Chelsea vets get the jab
PAUL Broadbent has more than earned his reputation for being ‘Open All Hours’ after one of his busiest years.
The 65-year-old shopkeeper has been working 15-hour days during the Covid19 pandemic to keep his customers supplied with everything from DIY goods to toilet rolls.
Paul, who doesn’t mind being compared with sitcom character Arkwright, spoke to The Examiner following some of his busiest months running FW Lucas in Norristhorpe, Liversedge.
“I’ve never been as busy – it has been absolutely manic,” he admitted.
“There was a lull in January and February when I thought ‘my God I am wasting my time’ and then it all kicked off in March. It just went ballistic. It has just been bed and work.”
It got so busy he had to take on a young man to help him out in the shop – but shortly afterwards his new colleague had to stay away due to living with his grandparents. “I was totally on my own – what a year it has been. I am absolutely knackered.”
His shop, which he has run for 47 years without a single holiday in four decades, began selling more DIY and pet products to cope with demand during lockdown. “I stopped selling tins of
Heinz soup and salad cream and diversified with pet products and DIY stuff. There’s a mini Sainsbury’s up the road, so I let them do the Heinz soup.”
Some days were so busy, Paul hardly had time to grab a bite to eat.
“On Easter Friday there was a queue down the road. There must have been 20 people waiting. For two hours solid, there was a queue outside.”
Having started in the shop straight from school, Paul admits that it might be time to consider retirement.
“This year has been a push and I can only do so much. I have been here 47 years now. I left school on Friday teatime and was then in the shop. I am now coming up to my 48th year.”
On the subject of selling up and putting his feet up, he says: “I really must. I have arthritis in my knee and I keep tripping up.”
During one period when council rubbish tips were shut, Paul sold 90 incinerator bins for £19 apiece.
“There was panic buying when things kicked off in March. People were panic buying toilet roll, pasta, DIY items, soap, tinned goods, beer, lager, and chocolate. I think people were just sat at home.”
It got so busy during the second quarter of the year that takings doubled. “The top sellers were beer, lager and chocolate. People were comfort eating and drinking,” he says.
Coping with the demand placed extra pressure on Paul and meant he had to drive to various cash-and-carry places to pick up fresh stock. He managed to keep going but said he was ‘hanging by a thread’ at times due to surging demand and the difficultly of finding stock.
Paul, who is single and has never married, says: “The reason I have kept going is because I have no family. I only have myself to please, so I am not letting anybody down. I open at 9am and I am stuck here until 9 at night. I have been doing 14 and 15-hour days and I have been on my feet all day.”
When Paul does get a moment to himself, he has been jotting down his memories of shop life and the lives of his parents and grandparents who ran FW Lucas before him. Entitled ‘Born to be Arkwright,’ it’s a work in progress, with various chapters devoted to aspects of his working life. One chapter is headed ‘Worst things I have eaten’ which includes memories of eating out-of-date food that his father hadn’t been able to sell. He is now hoping a local family might want to take on his shop in 2021.
“I want to thank everybody for their custom. It has been a good year in some respects but it will never be the same again.”
AROUND 300 Chelsea Pensioners have been offered the coronavirus vaccine, calling it ‘the best early Christmas present we could hope for’.
The Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine was brought to veterans living at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, on Wednesday. The vaccinations were carried out by Pippa Nightingale, chief nurse at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who called it a ‘real honour’.