January sales not new phenomenon, by Jinny Howlett, Teesdale Mercury

During the 19th century many people in Teesdale organised their personal spending in a fairly straightforward way. They bought only what they needed and often had to go short or to make do and mend. There wasn’t much point in shopkeepers trying to entice customers in to buy a few extra items: for most of them it just 

wouldn’t work. 

Throughout the 20th century a lot of people continued to find it hard to make ends meet and of course many people still do. But from the shopkeeper’s point of view there was a small but significant shift that took place early in the 20th century. For the first time, the number of people who could afford a few little extras began to grow – not a lot admittedly, but enough to make it worthwhile for shopkeepers to try a few ‘promotions’. 

 

A hundred years ago, the most talked about of such promotions were the January sales. The typical Barnard Castle shopkeeper would buy in extra stock towards the end of the year to make sure that he wouldn’t run out of anything his customers might want for Christmas. This would probably mean that he’d be left with a surplus that he’d want to sell off quickly in January, but that was the very time when customers had ‘spent up’. The answer to this double trouble of surplus stock and spent-up customers was the January sale.

Going back to the 19th century for a moment, we should bear in mind that Victorian shopkeepers in a rural setting such as Teesdale hardly needed to advertise. They either established a good reputation for quality or economy or both by word of mouth – or their business didn’t prosper. By contrast, Edwardian shopkeepers around 100 years ago realised that advertising was essential for their January sales. They plastered their shop fronts with posters and notices and they placed advertisements in the local press. The annual New Year issue of the Mercury was emblazoned with a banner headline proclaiming ‘Great Annual Clearance Sale’ or some such announcement. Mercury readers had been accustomed to headlines in rather small type, even for important news items such as coal strikes or railway accidents, and may have been startled to see the sales announced in letters up to an inch high. They were certainly eye-catching by the standards of the times.

Thomas Garbutt, the proprietor of Commerce House in Barney, generally managed to claim the prime site for advertising in the Mercury, near the top of the front page. Commerce House was a department store, best known for its drapery department. It stood near the top of The Bank on the opposite side from the parish church. In addition to general drapery, Mr Garbutt sold linoleum, oilcloths, carpets, lace curtains, ladies’ and gentlemen’s fashions, overcoats, hats, umbrellas, gloves, scarves, blankets, sheets and quilts. In his January sale, which lasted for almost the whole of the month, he offered bargains in all departments. 

Howson and Reay’s Teesdale House also had a prolonged sale – ‘the sale of the season’ – that lasted about three weeks. They even produced a special sale catalogue. Howson and Reay boasted a ‘first-rate dress and costume making department on the premises’. Their shop stood in the Market Place across from the Golden Lion. Robert Ord, who described himself as a ‘draper and milliner’, was based for a time in Galgate before moving to new premises in the Market Place about nine or ten doors along from Howson and Reay. Mr. Ord’s advertisement generally occupied pride of place on the back page. His sale lasted right through January. He advertised the final week of January as the last week of his sale with ‘special offers for the closing days’. So anxious to clear his stock was Robert Ord that he offered ‘remnants and oddments of every description at a great sacrifice’.

 

By today’s standards, the language of advertising a hundred years ago was rather genteel and restrained. Gowland’s in the Horse Market at Middleton-in-Teesdale was an exception. They foreshadowed the modern trend for slick slogans when they announced that they were clearing their whole stock of ladies’ and girls’ tweed coats at ‘knock out prices’. 

Of course not every shop had a January sale. The Co-op in Middleton didn’t start its annual clearance sale until February and it wasn’t until February that the Co-op in Barney began to advertise cut-price furniture, including beds and suites of furniture. If the press advertisements are anything to go by, it was mainly drapers who held January sales. There was little advertising from hardware or ironmongers or even gents’ outfitters. The leading drapers – Ord, Garbutt and Howson and Reay – also had a grand summer sale each July usually lasting ten days or so.

So as you go bargain hunting in this year’s extra special January sales you might  reflect – if you have a free moment – that sales have been around for at least a hundred years. Happy hunting!