Hudson’s Bay Co. Store, Yorkton. Circa 1913.
Picture this. You are a youngster around 1913, you live in a small village and this is your first visit to the big town of Yorkton. Your parents take you to the Hudson’s Bay Company store. As you passed the storefront you are already dazzled by the toy display in the huge windows. Now, inside you continue to be speechless with the overwhelming array of general merchandise. As you wander in the aisles, many articles are within touching reach of customers like dresses, coats, men’s work wear, suits, kids’ boots, etc, but a lot of the stock is out of reach as it is displayed in glassed-in counters/showcases, and drawers. When it came to payment for goods purchased, the clerks did not make change with the customer like they did at the village store. A strange network of wires called “cash carriers” attached to metal piping, walls and what-not, etc are used in this big department store to carry customers’ payments from the sales clerks working the floors, to a main cashier who verified the transaction of bills and cash. Then, the main cashier inserted the change and the bill back in a small carrier attach to the wire that goes to the clerk and customer counter. It would have been a totally dazzling event for a youngster, and would have generated memories to last a very long time!
Source: Cindy Wheeler fonds
Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton Archives,
Box 400, 37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722
heritage@yorkton.ca
