After more than a century in business, one of Western Australia's oldest retailers is closing the doors for good.
Bousfields Menswear on Fremantle's High Street has been clothing generations of families for 121 years and, for current owner Bruce Haskell, the shop floor is all he has ever known.
"The day I was born my dad was here working in the shop," he said.
"My dad started here when he was 14 years old in 1936, but the business was started by Thomas Bousfield in 1902, who then passed it on to his son, Frank."
Mr Haskell said the business nearly closed during the Great Depression in the 1920s but was saved by a generous customer.
"I think the bank gave him a week to deposit two pounds to cover their bank overdraft, and somebody came in and bought a suit. That saved them."
After Frank Bousfield retired, and Frank's son Max moved to the eastern states, his father Laurie Haskell partnered with Frank's son-in-law Albert Paul to take over the business.
Bruce Haskell himself had his first stint of working in the shop at 14 during school holidays.
"I'll be honest with you. It was really difficult because at 14 you're just used to high school, starting at 9am, finishing at 3pm," he said.
"Then to come into a shop and start at 8:30am when Dad got here and leave at about quarter to six, it was a bit of a rude awakening."
A difficult time to sell
Despite attempting to sell the business, Mr Haskell said he had decided to call it a day and retire.
"I've got two knees that badly need replacing after years of playing basketball and, unfortunately, it's time to move on," he told ABC Radio Perth's Nadia Mitsopoulos.
"It's difficult [to sell] because you've got 3 per cent unemployment.
"The mines are screaming out for people. [Workers] can go to the mines and make $100,000–plus working one week on and one week off.
"A lot of people don't want to work seven days a week.
"If they start out in the retail business, they will probably have to work seven days a week."
Surviving the 'retail apocalypse'
Louise Grimmer, a senior lecturer in retail marketing at the University of Tasmania, said apparel stores had suffered through a tumultuous few years.
"If we think about pre-COVID, we refer to the years 2018 and 2019 as the 'retail apocalypse', where we saw huge numbers of store closures because at that time there was a real hollowing out of the middle classes," Dr Grimmer said.
"We saw shoppers flocking either to discount retailers and then on the other end there was a rise in luxury shopping, so [for] those middle-priced stores, particularly clothing and apparel, there just wasn't the consumer market for them so we saw a lot of those stores close."
She said when COVID hit, a lot of small and independent stores did not have the capacity to offer online sales.
Dr Grimmer said the "explosion" in people working from home had also impacted the apparel and clothing market.
"That's dramatically affected consumer shopping behaviour, because if you're not working in an office anymore, people are not buying those work clothes that they might have bought pre-COVID," she said.
Old fashioned customer service
With his trademark measuring tape slung over his shoulders, Mr Haskell can size up a customer the moment they set foot in his store.
"I treat people who come into my shop the same as if they walked in the front door of my house," Mr Haskell said.
"We've had four generations of families that have been coming to us.
"Back in the 1960s when there was a lot of new migrants [in Fremantle] from different countries, Frank Bousfield used to let them take clothes home on approval or open an account.
"He trusted them and they've repaid us back so many times over.
"It's just amazing, the loyal customers we have, and we have customers from every point in the state."
Mr Haskell said regulars visited from Broome, Esperance, Albany, Margaret River, Bunbury and Mandurah.
"A lot of country people come to us," he said.
Mr Haskell said over the past week he had been hearing from hundreds of customers who were upset about the imminent closure.
Emotional connection to retailers
Dr Grimmer said it was no surprise there had been an emotional reaction.
"A lot of us have an emotional connection with retailing from when we went shopping with our parents or grandparents, back when stores were smaller and independent," she said.
"There weren't so many national chains [and] there certainly wasn't online shopping.
"Many of us have really fabulous memories about the early shopping trips that we might have been on and that shapes the way that that we become consumers as we get older.
"For a store to be around for over 100 years, that's quite an accomplishment. That's quite rare."
Dr Grimmer said small, independent clothing retailers offered a more personal experience for shoppers, as opposed to large chain department stores.
"They offer that in-depth product knowledge, enthusiastic, dedicated staff, that really high level of personalised customer service, and going above and beyond for their customers," she said.
