Life of a Grocer c 1920
Extract from an unpublished memoir written by the late Cyril Joseph Steley in the early 1980s. He left school aged 13 in 1916 to work for six years in his father’s grocery business – Steley’s Stores in Stradbroke Road, Southwold.

“… We supplied provisions not only for the townspeople, but our vans served many customers in the countryside as far away as Blythburgh, Wenhaston, Wangford, Uggeshall, Frostenden and Wrentham.

These were the days when a grocer really was a grocer, unlike the modern food store where assistants supply customers with ready-packed food from the shelves, who pay at a cash desk on leaving. There are few, if any, real grocers left, so it might be of interest to some to read an account of what was involved in being a grocer in 1920.

To be an expert, practical grocer, an apprenticeship had to be served and the following description will show why!

Almost every item that came in from the wholesale came in bulk. That means it had all to be weighed out and packeted ready for sale. Soft sugar came in one hundredweight (1 cwt) sacks and cube sugar in one hundredweight boxes which had to be scooped out, weighed and put into blue paper sugar bags.

Pepper and spices had to be weighed in ounces and put in paper, cone-shaped bags which one had to make oneself.

Butter and margarine came in 14lb (one stone) blocks which had to be teased out of wooden boxes, weighed, then patted into shape with wooden pats.

Cheese came in large, round wooden crates, to be cut in halves with a large knife then cut into wedges with a cheese wire.

Currants, raisins and sultanas came in large blocks of fruit pressed firmly together.  They had to be separated, put into a large, circular sieve to be polished with water by hand before they could be packeted for sale.

Bacon came in as the half side of a pig, smoked and unsmoked, Danish, Irish or English. The side of bacon had to be cut up before it could be sold. First the shoulder and rump had to be severed and boned. Then the ribs had to be sawn down the centre, one half of which was sold as Back Bacon and the other half as Streaky.  All this had to be undertaken before the bacon could be displayed on the shelves.

Rice and tapioca, cornflour, custard powder, tea and coffee – and a hundred and one other commodities – all needed weighing and packing before being sold.

The shop had a store at the back for sacks of potatoes and bulky goods.

Barrels of vinegar had to have their bungs removed and taps inserted, to be measured in pewter jugs and bottled for sale. Even black treacle came in casks - the contents extracted by taking out the bung.

There were drawers of dried butter beans, peas and haricot beans beneath the counter and, on the counter, large brass scales which had to be polished daily.

These were the days of few telephones and shop assistants went out daily to collect orders from customers' homes. Errand boys pushed hand carts or pedalled bicycles laden with grocery orders - with no charge for delivery and a mere pittance in wages.

Most shops were open till late in the evening and, on Saturdays - which was payday for most working people - unthil midnight. Many a Saturday night I have sat on a sack of produce - tired out and asleep - waiting for my father to close the shop."