Dispensing With The Flourishes.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 77, 31 March 1931, Page 8

Dispensing With The Flourishes.

It Occurs To Me.

JJOW MANY more Easter orders could a grocer handle in a day if he dispensed with his flourish ? Every woman who has dashed in to give a grocery order in a hurry will remember that exasperating flourish. It is like the tuning up of the engine. The shopper shoots “ A pound of tea and twenty-five of flour” briskly, but the man behind the counter sharpens that already sharp pencil, braces himself with an elbow, and holds one in suspense while he engages his clutch. With a delicate freeing of the wrist the pencil describes several invisible circles over the docket till the last, swooping lower than the rest, comes down on the paper in a delicate curve and the word is begun. But the transmission of power from brain to pencil has just been long enough to cause one to miss one’s tram. Oh, most precise grocer, ** Life is real, life is earnest,” and shopping must be swift. There are those, I know, who love to get the full savour of their purchase, and the ear cannot always gather from the dulcet feminine tones that the express tram is entering the Square, or the parking time of a car is rapidly expiring with the milliner’s, the draper’s, and the fruiterer’s still unvisited, or that this is a business woman who lives breathlessly, or a flatdweller with a meal hour slipping hungrily away. She may be a young bride just enjoying the excuse to slip into town and “ shop.” It is difficult. But the busy ones would be so grateful if you helped them speed up their shopping ever such a little. B.E.S.