Clifford Dunn had been a newsboy and then a shop assistant earning 50p a week. In 1953 he started in business on his own account, with a stall on Hull’s open market selling “all sorts of goods”.
It was a hard life. Three market days a week, in all weathers, each starting in the early morning — and twice every week the long drive to London to buy stock and seek out new bargains to bring home to Hull.
Once, his van was stolen overnight. It was found, but the stock inside was gone for good. Still, the stall grew. Profit margins were kept low so the housewife got value for money, and every customer was treated with courtesy — two rules that would follow the business into every Savemore store.
Mary worked alongside him, and later their son John joined when he left school. Before long the stall, “with its queue of customers”, had become a Hull landmark — and it could no longer keep up with the trade.
The stall, with its queue of customers, became a landmark.
Port of Hull Journal, January 1965
