What was your first Saturday job?

[FayKnights]

I was just reading a thread on items people still use from shops no longer around and one of the posters mentioned shoes from Dolcis.
I worked there in the 90s when I was 16 and earned £2.09 per hour!
It was an absolute hoot and everyone there was of a similar age. We also had a couple of older kids who were supervisors and allowed to work the till. I personally didn’t reach those heady heights, but definitely would have liked to!

My first job was as a weekend papergirl for the local newsagents then I started helping out ‘marking up’ the paper rounds so would go in even earlier. This morphed into a proper job working in the shop and included Sundays too so would work 8 hours on Saturday and 5 on Sunday. After that I got a Saturday job at Littlewoods from when I was 16 for about a year and then, once I was at college worked for McDonalds for a few years working all day Saturday, Monday and Thursday evening becoming full time when I left college. I don’t remember what my wages were but know I earned good money for my age - especially considering I was in my teens and it was long before NMW was brought it.

Babysitting age 11, then pulling ragwort out of fields in the summers. I think I got £80 for the full summer holiday, in the mid 90s.

£1.56 ph Saturday girl in Saxone shoe shop in 1993.

Mine was in Wm Lows supermarket (Scottish chain that was later bought over by Tesco). Tills for 4 hours Friday night and then all day Saturday. This was 1986 and I got £1.19 an hour.

Second job was much better, in Boots, where I got paid more plus got staff discount of 22.5% on Boots own brand and 12.5% on everything else. I was on the chemist counter and I loved it!

On the Englefield estate near Reading,Berks. For Lord Benyon, who was lovely.

Waitressing at a golf club. I got £20 a shift and any tips. At 15 it was great.
then at 16- shop at a sealife centre- £4.25 an hour which was more than minimum wage for a 16 year old- i thought i was rolling in it 😂

Checkout operator in Kwik Save in the early 00’s. I’m sure I only got £2/3ish an hour. The music they used to play in the store is still ingrained in my memory and asking people if they wanted (I think they were) 1p and 3p bags. The cheaper bags were the thin crinkly plastic and the 3p were much more sturdy.

Woolworth's cafe - 1990's, £3.75 ph

A riding school when I was 14/15. I got £5 a day which was shit even in the 90s but I loved it so did it anyway. I was sometimes responsible for a bunch of little kids + ponies, which looking back was a health and safety nightmare but everyone survived. Don’t think it would be allowed now.

Aged 13, a paper round, 3 miles long, 7 days a week, £3. Then a Saturday job in Woolworths Kensington High Street which morphed into full time as soon as I was 15 and 3 months - £42.50 - the £2.50 being the London weighting

Loved it there, was always so busy. We had a lot of rich Arabs come in to buy cases and cases of chocolate to take home, chocolates and these huge caskets of toffees. One time Cadbury was doing a promotion, buy the large Dairymilk and get a free Double Decker. One customer bought so much Dairymilk they were entitled to 3 outers of Double Deckers free, but they didnt want them and gave them to me. I wasnt allowed to keep them

Loved it there, the music section where got to play all the latest hits, and kept the records for the top 40 , we sold watches, cameras and even real gold jewellery. Sold food, clothing, household - everything. And when Video was invented we ran a video club and the manager at the time used to do movie nights for the staff. The make up artist at the time was Barbara Daley and she would come into store and do demos - so very exciting to me being so young.

We had a great staff room, pool table, a video game table, and good food served for lunch for only 12p.

I loved that job , and store.

Boots, for me. The first Christmas I was there, Braun launched the epilator and I worked Saturdays and Thursday evenings on the electrical beauty counter. We used to offer demonstrations to blokes who were thinking of buying their wives one for Christmas. There were a lot of men wandering around my home town with hairless forearms that year. We were brutal! 🤣🤣🤣

3 hours on a Saturday at Littlewoods on the checkout or the cheese counter. Cant remember what I got paid. Had a horrible nylon dress and little headband thing.

I used to work at Chessington World of Adventures. I was only 14 so I could only do a certain amount of hours and I couldn't make the sandwiches 🤷🏿‍♀️😂. I bloody loved it. I was in catering and wore a red itchy polyester uniform and black tabard and you could tell which depts people worked in because of the colour uniform. Some days it was soooooo busy and we were on our feet all day but I made some really good friends there. It was such a laugh. It was only seasonal though and it was such a pain to get to. After my third season I got a job at Safeways, all the Saturday staff were around my age and again it was a great laugh.
I can't remember how much I got paid in either but I used to eat my weight in Dunkin' donuts at Chessington and praise the gods for my fast metabolism as a teenager 😂

British Home Stores. I was 16 and eared £4.45. It can't have been the whole day as this was 1982.

I was in the menswear department which I found very dull. I moved to work in Lewis's and hoped for something a bit more glamorous. I was put on bread and broken biscuits!!!

paper round from age 13 to 17
did a bit of cleaning for an old lady

worked at key markets when at college, i remember when they got rid of 1/2 p pieces and everything went up in price

fruit picking/ chicken factory during two summer holidays.

Gooseberry picking. We got paid per bucket.

I had 2 jobs. One was babysitting and the other was taking the entry fee at antiques fairs.

I started working in our little corner shop when I was 14. I worked 7am-midday on a Sunday and got about £12. Then I picked up a few more hours as time went on and I felt like a millionaire!

From 14, I worked in a pharmacy 1 day a week after school, and also Saturdays.

A bit older, I provided respite for parents of disabled children- usually only 1-2hrs at a time. The parents paid the equivalent of £1 per hour and the company paid another £1 at the time. I soon worked out that it barely covered my petrol to get there and back- even back then.

Freeman, Hardy, Willis shoe shop 1 evening after school and all day Saturday. I can’t remember how much I got paid but it was 1986 so probably not much!

I lost that job because I refused to sell ‘fancies’ - as a 16 year old it was mortifying to upsell polishes and inner soles so I just didn’t do it.

I then got a job in Littlewoods Pools processing the Spot the Ball competition entries. That was 4 hrs on a Saturday morning and was well paid for what it was.

Working as a dogsbody at a building suppliers. Basically I was the one who had to go out the back to fetch a dozen tins of paint, bags of cement, masking tape or damp proof coarsing and bring it to the counter.

'Fashion accessories' department of Debenhams in the mid eighties.
It was mainly Jane Shilton handbags and tights, stockings and pop socks.
I spent many tedious hours just putting the packets of tights back in the correct places.
I was paid £1.12 an hour and was paid monthly.
After a few months I moved across the shop floor to a menswear concession called Lord John, mostly Farah trousers and dodgy sheepskin jackets.
Slightly more interesting and a bit better paid, I'm sure this was before minimum wage was introduced.

I got £10 for a full day Saturday in a local baker shop in the early 90s. The till was this massive old fashioned thing with numbers that popped up when you pressed the buttons with the amount. We didn't use it to add up, just to say how much we were putting in. On my first day they gave me a quick run through the price of each item then disappeared and left me panicking to run the shop alone.

I still remember rolls were 8p and pineapple cakes were 22p. Scones 12p and Paris buns 16p.

I worked in Timpsons the shoe shop from being 16-18 on a Saturday. Loved it, loved the boss and the girls I worked with , got to learn all about window displays and generally had a laugh. All for £1.78 an hour I think it was.

my best friend worked in the shoe shop across the street so we always tried to get our lunch break at the same time so we could go for a greggs baguette.

We had a small co-op in the village I worked there alongside my friend from school it was a great job
I got together with my now Dh whilst working there we went to school together but he moved away then came back to see family and came into the shop and then came in again and asked me out we have been together 35 years