fashioned ladies clothes shop, Shirleys! It was in Hounslow High Street, but I can't for the life of me remember how much I was paid, but I do remember all the pink directoire knickers, with elasticated legs 🫣

I worked in a coffee bar then Saturday girl in M and S
My children all had Saturday jobs eldest filling shelves in Tesco son in a motorbike shop and youngest cleaning caravans Grandchildren all had Sat jobs including Costa, MacDs, cafes, paper rounds, hairdressers, burger van.
they tell me MacD was by far the best employers (for money, breaks and conditions)

I worked in the village shop from 14 until 16 and loved it. Cutting cheese with a wire, slicing bacon on the machine and weighing out sweets into little paper bags were my favourite jobs. Half a crown a hour and the occasional squashed cake to take home!

My Saturday job was in Boots the chemist. The condoms were kept in the back in the pharmacy area and I was always embarrassed when asked for some!
I think I got about 19/6d but we also had a staff discount.

I did a newspaper round on 7 mornings a week. I balanced a huge bag of papers and magazines on my bicycle handlebars.
To this day I haven't been able to lie in bed beyond 5am! Old habits die hard!

I had jobs in Fine Fare, Laws supermarkets then in a cafe in Strathaven that catered for bus tours and finally in Jenners toy department before I started my nurse training. Most of my friends had Saturday/weekend jobs too. I also used to help my friend deliver papers as her paper round included tenements. My brother worked in a garage at weekends.

I had a Saurday job from about 14, serving and stacking shelves in a small grocery shop up the road from my house. Sometimes I was allowed to cut the cheeses which were under a glass dome with the wire cutter and wrap it in a piece in greaseproof paper also weigh and package bacon. Best of all ringing the shopping up on the till. I had to be able to do some mental arithmetic working out the correct change. The manageress was there looking over my shoulder to make sure I was doing it correctly

I lived in a Surrey town that had a number of, what were previously known as mental homes, or asylums, now all closed. Quite a few of the patients who weren't dangerous, some suffering from wartime shell shock I was told, came out and about at the weekends. One such man came in to the shop every Saturday afternoon to buy a fruit cake, he had a lot of nervous tics. One of his rituals was to ask the manageress to go through the ingredients with him, she could have given a masterclass in the art of patience, she was very kind always giving him the time to give chapter and verse on that, he could tie her up for ages, in his desire to deconstruct the cake and its entire ingredients.

I saved up my earnings for a coveted pair of boots and Mary Quant make up.

I had a job in Fine Fare as a cashier plus called on to do other stuff like weighing fruit and veg or working on Deli Counter on Thursday evenings and all day on Saturdays.

Quite a few of the patients who weren't dangerous, some suffering from wartime shell shock I was told, came out and about at the weekends.

That reminds me of Bill Bryson's description of Virginia Water 😁

I babysat for our neighbour who played the violin in a big orchestra. I had to go early and feed and bath the children and then wait till they came home. Her husband went with her on Saturday nights because they always had a get together on after the performances.

Wow Marydoll - me too - the
Hosiery counter in the Co-op. It was a steep learning curve and I went onto toys nearer Christmas - children came in with their pocket money and bought a couple of Brittain’s farm animals.
I had a daytime summer holiday job at a local professional photographer’s studio too.
DD1 worked at House of Fraser, weekends and Bank Holidays when she was at school and DD2 was taken on by M&S while at Uni and kept on too.

Had a fabulous Baby sitting round, while doing my Homework. It was easy money very rarely did the little ones wake up.
But on Friday Nights after school until 8, and Saturday's 9.30 - 5 pm I had a Shop job in Waitrose, working on tills or stacking shelves.
I really did quit well.

From the age of 13 I worked Saturdays in my grandfather's butcher's shop and also during the Christmas school holidays to cope with the pre-Christmas rush.
As well as serving customers, taking payment and giving change, I kept the shelves stacked with 'accompaniments': mint sauce, stock cubes, horseradish, etc, etc; took down orders over the phone; did occasional home deliveries on a big old bicycle with a basket on the front and the shop name on a plate attached to the frame; learned to make sausages and just generally acted as gofer. I had to help scrub out at the end of the day with lots of boiling water and carbolic soap - I can smell the soap now, just thinking about it!
The shop was always perishing cold except for about a month in the height of summer and I must have looked like Nanook of the North with all my layers of clothing under my overall, plus 2 pairs of socks, tights and fur-lined boots.
I loved that job, despite the cold and the carbolic - chatting to customers when it was quiet, the cameraderie with the Saturday boys and working for grandad - a firm but fair boss who expected a day's work for a day's pay and certainly didn't cut me any slack just because I was a relative.
The job ended when my grandad retired a couple of months before I left school and the butcher who bought the business had his own family on hand to assist him.
Oddly enough, I was only talking to someone recently about that job and about how much I'd learned without being aware of it until years later about how to buy and cook meat; what cuts are best used for which dishes and so on.
I still enjoy a visit to a good old-fashioned butcher's shop.

I don't think Saturday jobs are gone.
My hairdresser has a young person on Saturdays and my grandson has one at a gymnastics club.

I grew up in Blackpool and had a Saturday job in Woolies- not the flagship one, right on the prom, but a smaller one nestled amongst the b+b’s just off the seafront.
I always wanted to work on the record counter, but was usually on electricals- the number of men who used to come in and buy a single electric plug (39p) which of course back then (late 70’s) didn’t come attached to appliances, always surprised me. How many plugs did people need? Many it would seem!
Always worked over the Bank Holidays as the money was much improved- think it was double time on the Monday!

I had a variety of jobs. B At 14 I started collecting the money for the papers that were delivered. A hard task as some were reluctant to pay up. I also did the accounts for a small business, adding everything up in my head!
When I was 15 I worked in C&A in Oxford Street London. I got 15 shillings for half a day as the West End was closed on Sat afternoons.
WHEN I was doing A levels I went to Bourne and Hollingsworth down the road on the leather glove counter because I had nice hands, ( you should see them now, all knobbly with arthritis). I also did holidays and late night shopping on Thursdays. I lived at the end of the Northern Line so had a longish journey too and fro.

I worked in Woolworths on the section serving cigarettes, shampoos and the embarrassing STs. Sanitary towels. Women were terribly embarrassed to buy them, even from a young woman. The worst memory is of the uniform, never washed and smelling of BO. The happiest memory is of being trusted to go upstairs to the stock room and bring down more shampoos etc. Could be wrong but think I was paid the grand sum of 75 pence for the day.
I also worked for the Scotch Wool Shop and had to re fold the knitwear explored by prospective buyers.

I was late looking for part time work, by which time all the "saturday" jobs in local shops had gone. I had concentrated on my school work, So I began in a local chip shop age 14. It was 1958. I was quite shy at that age but working with customers taught me confidence.

At first I did 3 evenings a week and then expanded to saturday evening as well. It was only 5 minutes walk from my parents house and we got a fish and chip (or whatever I wanted to take) supper every evening. The biggest perk was that I was paid in cash (no deductions) and almost twice what my friends earned in Debenhams or Woolworths. It taught me the basics of handling cash and serving customers. I also learned how to "upsell" which has served me well ever since.

Later when I left school and moved into full time work I kept my little side hustle for several years on and off. The cash in hand money came in very useful when I was a student qualifying for a profession role.

I had a Saturday job in a small department store.
I was given £1 2s 6d in a brown envelope at the end of the day.
When I went away to university I worked there every summer.

Many different Saturday and school holiday jobs - washing hair and sweeping up in the hairdressers, waitressing, ice cream seller, hot dogs and burgers on the seafront, babysitting.

Sazone shoe shop, where we were encouraged to sell special tubes of shoe protecting substances!

Then I was a postie during Uni breaks. Quite enjoyed that, although the bag was heavy.

Babysitting at 12, fruit and veg shop at 13 , moved to a cafe, didn’t like it there so back to the vegetable shop and lastly when a wimpy bar opened, selling burgers and milk shakes, all very new to us, I got a job and saved enough to eventually buy my own second hand dansette record player. Can’t remember the pay but think it was 10/-, aka 50p per day.

Left school a week after my 15 th birthday and began full time work in London. Left home at 17 and moved to London. Carried on working. Retired at 60.

I had a Saturday job in Boots the Chemist (not pharmacy in those days).
Loved every minute of it.

LOUISA1523

Mine was as a Saturday girl at Chelsea girl....started at 16 ....in my last year at high school

Louisa1523, our waitress uniforms were dresses from Chelsea Girl …we looked on trend 😀 other friends in cafe jobs had to wear overalls …

Never did, but I used to babysit for a well off couple who went out a lot. The bloke used to drive me home in his E-Type!

Dds both had Saturday jobs, but dd1 who spent all day life guarding at the local pool, was very put out that dd2, who did just mornings at a very upmarket estate agent, earned exactly the same!