Whitcoulls Employee Retires After 47 Years

Liz Rowsell must be one of Whitcoulls’ longest serving employees, retiring today from her job after an impressive 47 years at the Invercargill store.

Arriving at the retail store on her last day, she admitted to feeling a bit teary but was also looking forward to sleeping in.

“I’m a night owl and not so great in the mornings,” she said.

In two days time she turns 65 and plans to spend more time with her dog, her friends and being more involved in her local church group.

Liz arrived at Whitcoulls fresh out of high school from Southland Girls’ High at just 16 and went straight into the children’s books department.

Whitcoulls had a big store on Dee Street back then, with lots of different departments, and being a book lover she fit straight in.

Answering an advert in the local paper, she remembers having to go back to high school with her cash register and loaded up with stationery to take all of the students orders.

The world of stationery and books is obviously a lot different nowadays, with many ‘back to school’ orders now done online.

“We used to have this big sale once year for back to school orders and there would be a big counter in the middle and queues out the door.”

She even remembers the original old tills that only went up to nine, “so I learnt my nine times tables very quickly.”

Liz said she will miss all of her regular customers – those who come in regularly for Lotto and magazines, but is happy to leave all of the regular stock takes behind.

There’s a whole new routine to get used to with retirement – “it will be like I’m on holiday for awhile.  It will be hard to slow down,” she said.