The What Every Woman Wants department store was opened by Vera Weisfeld and her husband Gerald in 1971.
Vera Weisfeld has passed away age 87(Image: Glasgow Live)
The founder of Glasgow department store What Every Woman Wants has died at the age of 87. Vera Weisfeld died peacefully surrounded by her on Thursday night (December 4), according to spokesperson.
The What Every Woman Wants department store became one of the biggest in Scotland after Vera and her husband Gerald opened their first shop in 1971 on Argyle Street. Originally the idea of businessman Gerald Weisfeld, he turned to young single mother Vera to make the store a success, before the pair fell in love along the way.
The store opened its doors at a time when many Glaswegians were struggling for money, but there was a want and need for fashion. Vera and Gerald would barter with suppliers to get clothes as cheap as possible in order to make their store affordable for the Glasgow everywoman.
Vera and Gerald Weisfeld(Image: Glasgow Live)Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
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The businesswoman once told Glasgow Live she would even accept milk tokens to those who were struggling, making high street fashion affordable for everyone in the city, saying: “We did business in a way people in Glasgow understood.”
The couple’s retail empire of What Every stores had turnover of £100m at its peak, but Vera always kept the people of Glasgow at the heart of the original flagship store, the site of which was demolished in 2019.
The historic city centre building, which dates from about 1870, had spanned over a hundred more stores around the UK before the Weisfields sold the business for £50 million in 1990.
Gerald passed in 2020 age 79 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. And five years later, Vera has peacefully joined him.