Ross' Public Supply Store Embo
Date Added: 25 September 2008
Year: 1900
Institution Name: dnhhl
Cat No: ◀ | 2005_042_06 | ▶
Picture No: 4909
Monochrome photograph of Ross' Public Supply Store, Embo from the collection of Dennis Bethune. See picture #14803 a paper bag from Ross' Store 2021.034.02
Dimensions: Length 177mm - Width 128mm
3 Comments
Are you sure that is Embo it looks like Cathedral Square, Accie Grants Hairdresser later?
Comment left on 02 February 2010 at 17:49 by Dan Murray
I think I said Accie Grant that should have been McGregor
Comment left on 03 February 2010 at 20:41 by Dan Murray
I think that Dan Murray is correct. As a child in the 1940s I was a frequent customer of the food supply store that was owned by the Ross family. That store was part of their post office business and both were then always known as The Embo Post Office and not the name as shown on this building. This building does not look like the Embo Post Office building or any other building in Embo. The Embo Post office had the Ross family house attached to it and this was a fine building with good quality stone work visible...not a plastered finish as shown here. Also to the upper left of this building can be seen the roof and upper wall of a house. There was no such building in the vicinity of the Embo Post Office. Also to the right of the Embo Post Office was their coal yard and shed and these are not present here. There were three other food supply stores in Embo and one was owned by a Fraser family, one by a Cumming family and one by a Mackay family.
The Embo Post Office food supply store was run by Katie Ross (Originally a Gaelic speaking MacDonald from Golspie). Katie was a kindly woman and on one occasion in the mid 1940s she saved my skin. I was sent to her shop by my mother to buy a "quarter pound of sweets" which were then supplied loose in a brown paper bag. On my way home temptation got the better of me and I ate two of the sweets. On my arrival at home my mother looked at the sweets and said that they were not the kind that she had told me to buy. I was then sent back to change them. I could not argue with my mother on such matters as she always held the firm view that traders “have a broader table than ours†and thus had a duty accept returned goods that were not what was needed or were of a poor quality. I really dragged my feet on the way back to the shop as I knew that Katie would be canny enough to weigh the sweets I brought back and discover my misdeed. But I was more afraid of my mother than Katie. On my arrival at the store I told her that I had got the wrong sweets and that my mother had sent me to change them. Without hesitation she planked the sweetie bag on the scale basin and weighed it…and then left it there. She gave me a knowing look and then put an empty paper bag on the weights side of the scale and topped it up with the correct sweets ...but just enough to bring the scales to a balance. There were smiles all round as I left the shop for home and this time I thought it best not to do a quality check on the sweets on my way.
Comment left on 17 November 2013 at 19:25 by Kenneth Mackay
The Embo Post Office food supply store was run by Katie Ross (Originally a Gaelic speaking MacDonald from Golspie). Katie was a kindly woman and on one occasion in the mid 1940s she saved my skin. I was sent to her shop by my mother to buy a "quarter pound of sweets" which were then supplied loose in a brown paper bag. On my way home temptation got the better of me and I ate two of the sweets. On my arrival at home my mother looked at the sweets and said that they were not the kind that she had told me to buy. I was then sent back to change them. I could not argue with my mother on such matters as she always held the firm view that traders “have a broader table than ours†and thus had a duty accept returned goods that were not what was needed or were of a poor quality. I really dragged my feet on the way back to the shop as I knew that Katie would be canny enough to weigh the sweets I brought back and discover my misdeed. But I was more afraid of my mother than Katie. On my arrival at the store I told her that I had got the wrong sweets and that my mother had sent me to change them. Without hesitation she planked the sweetie bag on the scale basin and weighed it…and then left it there. She gave me a knowing look and then put an empty paper bag on the weights side of the scale and topped it up with the correct sweets ...but just enough to bring the scales to a balance. There were smiles all round as I left the shop for home and this time I thought it best not to do a quality check on the sweets on my way.
Comment left on 17 November 2013 at 19:25 by Kenneth Mackay
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