It was a shopper’s paradise, selling everything from corsets to cutlery, toys to tea cloths and chairs to china.
Inverness’s very own ‘Are You Being Served?’ store was Benzie and Millers, known as Benzies, occupying almost half one side of Union Street.
The building was originally occupied by Young & Chapman, but was bought over by Benzie and Miller in 1952.
For Invernessian Claire Cameron, securing a job at Benzies when she was a teenager in 1963 saved her from having to go to finishing school in Belgium, and gave her the perfect career.
Claire said: “I walked into Benzie and Miller, asked the assistant manager Mr Calder if there were any vacancies.
“So wearing my school uniform minus the tie I was employed as a junior, the youngest member of staff.
“I was placed on the haberdashery counter.
“Each Monday my duties were to clean the counters inside and outside with methylated spirits on a piece of tissue paper.
“Polishing the fixed to counters, brass measuring tapes until they shone.
Each item sold had to be fully written out on a docket, then along with a cash payment it was stuffed in a canister which shot up to the office at a rate of knots.”
Claire Cameron
“Tidying endlessly all the hundreds of items of stock in their little drawers. I was taught how to sell ribbon, elastic, bias binding by the yard.
“Single buttons, buttons, hooks and eyes, patient fasteners by the card.
“We sold rubber gloves, mop caps that ladies would wear over their curlers in bed.
“Aprons of all sizes, wrap around, crossover, plain and frilly aprons for serving afternoon tea at home.
“Each item sold had to be fully written out on a docket, then along with a cash payment it was stuffed in a canister which shot up to the office at a rate of knots.
“The change and receipt returned in the same noisy manner.”
Despite gratefully escaping finishing school, 15-year-old Claire found the job boring after five months, and then came her big break.
“The window dressers had no time to change the displayed ‘dressings’ on the top of the units.
“I decided that I could easily do this as I climbed a ladder. So started my beloved career in the windows using my creativity and imagination.
“During the 1970s and 1980s I was the display manager, these days called a visual identity manager.”
Benzies had its roots in Aberdeenshire almost 150 years ago.
William Benzies, an enterprising 21-year-old, took over the management of the grandly named Colosseum Warehouse, a drapery business in Mid Street, Fraserburgh, in 1886.
He quickly branched out to open his own store in Buckie, but sold this business when he was asked to take over The Colosseum the following year.
The business flourished and expanded.
To everyone’s shock, in 1896 Benzie bought a large, old house on the opposite side of the street and had it pulled down.
But from there emerged a much more modern shop that, a couple of years later, would boast its own power plant, with Benzie acting as electrician and engineer.
Customers rushed to experience this complete novelty.
Despite frequent breakdowns and black-outs, the idea caught on and The Colosseum continued to go from strength to strength.
‘Departmental Store’ ambitions took shape
Although the store was focused on drapery, the canny Benzie was nursing bigger ambitions.
By 1920 the first moves towards a ‘Departmental Store’ were taking shape, with new stock rooms and showrooms being added.
Step up James R Miller, a cabinet maker and furnisher known to Benzie from his early days in business, and a personal friend.
He had grown a successful business prior to the First World War, at which point he went on active service and had to tone it down considerably.
By 1920 he had regrown the business successfully but was hampered by lack of suitable plant.
Benzie and Miller began to look at options, eventually amalgamating their businesses and taking over a shoemaking concern, Goodlad and Coutts of Lerwick, managed by Miller’s brother in law, Robert Henderson.
Then came a massive expansion of the physical business, as the now-named Benzie & Miller took on the extensive next-door property and a large property at the back.
A handsome new façade was erected, with the store now dominating Mid Street.
With the acquisition of Abercromby Ltd, another bootmaking business, a flourishing footwear department came into being.
Different departments began to emerge at Benzie and Miller
Then came departments for household goods and ironmongery, overseen by Miller.
A tea room was opened on the first floor, and the business soon learned the value of offering lunches and teas to its customers.
Benzie’s son, Alexander, now became a director, in charge of menswear, and later the fashion salon.
Miller’s son, John, also became involved, to help his father in furnishing.
Things looked good.
But in 1931 the firm was rocked by the death of Benzie, aged 69, after a bout of flu.
Less than two years later, another shock – Miller died, and the two remarkable founders of Benzie & Miller were gone.
Their sons stepped up, and a huge three-storey extension was built.
Now the store could boast a bargain basement, housing the toy bazaar at Christmas and the other departments could blossom into all the extra space.
Wartime blaze
During the Second World War the Fraserburgh store was destroyed by fire after the town was bombed.
Business continued as usual in other shops throughout the town as rebuilding got under way.
It took until the ’50s to complete the work.
It’s at this point the firm’s overhead cash system was installed, the state of the art Lamson pneumatic tube system.
Benzie & Miller stores were established in Banff, Elgin, and Peterhead; and in 1952, Inverness, in 3-17 Union Street following the purchase of Young & Chapman.
Benzies also had departments located at 1 Drummond Street and 33-49 Baron Taylor Street.
House of Fraser took over Benzie and Miller in 1957
Dave Conner, convener of Inverness Local History Forum, remembers: “It really was an amazing place with all its departments and counters over several floors, just like ‘Are You Being Served’.
“In the 1970s it was called Benzies of Arnotts.”
All good things come to an end.
The Fraserburgh store was closed in 1968 and the building was demolished in 1985.
In 1977 the Peterhead store was destroyed by fire, never to be rebuilt.
As part of the House of Fraser restructuring in the 1970s the remaining stores were absorbed into the Arnotts division and rebranded under this name.
They have all since closed, with the last store of the Benzie & Miller empire shutting in Inverness in 2003.
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