A Wartime Grocer in Ballyclare A grocer's job has changed, like most other jobs, but maybe a grocer's has changed the most. My nana worked as a grocer for twenty years. Starting in 1940, aged fourteen, she enjoyed her work. She worked in many different shops, but she stayed in Ballyclare. From Monday to Thursday my nana would arrive at 9.00 am and go home at 6.00 pm. On Fridays and Saturdays it was 9.00 am till 8.00pm, although eventually she got a half-day on Saturday. Altogether she worked fifty-eight hours a week and for that my nan got fifteen shillings. In 1940, the war was raging and Nazi submarines were sinking British ships carrying food supplies, so rationing was introduced by the government. This was so rich people could not buy all the food supplies and leave the poor with none. Each person was given a ration book which contained a limited amount of coupons. The coupons were handed over in exchange for the goods. Among the weekly rations (for one person) were two ounces of butter, two ounces of cheese, four ounces of sugar and two ounces of tea. Although wartime rationing was helpful to poor people, to a grocer it was a nuisance. Each and every coupon had to be cut out by the grocer, which was a time waster. The cash register was a large machine with big buttons that had penny, shilling, sixpence and so on - not decimal money. My nana had to add up the cost of the goods first on a piece of paper before she entered the amount into the machine.Nowadays, we have tea bags, but fifty years ago the tea came loose in big chests. When the tea came to the grocery shop, it was put in the storeroom. If nana had a spare moment, she would go into the storeroom to get some tea weighed out in advance, to save time. The scales were not digital, nor did they have a dial. Two metal plates, each the same weight were on two sides of the pivot. A set of weights was put on one side, the item on the other. These then had to balance. Biscuits, like the tea, came loose and also had to be weighed out. Many of them got broken this way. The broken ones were put into an empty tin and sold cheaper than the whole biscuits. Other items the shop sold, apart from groceries, were parafin oil, coal and feeding stuff for farmers, as many of the shop's customers were from the country. Farmers also brought in country butter to be sold in the store. As I said at the start, a grocer's job has undergone many changes since fifty years ago. Now there are tea bags and biscuit packets, decimals and metrication and of course no rationing. The shop has changed as well and now there are large supermarkets where everything is pre-weighed and pre-packed. Shopping trolleys are now in use, as well as checkouts. The invention of the bar code has marked a signficant breakthrough in shopping. Recently a major supermarket introduced home-shopping, where you phone or fax the supermarket, give them your order and the food will be delivered to your home the next day. But will shopping change too much? Many people enjoy getting out and chatting to their friends. I think a grocer's job has changed, and will change for many years to come. Adam Stevenson - P6 - Fairview Primary School Competition Index Return to Main Page