After reading yet another article about supermarket rage, parking rage, trolley rage and whatever else sort of rage I began to recall when I was a young girl (some 50 years ago) about how my mother went about her shopping.

The milkman called every day except Sunday.  The grocer who had a store in Mary Street would deliver your groceries.  You could even just deliver your list and it would be all collected for you and delivered that day. The baker would call. The fruiterer who had a large red truck would call each week.  Along with all the fruit and vegetables he kept a supply of lollies in large containers.  Your selection would then be handed to you in a small white paper packet.

If you were wanting something else like material and accessories, china, linen and other household goods a huge department store called Cullinanes occupied a large section of Mary Street to cater for your every need.  Cullinanes actually had a store on each side of Mary Street   where Cullinanes Plaza now stands and across the street where a newsagency and bags and gift store occupy a new building which housed a Post Office after the old Cullinanes building was demolished.  Anyway back to shopping in Cullinanes.  Purchases would be wrapped in brown paper and string and these too could be delivered if you wished.

Even the mail deliveries were different with two deliveries each week day, one in the morning and another after lunch AND a Saturday morning delivery.  Sometimes the mailman who carried a large leather bag over his shoulder would take your mail back to post for you.

Of course this simple and unsophisticated way of shopping has been replaced by huge supermarkets and chain stores where you as the customer have to find everything yourself and then scan everything yourself and give your money to a machine and then carry it all to your car yourself.  That is if you have found a parking space and not been yelled at in the process.

Progress? I for one am not so sure.

By Dianne