BUTCHERS' HALF-HOLIDAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18533, 18 October 1923, Page 10

BUTCHERS' HALF-HOLIDAY.

SATISFIED WITH SATURDAY. [US . TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.) CHRISTCHURCH. Wednesday ' Inquiries have been made from butchers with regard to the effect of the Saturday nalf.hohday on their business. Until the beginning of last month butchers' establishments closed, for ; the half-holiday on Thursdays and kept open on Saturdays. They now close at 12.45 p.m. on Saturdays. "-..-. \ ■ '■■;.•.■■:■. ..;■•■,. :••'•.••■.■■.■'■;-' The change has made no difference at all to our trade," one butcher declares. It had been thought that it would cause a certain amount of business done by shops in the city to be diverted to the suburban shops in the case of people living in the suburbs to the difficulty of getting into town on Saturday morning, but no such thin* has occurred. If any inconvenience was caused to:, customers when early 'closing on Saturdays was introduced they soon became used to it and made arrangements accordingly. ■"■..' ~_'■ Do people eat as much meat now as they did before the Saturday half-holiday was instituted the butcher was asked. "Quite as much," ~ was the answer. "We find that we do quite a lot of trade on Thursday afternoon now which used to be the half-holiday, and. making the business done throughout the week there i s no difference in the returns. The system is working much bettor than we anticipated before it was adopted. The Saturday halfholiday is as much appreciated by the master butchers as by the men. • Many of us had. not seen , a" football, match or other similar game for years past, and the change enables us to take an interest in sport that hitherto was denied to us."- ■■..:■"•■■';,.' :r : •■■■:.:■:...:.': ,