Search Results for 'Thomas Lipton'

Our first image today is a beautiful study of part of Shop Street c1900. It is one of a number of Galway city photographs that are in an old album belonging to Norman Healy whom we thank for sharing it with us. The two women in the foreground are in their working clothes, plain black shawls and práiscíns which were heavy canvas working aprons used to carry vegetables or maybe fish in, or wear when they were washing clothes. One is carrying a basket which probably contained product she had to sell, possibly eggs, country butter or vegetables. The other lady may have had a basket strapped to her back. The gentleman behind is wearing an impressive white báinín jacket.

In 1871, Thomas Lipton from Glasgow used his savings to open his first shop. By the 1880s he had more than 200 shops. He was an entrepreneur, and when he realised that there was potential for growth in the market for tea, and that the product was too expensive, he went to Ceylon and bought his own tea plantation. He sold his tea at low prices in one pound, half pound, and quarter pound packets, and he advertised it very cleverly: “Direct from the Tea Gardens to the Teapot,” or, “Treat your Lips to a Cup Of Lipton’s Peko Tips Tea, two shillings and eight pence per pound.”