In Perth a lot of the architecture, the layout of most streets and vennels, would be reassuringly unchanged to a visitor from Victorian times, but the chain stores, the supermarkets would be very strange indeed. However, one name at least would stand out like an oasis in a desert of unfamiliarity - McEwens of Perth, founded on the site it still occupies in St John Street in 1868. Surviving and thriving in 2005 this famous shop is currently short-listed for the Independent Department Store of the Year Award and is one of the few remaining family-owned independent department stores in Scotland.

Given the presence in Perth of so many of the major clothing outlets which now include Tesco, T K Maxx in addition to Marks and Spencer and British Home Stores, not to mention Laura Ashley, Monsoon and so on, I was keen to find out how McEwens of Perth has been able to continue not only to compete but to expand in the face of such competition.

The company was bought in 1982 by the Bullough family from Cumbria. Michael Bullough is the company’s Managing Director, his wife Sandra is Fashion Director and their son John is Operations Director.

As Sandra’s secretary Sarah led me up a behind-the-scenes staircase to the company’s offices I realised that what goes on behind the front shop in a such a store could be compared with the engine-room of an ocean-going liner – the unseen powerhouse behind a beautiful and chic façade!I was immediately impressed by Sandra’s evident passion for her work and her pride in McEwens of Perth’s on-going success.

There is such a sameness in all the High Streets these days, she began, there’s no individuality. The High Street stores are all selling exactly the same kind of lines and they now have Tesco and Asda growing into more and more important competition for them.

The only way a family store like this can succeed in the face of all this competition is to be different, to give service, the kind of service and choice of stock you don’t get anywhere else.

I wondered what precisely she meant by that word “service”.

First of all, our assistants greet their customers and offer help. When were you last greeted or offered help by an assistant in a chain store? You are left to help yourself, hunt around with no assistance, no direction, then stand in queues to pay. Here at McEwens you are greeted, you are offered assistance. We consider it a vital part of our work to make your shopping experience a pleasant and satisfactory one.

We must employ adequate staff to do this and with the ever-increasing employment costs it isn’t easy to keep up the service – but it’s what we must do. We have a wonderful and loyal staff in all our branches.

Including concession staff and part-timers as well as the full-time staff there are currently 202 people on the payroll.

McEwens of Perth have two further branches – one in Ballater and another in Inverness.

Sandra described them. In the tiny Ballater store we stock a collection of our fashion ranges and lingerie – and there’s no competition! Once a year we put on a Ballater bus to Perth. People have to sign up for it in advance and it’s a case of first come first served. It’s in great demand and it’s always filled. Another lovely thing in Ballater is that the fish van stops just outside the shop and when the weather’s bad the fish queue shelters in the shop.

I couldn’t help reflecting that this was maybe taking the McEwen concept of service a step too far but before I could raise the point Sandra had moved on to describe the Inverness store.

A larger store, of course, than the Ballater one, and a range similar to what we offer here – but without the cosmetics and menswear.

Changing direction

When McEwens of Perth first opened it offered a bespoke tailoring service for ladies and gentlemen. Sadly most of the early records of the business were lost in a disastrous fire which swept the building in 1921 but we know from his diaries that, in 1904, a partner in the firm visited Paris and decided to buy from the great couturiers. The duly advertised “Modes from Paris” – exclusive to McEwens – would arrive in the shop’s workrooms where skilled dressmakers would re-create the models in different sizes and materials.

Women from all over the country flocked to Perth to buy the exclusive Paris fashions and from then on women’s fashion became the company’s pre-eminent business.

As today’s Fashion Director, Sandra Bullough has a job which, in her own words, Can be frustrating and exhausting, but it is a passion.

I was not surprised when this tall, elegant lady told me her entry into the world of fashion had been as a model.

I learned about fashion from the other side, you could say. It’s difficult to define how one develops an eye for fashion but good classic style is down to wonderful cutting, wonderful material.

Fashion direction is all about knowing your customer. Here our target customers for mainline fashions are around forty plus, but this emphatically does not mean we are in the business of selling old-fashioned clothes! The modern mature woman looks for classic elegance and yet is as comfortable with a range like Oasis as with Basler or Gardeur.