CHAPTER 3. Retail - Part I
Since we’re on the topic, retail shops are something that runs deep in the veins of the family. It is part of our tissue as much as blood or sweat.
My grandfather (mom’s side, dad’s side is a bit trickier. Yeah, yeah, later again, no time now) was a retailer and started off selling clothes in a van at street fairs. He was a tall man, big hands and heart and an even bigger voice and belly. People would stand by and listen for hours on end just because it was so very entertaining. It was a free auction show for all and (hopefully) a profitable engagement for my grandfather and his boss.
My grandfather’s boss was a man by the name Cardoso da Saudade. He was a family and business man and quite a household name in his hometown. He owned a retail shop that would sell selected items at street fairs. That man was my great-grandfather and my grandfather would later marry his daughter.
It was a risky move, falling in love and marrying the bosses’ daughter, specially in 1950’s Portugal but he pulled it off big time and that’s when Fernandes and Emilia became a thing.