Are You A Friday “Pack-Horse”?

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 2

Are You A Friday “Pack-Horse”?

How many pounds of groceries did you carry home from town yesterday? Did your feet and your back ache as you stood in queues at the butcher’s shop, the grocer's shop, the greengrocer’s, and the baker’s? With bags bulging with week-end supplies, did you struggle aboard a crowded bus, or walk a long distance back to your car? Did the family suffer from your bad temper when you arrived home?

In Christchurch yesterday hundreds of women trudged along the streets with a clumsy, lopside gait, shoulders pulled forward by bags and baskets bulging with untidy parcels. A typical load for the Friday shopper would weigh about 301 b. This would include the week-end bread, the Sunday roast, several bags of fruit and vegetables, butter, cereals, and a large green cabbage which often keeps falling out of its newspaper wrapping. This might not be much for a tramper in the mountains, but he. or she, carries the loan on his back, where the weight is more evenly distributed. Women of the Eastern countries, who are used to carrying much greater loads, also carry them on their backs, or balanced on poles across their shoulders, or on their heads. “Good For The Posture” “We haven't learned much about carrying since early times,” said the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. A. Douglas) in Christchurch yesterday. “The old traditional ways are nearly always the best. Head carrying is by far the best method—the load bears straight downwards towards the feet, and it is very good for the posture. It is a pity that it is not socially acceptable here.” Pole carrying would also have some disadvantages in Christchurch streets,' •

Carrying things by hand was the most tiring method, and the most inelegant, said Or. Douglas. The load dragged down on the arms, and put unequal strain on parts of the body, especially if all the parcels were in one bag. The body was thrown off balance, and there was more liability to trip. High heels were an additional danger. “It is possible to harm the back quite seriously by such a fall,” said Dr. Douglas. There would be less danger if the load was divided between both hands. “But either way, the hands are tied up, the body is strained, and the whole effect is quite inelegant,” he said. Planned Buying How can the lot of the Friday shopper be improved? “Plan your meals ahead,” is the advice of Mrs J. L. Hunter, formerly senior lecturer in. foods at the Home Science School, University of Otago. She always buys her meat on Thursdays, to avoid the Friday queues, and she plans her menus well into the next week, so that she has to shop less often. “Especially with a refrigerator, it is nb trouble to keep food,” she says. Delivery services could be more widely used because many grocery firms, particularly in suburban centres, have these available. A boon for shoppers is the trolley. A popular gadget in America, few have been seen in Christchurch streets. "Soon we will be devising rules of the pavement for them,” Dr. Douglas said.