Continuing my story of The Shop This is part 7 Local private schools were good customers but unfortunately some were reluctant to pay their accounts before the end of their school term. We supplied “The Downs School for Girls” in Sutton Road when reinstated in 1945 after the Canadian troops had vacated their school. Miss Wild, the school’s provisions housekeeper arranged for us to supply the rationed allocation of Bacon, sugar, margarine, eggs, jam, plus the main supplier of 112lb bags of potatoes, (they did produce a few vegetables on site) Tea and coffee were bought from specialist manufacturers. The bacon ration was always taken in streaky rashers which had to be de rinded on Saturday afternoons then refrigerated ready for slicing on Monday. Gradually the majority of provisions became more plentiful and catering became competitive with smaller shops losing out to national named catering suppliers. To enable us to clear unwanted goods such as 7lb jars of jam Miss Wild conscientiously arranged for the school to purchase them. Local private schools were good customers but unfortunately some were reluctant to pay their accounts before the end of school term. We supplied “The Downs School for Girls” in Sutton Road when reinstated in 1945 after the Canadian troops had vacated the school. Miss Wild, the school’s provisions housekeeper arranged for us to supply the rationed allocation of Bacon, sugar, margarine, eggs, jam, plus the main supplier of 112lb bags of potatoes, (they did produce a few vegetables on site) Tea and coffee were bought from specialist manufacturers. The bacon ration was always taken in streaky rashers which had to be de rinded on Saturday afternoons then refrigerated ready for slicing on Monday. Our small shop area had an old wooden counter cluttered with seasonal items to attract the eye of the shopper. In front was an ancient brown chair which had seen better days. When serving a customer you were required to patiently wait for them to read their requirements, usually from the back of a recycled envelope, or wait until they slowly attempted to mentally replenish their store cupboard. The price of the items being assembled, one by one, on the counter had to be written down in pencil on a scrap of paper and when you were sure the customer had all she wanted add the list up. My speciality was to add the column of numbers downwards then double check them the other way thus hoping this method would give the customer greater confidence in my mathematical prowess. Before putting any money in the till there was one more important function to perform which was the RATION BOOK In the first issue of ration books the customer could take her book(s) to what ever shop she choose and the grocer had the horrendous task of using a pair of scissors to remove a little paper square from the relevant page. And at the end of a period all those tiny bits of paper had to be carefully sorted and counted and submitted to the local Food Office. Fortunately in later issues of ration books the housewife was required to “register” with a particular grocer who then claimed the total amount for all his “registered customers” and was supplied accordingly. Commodities like Meat, Bacon, Sugar, Tea, Butter, Margarine, Cooking fat (no lard then), 2 ozs Cheese (12ozs for agriculture workers) and the occasional egg, were added gradually as supplies became more difficult. Many items of grocery were becoming difficult to obtain and during 1941 a “points” system was devised with each ration book containing a specific number of points available for use during a four week period. Luxury items (always providing the grocer had them) cost a greater number of points. Most housewives used some of the points to buy essential goods like Baked Beans, Dried Fruit, Tins of Fruit, and for a special treat the much prized tin of Pink Salmon. Bread was pretty uninteresting as the Minister for Food soon introduced the wartime “Standard Loaf”. . This rather dull loaf, a mixture of white and brown flour, when sparingly spread with a non-branded Margarine, was guaranteed not to tickle the taste buds. In 1940 construction was begun, in the garden of the shop, of a reinforced concrete Air Raid Shelter complete with electricity and wooden framed bunks to enable five people to sleep in safety. It was a solid shelter with an escape hatch slanted “off the vertical” to protect it from falling debris. This shelter, when the war was over, was put to use as cool storage and for the next 26 years was regularly used for the slow maturing of whole cheeses. Behind the serving counter were large wooden drawers, black with age and thickly varnished. The drawers contained a motley assortment of dried fruit and what was know as pulses, these were various items of split peas ,marrowfat peas, lentils, rice plus white and brown sugar. All this had to be weighed out for the customer into paper bags and over the years the drawers began to show their age and it would not be uncommon for a customer to have a few grains of rice with their brown sugar. Dried fruit was unloaded from ships that had survived the menace of German submarines during their Atlantic crossing from Australia and South Africa and were delivered in heavy wooden boxes. After you had found something to cut the wires that the boxes were bound with and a hammer to knock the top of the box, then you were then confronted with a block of dried fruit which was nearly always completely stuck together. My method of breaking the fruit into lumps was to plunge in an old ham fork deep down into the fruit, wiggle it about and try to break it into smaller pieces. Currents and Sultanas were by far the easiest to break apart as they were the “driest” of all the dried fruit. Raisins coming next and, at the very bottom of the list would be Dates. They came in a solid block which resembled a lump of concrete, and when attacked by the well tried method of the ham fork one often ended up with a mess of sticky split dates, Yuk !! Storage at the shop was a haven for mice. With all that edible stuff there for the taking it was difficult to control them. My father eventually obtained a number of war surplus square aluminium bins, about 18 inches square and three feet high. With the various fittings and camouflaged markings we deduced they had been ready to use to drop supplies to forward troops by parachute. Parachutes didn’t come as part of the deal but nevertheless the bins were useful for storage and with their tight lids kept the mice out. Post war change for retail grocery shops was slow. During 1946 a great number of things were still in short supply and rationing was to continue for some time. Bread rationing had been introduced with the little coupons called “BU’s” short for bread unit. Sweets were still on coupons as were clothes with many a bride having to walk down the aisle with an outfit scraped together by all her relations pooling their clothing coupons. At some time after the war my father had the opportunity to purchase number 65 Hindover Road and we found this change of living accommodation absolutely wonderful. It was a fairly new property, with a small kitchen complete with solid fuel boiler, dining room with french windows, a lounge and three bedrooms, a wonderful bathroom with separate WC. Absolute heaven The following few years saw little change at the shop but trade continued to grow and was financially able to support additional staff. Uncle Ted, (mother’s brother) and Lilian Hatcher along with myself were the daily staff plus Arthur Reeves who did a couple of hours after the shop had closed carrying boxes of delivered goods upstairs to what was now storage rooms. After the war the concept of a each town having a great number of small shops was beginning to change. Established provision merchants like Sainsburys, Home & Colonial and the Co-op were being supplemented by the latest retail giants like Tesco. Mr Cohen and his wife Tessa ( hence the trade name “TESCO”) were instrumental in giving the public slightly cheaper goods without loss of quality. They did this by guaranteeing a manufacturer a regular contract of a particular item and having it labelled with the Tesco’s name. This practice was to be called “own label” something one sees to this day in all the major supermarkets. Gradually the smaller corner shops were beginning to feel uneasy, the wind of change was blowing and the wholesalers that had been supplying the corner shops knew that if they were to survive themselves they had to come up with an answer. That answer was something they called a “Trading Group”. Small shops were persuaded to join a named group, Mace, VG, Spar being the most prominent. The individual wholesalers themselves were banding together into one of these groups and were soon able to construct a huge concern to guarantee the manufacturer a massive sales outlet These newly formed trading groups soon acquired new premises with resulting entourage of elected executives and office staff. Running costs being met by a modest contribution from it’s retail members End of part 7
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 21:56:00 +0000
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