Big prize for efficiency

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32568, 30 March 1971, Page 14

Big prize for efficiency

Competition is the spice of life in the Four Square organisation and one of the latest contests is the national checker championship.

How quickly can 35 grocery items be accurately rung up on a check-out system. Miss Elaine Jackson, of Mt Roskill, who won the firstever championship to be held in New Zealand last year, can state with pride that it takes 28 seconds. She is shown (above) second from the right.

This is an astounding time when it is considered that it takes 26 seconds for the register motor bar to revolve continuously 35 times without recording any prices on the register.

More than 1800 people watched the National Checker of the Year final

in the austere Auckland Town Hall which over the years has been used to many sounds from symphony orchestras, massed choirs to woolbuying bids and screams of wrestling fans.

Never before had it echoed to the sound of six cash registers being worked at top speed.

Six pleasant and sportsmanlike young women were in the ring and after the national title, having being brought from all over the country after winning area finals.

The title, with the first prize a return trip to Australia and $l5O spending money, was the goal the girls were striving for. The regional finalists stood in the spotlighted hall,, each with a register, a check-out counter and 35 grocery items covered with a cloth.

At each girl’s side stood a judge, to watch every move, and throughout the hall an atmosphere of tension. Tense it was, because three of the contestants had not

been beaten and were not going to succumb without a fight. At the word “go” the cloth covering the articles was whipped away and the girls had their first glimpse of the items to be checked through they had to know their prices! Three times, with three different groups of foods, this scene was repeated.

The two contestants in the final from Christchurch were Miss Mary Gardiner and Miss Cheryl Cox.