MOVING AN EMPORIUM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 76, 10 January 1928, Page 8

MOVING AN EMPORIUM

SYDNEY COMPANY’S TASK. £500,000 WORTH OF STOCK. For many months residents of Sydney have watched a splendid new department store being built on a valuable block in the heart of the city opposite Hyde Park and the entrance to the city underground railway station. The" site was formerly occupied by the Sydneyi Girls’ High School, and was bought at auction by David Jones, Ltd., the oldest-established emporium in Sydney, for £160,000. The Building that has been placed upon it must nave cost another £300,000 at least. The problem which puzzled Sydney people was: How is the firm going, to transfer its stock from its old .premises to the new store half a mile away without disturbing its business? The an-swer-came at the end of November. Al'ier a sale lasting three or tour weeks, during which as much stock was cleared out as possible, the store closed to the public at 6 o’clock on a Friday evening. Tnen immediately 2500 employees—men, women, boys, and girls—set to work on the huge task of packing up every remaining bit of stock in the premises This work continued throughout the night and up till midday on Saturday. As soon as the city’s traffic had eased off for the usual Saturday afternoon calm, a fleet of forty huge furniture vans began to transfer the stock to the new premises. What made the company’s task worse was the fact that rain fell incessantly during the whole of tiie operations. All the impossible things happened. Whatever the reason—loyalty to the old firm or the appeal that any tbig task makes to the best in almost everyone-—the staff did astonishing things. Lads just ibeginning, hands so old in the employ of tluTfirm that they have almost forgotten when they began, girls who might have been considered mere dencate titbits of humanity—all these and many others shouldered their burdens, and the huge furniture vans were loaded and sent on their journey to the new store. To and fro they came like shuttles in a machine. In the twentyfour hours from 6 o’clock on Friday evening to 6 o’clock on Saturday evening £500,000 worth of stock was moved from the old premises ta the new. Nothing remained in the old. store. , The new building was littered by thousands of bundles and cases. Saturday night and Sunday were spent in unpacking these and placing tlieir contents in position. By 10 o’clock on Monday morning the new store was spick and span, with excited attendants waiting to receive customers. And the customers came in throngs—genuine purchasers some, but mostly the idly curious and the curiously idle. So the* greatest removal in Sydney’s history had been completed.