Sales Assistant (Paul Clements)

The sales assistant at an unnamed high street menswear shop attended to Alf Roberts when the former councillor went there to buy a new coat in May 1988. Alf was so thrilled with the cream coat he picked out that he made the rare use of a credit card to make the purchase. As Alf had decided to wear the coat home, the assistant cut the tags off and was in the middle of putting Alf's raincoat in a bag when a junior assistant, Maurice, informed him that Alf's credit card was over the limit. The assistant's tone turned far less courteous as he made Alf remove the coat and cut the credit card up, telling him it was "not a bloody magic wand". Hiding his embarrassment, an angry Alf withdrew his custom from the shop.

A few weeks later, the assistant had a very different experience with two other Coronation Street residents - Jack and Vera Duckworth. Jack had been dragged to the shop by Vera as she wanted him to be well dressed for his upcoming role as best man at Don Brennan's wedding. The assistant found the cheapest suit he could, a "one off" sample suit which was marked down due to a flaw in the lining. Vera still considered this expensive and haggled with the assistant until he knocked a further £3 off for damages. Vera later accompanied Jack when he went to pick up the altered suit, however on this occasion the couple were even more acrimonious than usual as Vera had forbade Jack from going to Don's stag night. When Jack expressed interest in a red shirt to go with his new suit, the assistant went to help him but he had barely started speaking when Jack and Vera started arguing and had a tussle over the shirt. Seemingly having had enough of the couple, the assistant kept well out of it.

1988

 * Wed 11th May
 * Mon 6th Jun
 * Wed 8th Jun