Going Shopping!

When I sit down at my computer to send off an order to Amazon I really do not consider much about my mode of ordering. But if we think about it, in my lifetime a lot has changed in the way we shop.

I was born just before the Second World War so as a small girl there was no, ‘before the war,” to remember. Rationing of everything was the order of the day! Does anyone remember the rationing books? If you went to stay at a friend’s you were expected to bring your rationing book with you so your hostess could feed you! It would seem very complicated nowadays but it made sure everyone was fairly treated and in actual fact the general health of the British Public rose during wartime!

The first time I really experienced shopping was going to Edinburgh to be kitted out for the boarding school I was so surprised to hear I was about to enter! We went to a very old fashioned department store called Frasers on Princes Street as this was where the school uniform was available. It was rather like the store in, ”Are you Being Served,” with an elevator operated by a man in white gloves who intoned the goods available on each floor. I had always thought that this store was closed long ago and was surprised on looking it up to find it still in existence!

 In Edinburgh,I remember standing mulishly on a stool while a store clerk crawled around pinning up the hems of my tunics. The school colours were maroon and blue and I have hated that combination ever since. The net result of always wearing school colours was that when we finally left school we had no idea about fashion or what looked good on us. I blame this lack of exposure for my lasting poor fashion sense! After leaving school my poor mother despaired of me ever gaining an interest in clothes and at one point bought me a completely indestructible tweed suit!. It lasted forever, as good Scottish tweed does, and I have a photograph of me wearing it in Paris of all places. It looks awful.

 I was provided with a clothing allowance by my Dad but nearly always preferred to spend the money on other items. I bought a gramophone with some of it and wore old tartan trousers and a duffle coat for most of my time at university. Everyone bought clothes at Marks and Spenser’s  then and the very exclusive shops were only frequented by the much better off. The clothes at Marks were nearly always well made, relatively inexpensive and quietly stylish.

While at University I made my first foray into food shopping. When I lived at home the groceries arrived by many and various ways and means. In those days many merchants traveled the roads in a van which showed their ware by opening up a sort of counter over the tailgate. Each merchant had an expected day and you always knew that after a visit from,” Archie the Fish” it would be Fish and Chips for supper! These itinerant merchants were the very best bringers of not only food but all sorts of news in our rural countryside! We also ordered a weekly delivery of both food and large boxes of liquor and beer from the local grocer.

When I moved into an apartment with two women friends in my second year of university I had my first exposure to personal shopping! We took it in turns to cook, usually for two nights and the other two friends were in charge of washing up! I can hardly believe it but our contribution to the “Kitty” was 10/6 per week! On this we bought the makings of the evening meal and any other items the household required. There were no refrigerators in those days so anything that needed to be kept cold was placed in a kind of cage outside the kitchen window. Luckily Scottish weather was usually cooperative and kept things cold enough. It did mean, however that we shopped nearly every day. If it was our day to cook we took the kitty with us on the way into university and scoped out all the shops as we walked. For those who remember those days all the little stores were along the main roads. Some were groceries and some sold fruit and vegetables, some were butchers with large carcases in the window. Some sold only fish and then only when the fleet came in from the North Atlantic. What looked good was what we were having for supper!

I never did learn to cook at home as my mother did all this work when I was growing up! Usually the only time I became involved was to look in the pot and advise if I thought there was enough! If in the unlikely instance there was not enough the word would go out. F.H.B. (family hold back).!

After I got married we lived in a very ancient tenement in the West Bow in Edinburgh. Looking at pictures of it now the buildings have been shored up and the street is filled with tourist attracting little stores. In our day there was a butcher shop across the way and the shopkeeper was delighted to sell us three or four rashers of bacon for breakfast. The rest of the stores sold hardware and one even sold the rope rumoured to have provided for the last hanging ever to have taken place in Edinburgh!

The next time I remember a real change in my shopping behaviour was when we finally rented a house in Cobourg, Ontario. All the summer of 1962, since our arrival in Canada, we lived in a motel without a fridge and I bought necessary supplies every day from a neighbourhood depanneur. When we finally settle in our rented house I was able to walk to the nearest Loblaws and buy groceries! Am I right in remembering my weekly requirements cost only fifteen dollars! These were delivered in useful carboard boxes which became great toys for the kids for a least a couple of days!

As the first winter progressed I became more and more concerned that the children would be seriously affected by the cold! I devised a plan where I would walk to the nearest store go in and warm up and so on all the way into town ending up at the grocery store and then reversing the process all the way home! I certainly got plenty of exercise! We lived directly adjacent to the beach and every day as I walked along to the stores there was a more fantastic ice display along the shoreline. It was hard to remember the beautiful hot weather in the same place over the summer!

During the intervening years most of us have become used to doing a weekly shop in a grocery store. The biggest innovation during the pandemic has been telephone ordering and then picking up your order, contactless shopping!. In fact online shopping has become the most usual method for many people. I am very fortunate to have my daughter pick up for me from Loblaws so it is a long time since I have even been into the local Metro! This brings me back to Amazon! Like many people I now buy everything online and very seldom go into a store. For me going to the stores to browse is probably a thing of the past. However, I still enjoy a visit to the bookstore and looking at the latest best sellers! Old fashioned ways may yet return!