Closing the door on 100 years of historic retailing in Gore

Friday, 28 August 2020

Constable Leonard Everett stands to attention as Queen Elizabeth arrives for lunch at H&J Smith's Gore store in 1954. She was hosted by the Gore Women’s Club. The historic retail store is closing on Saturday at its current site and a downsized store will re-open next to it.

The Gore district’s finest china was wheeled out when the Queen visited the H&J Smith Ltd department store for lunch in 1954.

On Saturday, staff will close the doors to the town’s only department store for the last time, that has stood stoically in the main street since 1913.

It’s not the end of the line for the building, or the company.

Tenants are being sought to occupy the large, downstairs space, and H&J’s, as the company is affectionately known, will downsize and operate from the former Hallensteins building next door, selling men’s and women’s clothing.

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The iconic two-storied building has perhaps become Gore’s best known Covid-19 victim, after the pandemic forced H&J Smith Ltd to announce it was considering its future and closed stores in Mosgiel, Te Anau and Balclutha, and plans to close its Dunedin shop early in the new year.

A 1924 H&J Smith ad in the Southland Times.

H&J Smith chief executive John Green said the Gore store had been integral to the business as an extension of the flagship store in Invercargill, allowing it to reach into the hinterland.

”It’s been more than that, it’s been a great source of people for the company. Some have come into management and to board level, and there have been generations of the same families that have worked there.’’

It's where Gore district families have bought baby clothes and school uniforms, had wedding registers, chosen luggage for overseas trips, and had their Sunday Best fitted to wear to church.

The closure was quite a momentous decision for the company to reach, especially considering there would be job losses, Green said.

” There were a lot of components that lead to that decision.

The doors will close at H&J Smiths’ Gore store on Saturday.

”The store, and its staff, have been very resilient. It’s survived two world wars, a great depression, a flu pandemic and more recent things such as the yo-yoing fortunes of the farming industry and now the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s seen it all.’’

The company sold the Gore building in 2002, which was also a factor in the decision to close.

And while Saturday would be a sad day, Green said it would also be the start of a new era for the company.

“Every company has to review and reset and look at not just what is working today, but beyond that at what does tomorrow look like? We’re pleased that we can stay on in Gore with a new offering, it’s the beginning of a new era.’’

Bargain-hunters have made the most of a six-week clearance sale, but H&J’s was once the place to go to get anything you needed, former mayoress Mary Ogg said.

“I’ve had an account there for years,’’ Ogg said.

“I've always found the staff pleasant and helpful, and they always gave outstanding service. It was a great meeting place for urban and rural people to meet – you’d say ‘I’ll meet you at Smith’s at two’ and meet for a cup of tea and a chat.’’

The store was ‘’very flash’’ when she arrived in Gore as a 17-year-old.

“It sold everything, and it’s always just been there as part of the streetscape. It’s going to be a sad day for Gore and I wonder if people realise the value that the store bought to the area.’’

Current mayor Tracy Hicks remembered visiting the store with his mother for cups of tea, and the unique ‘’air system’’ that transferred money between cashiers on different floors.

“That transfixed a young boy for sure,’’ he said.

H&J Smith's store in Gore's Main St in 1913.

But his visits to the building weren’t all happy ones.

“My oldest memory is that I was not very well behaved for the dental nurse, to the point where she would not deal with me. I still have chilling memories of going to Gore, upstairs to the dentist, who was my nemesis for quite a few years.

“The waiting room was quite cosy because it had a coal fire in it. The world has definitely changed.’’

Hicks said the store had been a big part of the main street of Gore ‘’for a long, long time.”

“It’s definitely going to be different, there’s no doubt about that.’’

But it’s likely brother and sister John and Helen Smith would have had no idea what a legacy they were creating when they permanently opened a store in Gore’s Main Street in 1905, where they operated a successful “pop-up shop” in the town’s Criterion Hotel.

Keith Douglas’ book ‘H&J Smith Traders for 100 Years’ says the pair, from the family farm at Waihola, had already opened a store in 1900 in Dee St Invercargill, called “Progressive Stores”.

But Gore’s bustling population of 3000 was growing and there wasn’t enough space in the prime spot opposite the railway station, so they made the decision to build a more substantial building.

Stephanie Herring, of the Gore Historical Museum and Hokonui Heritage Research Centre, said the new store was opened on its current site in March 1913, with little public fanfare.

Just a couple of weeks later it was devastated by a flood that ripped through the town on a Saturday morning.

“The surging water broke the plate glass windows and flowed up to four-foot through the store, damaging the majority of the stock,’’ Herring said.

While it was a two storied building, the shop was downstairs and the upper storey was tenanted by other businesses including a photo studio and dentist.

Following the building of flood banks on the Mataura River, confidence returned to the building sector and with it H&J’s took the opportunity to take over the neighbouring building in 1925, doubling its Main St frontage.

By 1930 it had purchased space on their other boundary on Irk St and extended their second floor building to what we see today.

Tragedy stuck in June 1942, in the midst of WW2, when two employees who were returning to work, were killed by a plane that crashed in the Main St during a town wide evacuation exercise.

But there were also happy times especially in 1954 when the Queen visited and dined upstairs at H&J’s courtesy of the Gore Women’s Club in its rooms before heading to Invercargill.

It was a lavish affair with the best of the district’s china and crystal polished off for the event.

The store also weathered the storm of the Government’s reforms in the 1990s, which decimated the spending power of the country’s farmers. The store’s manager, Hurst Ridley, retired in 1998 but Douglas’s book credits him with the store’s survival.

The store was remodelled in 1999 and the Junction Cafe, formerly called the Viking Room, was relocated to the front upstairs of the store.

Douglas’s book says that prompted some paranormal goings-on and members of the local clergy were called upon to perform an exorcism.

Herring said the store has paid an important role in the social history of the Gore district.

“It has been a large local employer, in the earlier years especially providing a place for women to earn an income prior to marriage and/or having children. For many it was the only paid employment they ever had. Apart from the Queen, it has hosted morning and afternoon teas as well as lunch compliments of the Copper Kettle and later the Junction Café.’’

On Saturday the company is also closing its Outdoor Remarkables Park store in Remarkables Park, Queenstown.