Alice Kent Celebrates 40 Years As an Employee at Nelson Glass

From the "shoe lady," to the "tuna fish salad expert" to the face of knowledge and friendliness at Nelson Glass, Alice Kent has been a fixture in Princeton for a long time. This week she celebrates her fortieth year as an employee at the store.

Located on Spring Street, Nelson Glass has been a Princeton business for 55 years. When the store's former owner, Robert Nelson, passed down the business to his daughter, Robbie Nelson, 12 years ago, Ms. Nelson said that having Ms. Kent on hand during the transition helped immensely: "She just has such a wonderful rapport with so many people."

She was also more like an aunt than an employee to Ms. Nelson, who still remembers her from the times when she and her three sisters would come into the store after school and wait for their father to take them home.

"My sisters and I used to love coming in here and seeing Alice with her tiny feet and high-heeled shoes," she said, remembering how Ms. Kent would let the girls try on her plethora of shoes in the ladies room.

She was also the person who taught Ms. Nelson how to make tuna fish sandwiches on the weekends for the employees at the store, she said, remembering how Ms. Kent would send her to the market to gather the ingredients and then show her how to mix them together.

"Alice just knows everybody; she's always talking to her customers about her cats," said Ms. Nelson, adding that pictures of pets of former employees and customers can be found tacked up all over the store. When asked about a photo, Ms. Kent can rattle off the story behind the dog or cat, or their owners, who sometimes came in for a visit under less than pleasant circumstances. She is "the soothing voice of assurance" when a mother calls the store in a panic because her son threw a baseball through the window, Ms. Nelson added.

Alice Kent is also very understanding of the expression "one person's junk is another person's treasure," because of the customers who come in with items such as an old mirror that isn't worth a dime on the market, but is priceless to its owner who remembers when her grandmother had it on her dresser years ago, said Ms. Nelson: "She treats their belongings like gold."

Starting Out

Ms. Kent's first job out of high school was bookkeeping, a job she grew tired of after learning the ropes. Eventually she wound up working at Nelson Glass, where she found a position that would keep her interest for many years to come.

"This job is a lot more diversified ... Even though you're doing the same kind of thing it's always a little different," said Ms. Kent.

From answering phones and customers' questions, to handling orders that are coming in each day, Ms. Kent has become "the face of Nelson Glass," said Ms. Nelson.

But when Ms. Kent first started, many things were different, not only at Nelson Glass, but in the world. Women were expected to wear dresses and high heels to work, no matter what the job, and men were always asked for when there was a question, she said, adding that when customers came in seeking more "technical information" they would look past her to a man working in the store.

Luckily, things are much different now, she said: "Now people always come in to talk to me." If Ms. Kent is out on vacation or away for an afternoon at a doctor's appointment, customers seem lost when they come into the store, said Ms. Nelson: "She's the most knowledgeable person here ... Whenever something comes in everyone looks to Alice and she knows what to do with it."

Ms. Nelson said she always remembers how devoted Ms. Kent was to her job, even at the beginning: "Back then employees had a loyalty to their jobs and employers had a loyalty to their employees," she said, adding that she appreciates how while times have changed, Ms. Kent's loyalty to the company hasn't.

Having worked at the Spring Street store for four decades, Ms. Kent can remember a different Princeton, one where a butcher was right across the street on Witherspoon, and Princeton University students weren't allowed to have cars on campus.

"When I first came here parking was never a problem," said Ms. Kent, who said how surprised she was to see the three-story garage go up when the Borough never used to allow any building to be higher than two stories.

She recalled the big fuss when a Burger King opened in town, and how none of the street lights that exist today on Nassau Street used to be there. She also recalled seeing farmland on all sides once she got past Mercer Street on her way home from work.

"It was really a small town then," she said, adding that Princeton has still managed to keep its small town feel in a lot of ways despite the many changes it has undergone over the years.

Keeping that small town feeling alive in her work at Nelson Glass, every day of work is a new job with a friendly, familiar face, said Ms. Kent: "In a sense a lot of things have change here, but in a sense everything has stayed the same."