Before grocery stores in Kerala took the character of supermarkets, lending large trolleys for self-service and expanding shelf-space, there was Spencer’s. With its origin in Madras in the 1860s, Spencer’s set up shop in Kerala towards the end of the century, adding branches across districts in the passing decades. Generations hold memories of walking into these stores, the first big one for many in the 1960s and 70s. It broke many hearts when in September, the entries of Spencer’s buildings in Kerala –marked by its bright orange boards– were blocked by scaffoldings, announcing closure.
“It was a day earlier that the management informed us that the units in Kerala were closing down because the company was running at a loss. We knew the sales had come down for a while, but we didn’t expect the shops to shut down. At 5 pm on September 1, we pulled down the shutters,” says Sheela, who had worked at the Statue unit of Spencer’s in Thiruvananthapuram for 16 years. She had five more years before retirement.
When Spencer’s decided to close down the units in Kerala, they gave the staff the option to relocate to other states. The employees in Thiruvananthapuram were told they could be transferred to the Hyderabad store, but no one wanted to move. Sheela’s family of four, which ran with the salaries of her and her husband, a security guard, would need to find other jobs, she says.
In the Statue unit, there were about 17 employees of varying work experience, some as new as a year old, and others completing 22 years or so. The Statue unit was the oldest, and the junction it was placed in was named after Spencer’s. “What would we call that junction now,” asked a resident of Thiruvananthapuram. “Would it now be the University junction?”
The University College, with an even longer history, sits next to Spencer’s, sprawling further along the road up to Palayam. “Before Spencer’s, that junction was known as Science Square. Earlier, we had a Science College and an Arts College there, and then they combined to be the University College. But once Spencer’s came, during the reign of the Travancore kingdom, people began calling the junction Spencer’s junction,” says historian Malayinkeezhu Gopalakrishnan.
For decades, there were only two big stores in Thiruvananthapuram that sold foreign products – Spencer’s and S Koder’s. Bindu, a resident, has fond memories of going to the Spencer’s in search of a Binny Silk Sari in the early 70s, when they were in fashion. Malayinkeezhu says that one would get foreign liquor there in the old days. But that stopped long ago, in tandem with other changes. The liquor and the saris went away. The original building, which was next to the iconic Indian Coffee House that served as a sort of cultural centre for the people of Thiruvananthapuram, was rebuilt. It still stayed red and brick-laden, beautiful and beloved at the city’s busiest corner.
History blogger Manmadhan Ullattil, who put together a short history of the Madras Spencer's from S Muthiah's writings, notes how the Spencer's at Kozhikode beach was once used as a hideout by freedom fighter KB Menon when he was organising Gandhi's Quit India Movement in Kerala. In his book The Spencer Legend, Muthiah adds more details about the Kerala units, including the beginning of the branches -- Kochi in 1897, Kozhikode in 1919, Thiruvananthapuram, and Alappuzha in 1927 -- and their almost-closing down in 1933 during the recession. Manmadhan says, "The Malabar Hotel Cochin in Wellington Island was acquired [by Spencer's] from the port authority in 1935. Single rooms cost Rs 12 and dinner was Rs 4. They held on to the contract for 20 years."
Spencer's had also run the iconic Mascot Hotel in Thiruvananthapuram in the early 1940s, till KTDC took over. The stores will be sorely missed.