Our Daily Bread

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31621, 6 March 1968, Page 16

Our Daily Bread

Sir, —I am at a loss to understand the claim of a major bakery firm in this city, “Only our bread has the day of baking printed on the wrapper—and that’s your guarantee you are getting today’s fresh bread,” when each Thursday night about 10.30 my weekend bread is delivered, plainly marked “Friday.” I suggest that the firm should im-

print its wrappers with the true day of baking, or better still, organise its staff so that we can have our bread baked early on Friday and have it still edible on a Sunday evening.—Yours, etc., CRUSTY CUSTOMER. February 23, 1968.

[A spokesman for Stacey and Hawker, Ltd, replies: “Your correspondent has her bread delivered to her residence, a service offered by all Christchurch bakers so that consumers, if they so elect, may have “fresh bread for breakfast.” The service is operated by self-employed bread-vendors and is provided at a price which is possible only because these vendors work very long hours. On Fridays, when 40 per cent of a week’s bread is sold, some work as long as 13 hours at a stretch, at night and in all weathers. If this time were curtailed by eliminating the first seven or eight hours of that delivery time it would certainly ensure fresher bread but at an increase in price which, in our opinion, consumers would not be pepared to pay. Our dating practice, although at week-ends resulting in the anomaly to which your correspondent draws attention, provides consumers with a protection they would not otherwise have.”]