business
by Richard Cartwright
Every time I walk through the back streets and see all the little shops, I wonder how they manage to pay the rent — let alone pay themselves a wage. Summer’s here so the scenario gets even worse: people rushing from A to B, with only one thing in mind “I need to get to the beach!” Still, these shops remain open, ready for whatever business may come their way, from £1 to £100... So what’s the trick, and how do they survive?
Back Street Ronnie Israel Boy 24
“You bet. It can get tough round the back here. But you have to keep going and trying your best.” Words of wisdom from someone who’s been working off Main Street for many years — Ronnie Israel is 64 years old and has done nothing else really. Working in and owning shops, has been his trade. “Oh yes, it goes back to when I was 12. I used to help out in a store called Lewis Shops at the airport. We were the only shop there and sold everything from perfume to bread rolls, believe it or not. Loads of servicemen would be coming through, many in transit and we’d sell like mad. Spanish curios, cigarettes and anything you can think of. We ran a canteen too.” Times have changed and Ronnie says you have to bring stuff people want and most importantly at the right price. “Experience has taught me that in a small place like Gib you can sell a decent summer shirt for £6.95 and not £65 like other places. Word soon gets around and, as has happened to me on more than one occasion, I’ve sold the lot in a few days.” Of course, here we have someone who knows exactly what to bring, who to buy for and, through years of experience, knows in what quantities those items will sell. “But that can be a bit tricky sometimes. Most distributors will sell you, say, 40 shirts which will come in a variety of sizes but not in the proportions you would like. You won’t necessarily get more of the popular sizes, which is what you prefer in your delivery, so you have to be very careful how and what you buy. Also, an advantage for me is that I cut out the middle man and go straight to the manufactures myself.” Ronnie is a cool dude! His experience continued to grow when he left school. He found a job in Remingtons in Main Street (a kind of, yesteryear’s Red House). “We’d sell Phillishave and Hoover products, record players and all sorts, like there was no tomorrow, much of it to Morocco and Spain. Yes, and in those days I was quite good at window dressing too and a Bata Shoes manager offered me a job in their store up the road from us on Main Street and off I went.” Ronnie also worked in other well known established shops of a few decades ago like
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2009