THE CUSTOMS OF THE GROCERY TRADE [To the Editor of
the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In the Spectator of February 27th you have a para- graph on the Report of the Food Council, in which you say
" The trick of weighing the paper wrapper will have to dis- appear." I beg most emphatically to say it is no trick to
weigh the paper (not the wrapper) which is necessary to contain the article in question, but a custom which has been in existence for upwards of a century. It was never chal- lenged till the present time, and in my opinion would not now have been objected to had it not been that in some cases (sadly too many, unfortunately) excessively heavy papers have been used; thereby doing an injustice to the purchasers, and bringing the trade into bad repute with the public generally. But why is the whole trade held up to scorn by being dubbed tricksters—which is clearly what the sentence implies ? It is un-English to condemn a whole community for the faults of a few. As an assistant and as proprietor I have served behind a grocer's counter for sixty-two years, and have not yet been obliged to resort to trickery, and I believe the same can be said of the majority of my fellow-traders.—I am, Sir, &c., AN OLD GROCER.
Previous page
