– BAD MANNERS.

Evening Star, Issue 25632, 5 November 1945, Page 2

- BAD MANNERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — ; As a humble returned shop assistant, I beg to protest against your article, ' Bad Manners,' and ask that your learned advisers publish the other side of the story .on the public's bad manners. 'After an absence of four years I have returned to my, former trade as a grocer's assistant to find the same greedy, self-seeking shoppers I knew in peace time. Well do I re- , member the days when war broke outi. and we poor assistants were rushed off our _ feet. meeting the demands of, a panic-stricken public that_ wanted to , buy all they could. lay their hands on, regardless of who went without. To- : day we have rationing, and I am expected to be a grocer, rationing officer, and Minister of Supply. 1 have .' had a ration hook six months, the public years,'' and. 90 per cent, don't understand them. They leave it all to the grocer, and if they use their rations before the period ends I am expected to give them the goods without coupons, am accused of having beaten them for coupons, and the subject of 1 sarcasm when I refer them to the penalties notice in their bodks. You "would be surprised at the number of people who ask for rationed goods without coupons, and, when refused, "bad manners", is a mild term from. them. I am supposed to solve the problem of how half a pound of bacon will do six people for breakfast, or how to make an egg boil twice, and to keep harmony in the home by always havingl "mum's," ".dad's," sons', and daughters' smokes on hand at call, regardless of the market, and when I fan to produce the goods 'I have to take it and smile, as the " customer is always right." Yes, ; the 'shop assistant has always had.a tough job pandering to everyone's whims and tastes, but torday, with shortages, it is worse, and I think your "big advisors" could help us by using your paper to help educate the shopper instead of using the Press _ to belittle us and hand out threats. I regret our unions are not of the militant type like our elder brothers, the watersiders and minors. Perhaps that is why we are so long-suffering in regard to long working hours, poor pay, , and Saturday work, etc., % but I- don't think we should take this latest attack. —I am, etc., Grocer's Assistant. November 3. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The ' Star's ' article on shop manners was a generalised one, and, so far as my experience goes, a correct analysis of a war-time situation. It particularised no one, and it was rather unwise of one firm, at its annual meeting, to challenge the charges and issue a complete disclaimer that any of its hands could be implicated. Since, . however, this firm has brought the charges from the general to the particular, it is competent for me to say that I and others have found this firm's employees not unimplicated in the generally-applied accusations. -During the wool shortage, for example, one particular employee was habitually dis- - courteous and even contemptuous of persons seeking their needs. I can safely assume a habit, since four people of my acquaintance had the same .unpleasant experience. Doubtless this, bug of discourtesy was a war-time affliction, and one includes this particular firm's employees with others merely because it has taken such pains to advertise its rightful exclusion.—l am, etc., Fifty Years'Patron. November 2.