How four-week Christmas contract turned into 55-year career at Boots for woman, 84, who is longest serving No7 adviser

An 84-year-old Boots employee who started working on a temporary four-week Christmas contract is now one of the company’s longest serving staff members after more than 55 years of service.

This Christmas will mark another milestone for Barbara Shirley, Boot’s longest serving No7 adviser who joined the company in December 1968.

Barbara, from Bournemouth, originally joined on a four-week temporary contract to “bring in some extra money for Christmas presents”.

But what started as a festive hustle has turned into a cosmetics career spanning decades.

Barbara continues to serve customers at Bournemouth’s Commercial Street branch and said she “cannot imagine doing anything else”.

“I was loving the job already but I had not anticipated this would be my career, no way,” Barbara told PA Real Life.

“I just love it, I love the brand, I love the customers and the whole experience because no two days (are) alike.

“I can’t imagine myself ever doing anything else, it doesn’t even cross my mind at the moment.”

Asked whether she has any idea what she wants to do next, she added: “I’m still there.

“Customers always want to know – they’re like, ‘Are you still here? Are you not retired yet?’

“Unfortunately I lost my husband 12 years ago and No7 now is my life’s saviour.”

In the late 1960s, Barbara was on the lookout for ways to earn extra cash when she learned Boots was looking for temporary staff in the run-up to Christmas.

She was “absolutely over the moon” to be offered the four-week position at the King Street branch in Maidstone despite not having any retail experience.

“I had never done retail before, so it was quite a new experience for me,” she said.

“Like most women, I wanted to earn some extra money because I had two young children.

“So I wanted a temporary job for Christmas, just to bring some extra money in for Christmas presents.”

It could have ended there, but in January, Barbara was offered a full-time role and was promoted a year later to No7 adviser, selling the brand’s now widely known cosmetics.

Fast-forward 55 years and Barbara is Boots’ longest serving No7 adviser.

A lot has changed since she joined the company, which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

“We only had a small number of products and in those days people weren’t really into skincare like they are today,” said Barbara.

“It was my job to promote how important it was to look after your skin.”

When Barbara started, customers were baffled because they did not understand how creams could penetrate the skin.

“People thought, how can you say that cream will go into my skin when I have a shower and the water doesn’t,” she explained.

“Why is my inside not full of water?

“It was quite hard to convince people back then, because unless you knew about the skin, they didn’t know how it worked.

“There was a lot of teaching back then.”

Some customers were also confused by the branding surrounding certain products.

“They used to do a product called an enriched night food cream and people thought that meant they could eat it,” said Barbara. “Just because it had the word food on it.”

One of the most significant changes over the past half a century, according to Barbara, has been the number of men using skin products.

“I can’t remember ever serving a guy in 1969, but today there’s a much higher percentage of men,” she said.

“There was a lot of stigma behind a man using moisturiser, it was like ‘Oh my gosh’ and never talked about.

“That all changed about 15 years ago.”

She recalled women coming into the store complaining about their partners using their creams.

“That’s how it started,” she said.

“Because women were so fed (up), because men didn’t want to come in and buy it themselves, but they wanted to use it.”

Barbara moved to Bournemouth 25 years ago with her husband and “swapped branches”, briefly working at The Sun Shop until a No7 position became available.

In recent years, Barbara has been surprised by how much people’s understanding of skincare has grown.

“It’s on a whole other level,” she added.

One of the biggest highlights of her career was visiting the Boots laboratory and meeting Dr Mike Bell, the company’s head of science research, in 2022.

This year marks the 175th year since Boots founder John Boot opened a herbalist store in Nottingham’s Goose Gate in 1849.

As part of its anniversary celebrations, a portrait of Florence Boot has been put on public display for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery.

The company credits Florence with introducing beauty to the high street and diversifying its retail offering, including toiletries, perfume and other products for women.

Boots is the UK’s leading health and beauty retailer with more than 52,000 staff and 2,100 stores.

“How we grew to where we are today, it is just amazing,” Barbara said.

“I’m really quite overwhelmed by it all, it’s just fantastic.”