After being a familiar face in the Asser department store Vanderveen for almost half a century, shoemaker Arnold Berkhout is closing down. He will retire from Saturday.
“I think it’s fine. I have worked for a total of more than 47 years,” he says about his upcoming retirement. But for his regular customers it takes some getting used to. He has loyal customers who only have extra keys made by him. His secret? “If you do this for more than forty years, you gain some experience. You are quick at it. And ask a good price for it, don’t exaggerate. That also attracts people.”
The best part of shoemaking for Berkhout is ‘making something good out of something bad’, he says, as he stands among his shoemaking equipment for one of the last times. “And I succeeded quite well, judging by the reactions of the people. Tickets and money and sweets, you name it,” he says about his departure.
Although he is officially a shoemaker, making keys is Berkhout’s favorite activity. “Shoemaking has changed considerably over the years. You see a lot of people walking in sports shoes. In the past, you had a lot more soles with heels. You see that a lot less now.”
In the Vanderveen department store, Berkhout’s departure leaves a void in ‘his’ place. “Very sad that he is leaving,” says owner Nico Vanderveen. “You can just see that in the reactions of the people. Everyone knows Arnold too. 44 years in this place, in the middle of the department store. Really at an AAA location, with a lot of things moving around, people passing by. He has observed it all.
Will anyone follow in Berkhout’s footsteps? “I think so. I hope to be able to deliver the good news before too long,” says Vanderveen. “Then we hope for the next 44 years, so to speak.”