LONDON FRUIT PRICES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22805, 12 August 1937, Page 15

LONDON FRUIT PRICES

Sir, —I was glad to see a letter re the price of fruit in London. Anyone who knows London at all knows you can pay almost as much as you like or as little as you like, according to where you shop. The average Londoner rarely even sees the 5s peach, but if he wants ono waits till tliey are a penny or twopence each. As to strawberries, I can assure your readers there are very few Londoners who would pay 2s a lb. off a barrow, and also very few costers who could pay Is lb. wholesale. Tho average Londoner waits for strawberries to be 6d, then 4d, and then 2d a lb. before he buys in any quantity off a barrow, although at Christmas time tho rich man can pay from ten to 30 shillings each. The coster usually buys one kind of fruit only, whatever is going cheap that day, and takes his barrow into the poorer suburbs. One naturally looks for the price of the fruit most popular in one's own country. At iirst, after being used to buying Kentish cherries at 2d a lb., black currants at 3d a lb., and oranges two a penny in London, I could not see the cheap apples and pears that one could buy in Auckland, for looking at the prices of cherries and oranges here. One must, I think, housekeep in a country before one can safely compare prices. Londoner.