I spent 3 years with my company setting up shop in Germany. Primark had all of a sudden exploded with popularity in the UK and Spain so we decidedly to hit Germany. It was a great time because Karstadt which was the major department store in Germany was selling units. Huge units. We are talking 90,000 sq ft megastores. We started small with a 40,000 sq ft unit in Breman and when’s that smashed company salesman records we knew we were on a winner. Here’s a video of our Hannover opening. You have to see it to believe it!
Germany was used to the traditional method of shopping . They went to their butcher shop for their meat, their bakers for their bread and their candlestick maker for their candlesticks. Even the volume retailers Lidl and Aldl ever only have 5 registers at the most. We had banks of 20 registers on each floor and in some stores like Essen there were six floors. The stores had on average around 600 staff and 25 managers . The Germans were not used to volume selling so we had to bring help from the UK to train up the staff. We normally flew 50 staff(bolster) from Ireland and the UK over to each store for 8 weeks. We could hand pick them if we liked and I used to make sure some of the serial bolsters because they never got homesick and these guys were always up for a party. The people in the company that lived out there like myself were always excited when the bolster arrived. Many of the bolster were asked to stay on and become managers. This story is about one of those bolster staff called Anthony.
Anthony was only 19 when I first met him. He was very shy and polite. He had applied to come out to the Dortmund store opening. I was glad to have a Limerick lad with me. He loved Nirvana which were a bit before his time. He also loved what smiley Cyrus was up to but that comes later. What struck me about Anthony was that he was very patient showing people what to do. Unlike the others he never got frustrated. I found out later that Anthony has a brother who is authistic so it all started to make sense how he was calm teaching the newbies.
After work we would all go out on the town and hit it hard. One thing I loved about Primark was that we worked hard and played hard. Any problems were left at the door. Anthony like every 19 year old male who was “on holidays” was eager for female company but he was always very shy. Because I lived in Germany Anthony asked me the best way to go about getting a girlfriend here. Now I was no expert myself but I did spot one thing that was going for us. I found that the German male was too direct. When I say too direct it was laughable. They would approach a girl at the bar and ask them if they wanted a drink and then some sex. What they didn’t have was charm about them and the Irish has lots of it so I told Anthony to just approach a girl and have a chat to them.
You will get rejected 8 times out of ten but 3 of them will have a chat and maybe if they like you ..... what ya gonna lose! No one knows us!
Ask her what her favourite dinosaur is . No one asks that! Works everytime!
Now Anthony took my advice and went with it. He picked the best looking girl at the bar and approached her and her friend. After a few minutes he was still chatting. An hour later he was going for coffee with her ( it was 11 at night) and that was the last I seen of him. The next day he came into work with a smile like a Cheshire Cat.
It worked he said.
She said no one ever approached her before
I spoke to one girl and I now have 100% record
A couple of nights later he did the same and had the same result and then by the end of the week there was another’s girl after falling for him. Jesus I was all for the guy getting his hole but this was ridiculous. I wouldn’t mind . The girls were getting better looking. He walked into the pub one day with someone that looked like she was from the Victoria secrets show. One of my managers was with me at the time and she said my mouth and another managers mouth fell to the ground . I asked my girlfriend was there anything special about Anthony and she looked at me asking me was I serious! She didn’t know what anyone saw on him .
I had created a monster.
Anthony obviously did not want to go back to Ireland. He was enjoying his new lifestyle too much and he asked me to stay. So we had to find him an apartment. He was a trainee and he wouldn’t be on much plus no more food expenses if he stayed. We found him some one bedroom apartment and he was happy out with his bed and his one fork and one knife in his kitchen. His mother used to ring me regularly to see if he was alright. She knew I would look out for him.
A couple of months into living in Frankfurt, he found a ladies purse one day on the street with one thousand euro in it. Anthony was broke and could of easily kept it . Instead Anthony looked at the ID photo in the wallet, rang the number on the inside and told the lady he had found her purse. She was upset as it was her tips for the month in work. She offered him a reward but instead Anthony asked her on a date . Another bloody notch on husband bedpost.
Anthony and Claudia
This girl was different. Anthony fell head over heels in love. They went out for a couple of months . He didn’t have a penny with rent food and entertainment but he wanted to bring this girl away for a weekend down to Vienna. He had it all planned . He hired a BMW and booked the Hilton in Vienna.
He came into me and asked me for the weekend off . The pub we frequented called the Anglo , all knew he was going as he had told everyone. We were all a bit excited for him to be honest. We were all older in the pub and we smiled about it. Young Love.
So at 6pm on Friday Anthony skipped out the door preparing for his romantic weekend away. They were leaving on Friday morning and Vienna was a 7 hour drive.
So I was in work on the Saturday and I received a call from Anthony’s mother Mary . She was very worried about him as he was stuck down in Austria with no money. I was puzzled. She told me they had some kind of fight and Claudia got into the rental car and drove away. That left Anthony in the hotel which wasn’t paid for yet. Anthony searched for his wallet and he realised it was in the boot of the car. He rang and rang and Claudia didn’t answer. So he was stranded in Austria with no money and no transport. She rang me to sort it out!
I calmed Mary down. I knew Irish mammys. Mary was up in a heap! I told Mary I would sort it out.
I rang Anthony.
What happened???
And out came the funniest story I’ve heard in a long time.
We were in the hotel room. The TV was on the music channel and we were going at it hammer and thongs. You know the way I like Miles Cyrus? Well her new wrecking ball song came on. The video doesn’t screen in Germany under EMI records rules so I was keen to see it.
And??? I said
Well I was looking over her shoulder at the video in the middle of things and she caught me staring at the video! She went ape shit, got up , got dressed and left. She’s gone and doesn’t look like she is coming back. My wallet is in the car which is worse and I can’t get through to her
Give me her number and I will ring her!
He does and no answer. No ringtone. Her battery is dead . Jesus!
I told Anthony to go to Primark Vienna where I had a train ticket and the money for the hotel there for him. It took some explaining to the Vienna manager. He had to pay it back of course. I rang Mary and told her he was on an ICE train back to Frankfurt . She was relieved.
I went to the pub all day Sunday and arranged for Wrecking Ball to be played when Anthony arrived in the door . When he walked in , we played the song and everyone got off their seats and gave him a gee up, patted him on the back and there was a pint on the counter for him. The kid was back! Everyone in the pub was laughing. And the interesting thing is that was 5 years ago and him and Claudia are still together!