A Bermuda tradition
An old family
The company’s history is really that of two families. The Cooper family has for a century managed the business, and an extended family of Cooper’s employees has worked at the store, in many cases for decades.
The Coopers are an old Bermuda family. The story of the store began with Alexander Samuel Cooper, who was born in 1871 in Southampton. A.S. Cooper started his working life in Hamilton at the tender age of 11, in the Town Store, operated by S. Nelmes & Company. Young Master Cooper couldn’t have known it, but his first day’s work was something of a red-letter day: Coopers have worked in Hamilton stores ever since.
In time, young Mr. Cooper worked in several of Bermuda’s best stores. His last employer, Musson Wainwright, asked him to manage a business on Front Street called Bermuda Furnishing & Supply Company. The work was to Alexander’s liking — so much so that on July 30, 1897 he bought the company’s stock and trading rights. Thus was Cooper’s born.
Retailers were generalists in those days, selling goods of all kinds, from salt to shoes. Alexander learned all aspects of the Bermuda retail trade, but found that he wanted to specialise in fine things. In time he did so, trading in china, crystal, silver and antique furniture.
Alexander and his wife, the former Laura Ann Young, had five sons. He had kept the company’s original name, but in 1936 changed it to A.S. Cooper and Sons Ltd. Each of his five sons would in time enter the family business, and each left his mark on the company and Bermuda itself.
Gilbert Cooper started in the company’s accounts department after graduating in Commerce from McGill. “Gibbie”, the oldest son, moved into the buying and selling areas of Cooper’s and gradually took on greater executive responsibilities, easing the pressure on his father. He had a most distinguished parliamentary career and was knighted in 1972, when he retired after nine years as Mayor of Hamilton.
Arthur Cooper also joined the company on completing his Commerce degree at McGill. “Mr. Arthur” was asked to manage the company’s new store on Reid Street. He pioneered the company’s interior decorating department. Evidence of his flair for décor may be found throughout the Island. With Gilbert, he roamed the world, looking for unusual and special merchandise.
Charles Cooper was educated in England and served with the Royal Canadian Navy in wartime. “Chillie” joined the famous china maker Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Ltd. in New York, and was its Canadian president until 1962, when he returned to Bermuda to become general manager of Cooper’s. Sadly, he died two years later.
Edmund Cooper was also educated in England. “Ebbie” worked at Macy’s in New York for a couple of years before joining the Royal Navy in Washington when the Second World War broke out. With his wife Mary and two sons, “Mr. Edmund” moved to Chicago and became the glass buyer for Montgomery Ward & Company. He returned to Bermuda and joined Cooper’s as its merchandise manager.
Like his brothers, Thomas Forster Cooper went first to Saltus Grammar School. He too served in the Royal Navy, and gained experience at Weibolt’s in Chicago before returning to Bermuda to learn the Cooper’s business. “Mr. Forster” was largely responsible for the setting up of the retail store interior of the old Ingham and Wilkinson building on Front Street that was knocked down to make way for the 2007 grand opening.
The family tradition continues. Edmund’s son Peter and his son Somers now manage Cooper’s.
In keeping with the family tradition, “Mr. Peter” spent two years at the New York School of Retailing, working in executive training programmes at some of the city’s large department stores. With his wife Barbara, he moved to England in 1955, to work at Josiah Wedgwood before returning to Bermuda to work at Cooper’s.
His son Somers graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of Vermont before joining the R.H. Macy executive training programme. He worked for Macy’s in New York and Stamford, Connecticut before returning home to join Cooper’s. He is now its operations director, and is credited with carrying much of the burden of the company’s incredibly busy last few years.
A new building
The desire to diversify Cooper’s was keenly felt in the mid-1990s. The idea presented itself of resizing the company and at the same time using the airspace above the existing building, but a partner was needed. In 2004, Cooper’s bought Astwood Dickinson. Cooper’s had a jewellery department, but Astwood Dickinson broadened its reach. That year, HSBC expressed an interest in the new building that Cooper’s had mooted. The bank agreed to buy the Reid Street level, where the Ladies’ Department used to be, in the new building.
Alexander Samuel Cooper Ltd., the holding company for Cooper’s since the mid-1960s, decided to build. It sold three floors and rented the other four, including two to Cooper’s, the store.
The decision meant knocking down the building that had housed the department store since 1975. In turn, that meant relocating the store on a temporary basis. But no suitable space could be found, and as the deadline for knocking down the existing building neared, a brave decision was taken: to have Cooper’s run from half a dozen locations, and later more than that. For three years, Cooper’s was to be a diaspora, spread across Hamilton, and later beyond.
In the past three years, Cooper’s had a Men’s Store, on Front Street near the birdcage. The Cachet building next door sold Cooper’s jewellery and gifts. Junior business was moved to a small spot in the Washington Mall.
The former Buds, Beans and Books space at the foot of Par-la-Ville Road now sold Cooper’s cosmetics and perfume. The Home Store opposite the new bus terminal, where Heritage House used to be, sold home furnishings.
A small space on Front Street and the Astwood Dickinson’s stores, including the Walker Arcade, housed other departments.
What made it work was when Pier 6, which was a restaurant at that point, became available, with its 5,500 square feet of floor space. For the company, the ramifications were huge. Personnel had to be assigned, a new corporate infrastructure was built, and customers were asked to find their way around the new company’s far-flung premises. Pamphlets and directories posted on the hoardings at the construction site helped.
Somers Cooper led the charge. Spaces were found and fitted out. Knowing the move lay ahead, the company completed its Christmas business — usually a four-month process — in a month. For construction to start on time, Cooper’s had to be out by the end of January 2005, which it was. Four new stores were opened in February in four weeks flat.
Just a few months later, Trimingham’s and Smith’s made the fateful announcement of their demise, changing the structure of Bermuda’s retail sector. Although no one at Cooper’s would have wanted it that way, the chances of Cooper’s surviving into its new form were improved. Of course, it presented the chance to enter new lines, meet new buyers and add another level of stress to what must have been challenging times. Fate had changed the course of action Cooper’s intended to follow.A new Cooper’s
When the new building opens, not all of Cooper’s will come back home. The company has decided to maintain its satellite locations. (The Par-la-Ville lease runs out this summer and will not be renewed. It is being used as an inventory clearance centre.) The children’s department, the only casualty of the 2004 relocation away from 61 Front Street, is now found where the Studio ladies store used to be, next to the Mans Store.
Cooper’s will run its new store from the first and second floors of the new building, retaining its Front Street presence. The company has taken over what was Kodak Express in the Washington Mall to double the size of its own Express store. The fine jewellery store, formerly Bluck’s, beneath the Pickled Onion, has been renovated. The company’s administrative offices have been relocated.
Strictly speaking, the new Cooper’s is not a department store. By definition, a department store is a store with many departments and a home furnishing division. The new Cooper’s is a specialty store with boutiques that has gone forth and multiplied.
— in a new worldCooper’s clientele has changed, too. As the Island’s visitor profile has shifted in the past 20 years, Cooper’s has slowly but surely come to derive the largest part of its business from locals.
Now catalogue sales and the Internet are changing the shape of retail globally and, locally, the nature of Cooper’s competition, as is overseas buying. Bermuda retailers operate under a heavy handicap, administratively, carrying the cost of import duties until the goods are sold.
Front Street was once the Bermuda brand internationally, its retail attractions often as unique as Bermuda’s beautiful scenery. Cooper’s re-opens on Front Street as a survivor of the day of the department store in Bermuda, now a bygone age. The company is battle-tested of late, but ready for new challenges, with a third and fourth generation of Coopers at the helm.
A Bermuda tradition
