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<\/p>\nThese days, walking around the David Jones store in Perth’s city centre is a sad experience for former visual merchandiser Stephen Hunter.<\/p>\n
His fondest memories of “the Terrace store” are full of extravagance; theatrical displays involving Rolls Royce cars and elaborate sets.<\/p>\n
“I was recently at the city store, which is very close to my heart,” he told ABC News Breakfast.<\/p>\n
“There just isn’t [enough] people to maintain the standards that David Jones once had.”<\/p>\n
For Gwen Sutton, working at David Jones’s Sydney CBD store was “heaven on a stick” in the years following World War II.<\/p>\n
Like Mr Hunter, recollections of working at the store also involve a Rolls Royce, which she said was owned by former chair Sir Charles Lloyd Jones.<\/p>\n
“He’d be driven into the Elizabeth Street store’s dock in his Rolls Royce,” Ms Sutton said.<\/p>\n
“He’d come in through the ground floor, go up the escalators to the offices with his beautiful Homburg hat on, and it’s all just gorgeous, everything.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gwen Sutton landed a job at David Jones when she was 16. (ABC News: Francis Yeung)<\/p>\n
Retail careers with high standards<\/p>\n
Mr Hunter and Ms Sutton recalled careers that started with strict and rigorous training.<\/p>\n
“I was not allowed to speak to a customer unless the seniors were busy,” Ms Sutton said.<\/p>\n
“There was discipline, especially from my supervisor. There was no nonsense around Mr Roberts.”<\/p>\n
In WA, Mr Hunter remembered, “The training was amazing.<\/p>\n
“I know I was one of two juniors with a senior and I didn’t dress a window for six months,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I was just under training, which in this day and age is probably quite unheard of.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Former staff remember rigorous training and personalised service at David Jones during the 1970s and 80s. (ABC News: Fletcher Yeung)<\/p>\n
Extravagance and luxury<\/p>\n
When he last visited the Perth city David Jones store, Mr Hunter saw screens playing ads in two of the store’s four windows facing Murray Street.<\/p>\n
It is a far cry from his “amazing time” at the store.<\/p>\n
“It was a lot of theatre,” he said. “Until 1978, we had 22 windows at the terrace store with fabulous promotions.<\/p>\n