BREAD COUPONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 71, 23 March 1908, Page 5

BREAD COUPONS.

HOUSEWIFE'S VIEW.

"Yes," she said thoughtfuily to a "New Zealand Times" reporter, who asked her if she liked the idea of-buying bread coupons from the baker, "the coupon idea is distinctly a good one—for the baker. When the coupon system reigns, then good-bye; to civility. The cash buyer of bread or anything else is always the worst served. Try it yourself. Pay for. your bread, every week for years. Then suddenly begin the credit system. The baker will become agitated, and perhaps rude. But it you pay once in six months and: grumble once a; day the baker will regard you as a customer to be' pleased, these coupons.'. Suppose I' buy a packet of them from my baker and.l x Jeave the district. I have a packet of paper not negotiable for anything under the sun. My' baker scores,' In the meantime bread may decrease in price. This is, of course, not likely, but if it should occur will the baker give mc the* difference, on the coupons I have purchased? If I have to'pay for my ■ bread before I get it, why does not my husband get his wages .paid-before lie earns them? Suppose my husband, who might be a commercial traveller, if he ; were not a bricklayer, was away for a month or two and I had no money to buy coupons with. I would be still a "good mark" as tradesmen sayj but would not, be able to purchase bread, although maybe my grocer would give mc flour enough to keep the wolf'from the doorvuntil my Ausband returned. Then the coupon system is one-sided to the extent that the buyer of paper,'which'is not necessarily negotiable, gets no discount. I believe that if the loaf coupon business, is insisted on, the art of house-wifery will grow, and the home-made loaf will be a. feature of the ordinary menu. In Wellington, during the past two years, the quality of bread has greatly deteriorated. I do not notice that the bakers are particularly poverty-stricken, a'ndif there is no profit in bread to the baker, an insistence on the coupon system will ■ curtail their profits still further, for I do not think the average person intends- to be jockeyed into an obviously unfair arrangement by any class of tradesmen." .