ONE JOB, 818 REPLIES TO ADVERTISEMENT

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 October 1948, Page 8

ONE JOB, 818 REPLIES TO ADVERTISEMENT

Ever done envelope addressing on a large scale? Most people probably would not regard such a job as fascinating, but there are many, it seems, who are prepared to take on such work in then spare time at so much ‘per 1000. . For instance, a Wellington business man inserted a small advertisement m the Evening Post one night last week, and he was simply astounded by the number of replies he received. This was the advertisement: “Envelope addressing—Wanted, person to address envelopes by hand at per 1000 m your own home. and. time. Please reply to Evg. Post.” To this advertisement, 818 replies were received. “Knocks Everything’ “When I had a room to let on one occasion.”- said the advertiser, “I received about 200 replies. The response to last*.week’s advertisement “knocks everything!” About-80 per cent, of the replies were from women. They came from far and wide and people in many walks of life were represented.. Among the replies were some from Hastings, Otaki Palmerston North and Dannevirke, and there was a large number from State house tenants in Taita. “The job is a spare time one,” he continued, “but opening all these replies has meant overtime for me. Some of the applicants have sent a stamped, addressed envelope for a reply, and that involves a reply from me. I cannot hope to reply to all the others by letter. I shall endeavour to select about five persons and my present intention, which will cover a fairly long period, is to give the work to invalids among the applicants.” Due to Rising Costs? The advertiser said he could not help thinking what a contrast ’ the number of replies presented to the number of replies he would have received had he advertised for domestic help. He added that the overwhelming response for the part-time work suggested to him that there were many people in need of extra pocket money because of the cost of living today and the fact that overtime work in some undertakings had been reduced. He had found in business that things were tightening up, and it seemed to him that the response to the advertisement might be symptomatic of that development.