The owner of a carpet shop says she is proud to still be serving Dartford

Transcript

00:00 There was only five, so I've been brought up with this shop all my life and I can remember

00:06 that there wasn't even fitted carpet at the time.

00:09 They would hire out a hall, they would have a carpet sale, they would have young people

00:15 working for them, dropping leaflets, 2,000 leaflets at a time advertising the carpet

00:21 sale in the hall.

00:23 And them carpet squares would be just rolled out and laid on top of concrete floors, marlite

00:28 holes, bitumen, and to these sort of, you know, normal working class people there wasn't

00:35 fitted carpet.

00:36 And then at the end of the day, my mum and dad with their staff, whoever worked for them,

00:42 he had a fleet of 12 vans at one time, would deliver all the rolls of carpets, mainly round

00:48 the south east of London, often with a lift not working and having to climb flights of

00:54 stairs.

00:55 So time to change so much.

00:58 For me, I've worked here, you know, two or three days a week all my life and absolutely

01:04 loved it.

01:06 My dad's shop was his passion.

01:10 He lived to work.

01:13 To think at one time he had four shops, he's always been a pillar of the community.

01:23 He has built this business from out of the back of a van and to have Mitchell's Carpets

01:31 above the door forever and ever, we are now the third generation on board.

01:36 I'm very, very proud as a family independent business.

01:42 It's our life.

01:43 We're not working for Joe Bloggs.

01:45 It's our life.

01:46 We've got to make it work.

01:47 It does work.

01:48 We've been established now for 60 years.