Retro Nostalgia 1995: There’s a plaice for Mary at top table!

In fact, Mary’s knowledge as a fish counter assistant in Asda’s Falkirk store has won her national recognition.

Not only that, 34 year old Mary’s enthusiasm for the job in the past year has almost certainly saved that department from closure.

Store manager Brendan Chambers said: ‘‘There was a serious threat of the fish department being closed six months ago because sales had been sinking dramatically.

‘‘Now, through Mary’s efforts to promote fish, sales have rocketed by 500 per cent since lat summer – the second highest total in any of Asda’s UK stores’’.

Falkirk’s massive increase in trade made Mary the top saleswoman in Scotland.

When the results were announced, she took second place to an employee at the store in Caerphilly, Wales.

Her prize was a luxury weekend for two at a five-star hotel in Inverness.

Mary lives in Windsor Road, Falkirk, with her husband, Joe, and children, David (15) and Linda (13). They are both pupils at Falkirk High School.