Otaki TodayFor 38 years, Jackie Rutherford has been a familiar face behind the counter at Ballentynes in Ōtaki.
She has watched generations of customers come through the doors, seen fashions and shopping habits change, and witnessed the steady decline of the town’s once-busy retail centre. But now the store has closed, Jackie is facing the end of a working life that has been closely intertwined with the town.
Ballentynes Ōtaki manager Jackie Rutherford is swamped by pupils of Ōtaki School after their kapa haka group performed at Ballentynes on the store’s last day, September 2. Photo Ōtaki Today
Ballentynes Fashion Central announced last month that Ōtaki was one of 13 stores it was closing after more than 50 years in business. Ten stores, including in Paraparaumu and Levin, will continue trading under the Caroline Eve name.
For Jackie, however, the closure is about much more than the loss of another shop.
“I’m still going through the grieving process,” she says.
Jackie began working at the store in 1988, initially taking over Ivy Rutter’s job at what was then the Dowsetts store.
“I was walking past one day, and Ivy was doing a window. She knocked on the window and said she was leaving to work at the post office,” Jackie recalls. “She suggested I come back and ask for a job. And I got it.”
She had worked in Wellington for two years after arriving from the UK in the mid-1980s, and had moved to Ōtaki in 1987.
At the time, retail in the town was a very different proposition. Friday night shopping was a big social occasion, and Dowsetts – which was later bought by the Ballentynes chain – was among a cluster of shops that kept the town centre buzzing.
“We used to never get finished and out of here until about 9 o’clock,” Jackie says. “Then we’d go straight over to the pub [the Family Hotel].”
Five or six staff worked in the store on a typical day, compared with just a couple in its final days.
“Everything was busy,” she says.
The change has been dramatic. Shops such as Edhouse’s department store, Field’s shoe shop, Featherstone’s bookshop, Gimblett’s hardware and other long-established retailers have disappeared, leaving much of the town centre occupied by op shops and service businesses. Jackie has seen the same pressures affect Ballentynes.
Online shopping has changed the way people buy clothes, while the economic pressures of recent years have made customers more cautious.
“If a woman’s got a choice to put food on the table or buy herself a new jumper, she’s always going to put food on the table,” she says.
Customers still come through the doors, but increasingly they are looking for sales and cheaper options.
The biggest loss for Jackie, though, will be the people. She has got to know generations of Ōtaki families through the shop, sometimes serving children who later return with their own children.
Recently, a man who had been visiting the area recognised her.
“He said, ‘You used to give me lollies out of the drawer’.”
She has no idea who he was, but he remembered her from when he was a 3-year-old visiting the store with his grandmother.
Over the decades there have also been plenty of colourful moments – including the day a hitchhiker came into the shop on a rainy day wearing little more than a T-shirt and shorts. Jackie and a colleague made him a jacket from plastic bags, stapling it together and putting a big bow on the back.
“He thought he was Christmas,” she says.
But it’s the quieter memories that mean the most. The store has often doubled as an informal information desk, and where people could just come in for a chat. Customers have shared their health problems, family dramas and everyday news with Jackie and other staff.
On occasions, women have even rung her and asked her to bring clothes to their homes to try on – only for Jackie to discover they were buying an outfit for their own funeral.
“That’s the hardest thing,” she says of leaving. “It’s the people I’ll miss.”
Her standing with the community was acknowledged on Ballentyne’s last day – September 2 – when Ōtaki School’s kapa haka group performed for her at the store.
Jackie says she has no intention of sitting at home now.
“I’m looking for a part-time job,” she says. “I can’t bear being at home.”
As for Ōtaki itself, Jackie remains optimistic. With its population continuing to grow, she believes its fortunes can improve.
“You can only get so down. You’ve just got to fight for it.”
But for now, Jackie is getting over being at a store that has been part of her life for nearly four decades.
“I’ve loved my time there,” she says. “And I’ve loved the people.”
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