OT: So I was idly thinking.......

[The Wanderer]

..... whatever happened to Lyons Individual Fruit pies? There was a success story if ever there was one. Could be found at almost any litle country shop. Any hungry fellow could pick up and gnaw on a Lyons fruit pie to stave off the hunger pangs.

And many (MANY) years ago Sainsbury's also made individual fruit pies - apple and apricot flavours. They were unboxed and I used to buy them in the days before JS was a full-blown supermarket. Used to come with a soft flaky type of pastry and MASSES of real fruity filling, not the paste like puree to be found in today's fruit pies. Sainsbury's used to have a real vistorian style establishment in the High Street in Oxford, tiled throughout, with white marble set into really dark mahogany counters and novelty of novelties, people who actually served from behind the counters.

Oh, and the Co-op store that had little money tubes that whizzed around the shop on wires about 3 or 4 ft above your head. The assistant screwed a tube into a carrier, pulled on a cord and the things shot off to the cashier sitting in splendid isolation in a gallery room looking down on the sales floor. Progress came when they were replaced with the vacuum tubes around the store.

[Bob Eager]

My mum was one of those cashiers, sitting on the top floor of the Co-Op in Brighton. She started at the age of 14, was allowed to handle cash at

16, and worked until she had to leave when she had children. That was vacuum tubes - but the little ones on a wire were still there in the basement as there wasn't enough 'suck' to get the tubes all the way to the top floor.

[Andy Cap]

The really early ones were square, with the corner knocked off and as you say, a delicious snack. But would you really want to return to the days where you went to one counter for your tea, another for your butter and yet another for your bacon? I agree with the customer service aspect though. Can't stand these DIY tills with any more than about three items and object to being almost forced to use them, because they are reducing the number of cashiers.

Andy C

[David WE Roberts]

You are Methuselah AICMFP. ;-)

[Dave Liquorice]

Is that any different to wandering from the tea & coffee aisle to the diary spreads chiller to the meats chiller?

Aye, supposed to be quicker? I don't think so. I get frustrated waiting for the damn things to think about the next step and as for "unexpected item in bagging area".... grrrr....

[David WE Roberts]

Oh, the shame. And this is a DIY group as well. Any self respecting DIYer knows that s/he can swipe bar codes far faster than a dumb till bunny. Now all they have to include is automatic age recognition so you don't need authorisation for the necessary medicinal alchohol.

[peteshew]

I still pop round to the butcher's shop next door for pork pies - as well as eggs, fruit and veg and christmas trees (in season) as well as meat for which Frank can name the farm :-)

[peteshew]

Can still be seen at Beamish.

[Andy Cap]

No wonder you prefer communication with a machine ! ;-)

Andy C

[Andy Burns]

For small shopping runs, I used to use the handheld scanners, but now it seems half the times they only have one of the fast-scan tills open, so you end up queueing for that!

Now I just take a normal basket, if I get to the checkouts and the self-scan queue is empty I'll use them, I've found where the silencer button for the voice 'assistance' is now ...

[Dave Liquorice]

I can swipe and put things in the bagging area faster than the machine can read the bar code and/or acknowldege the item has entered the bagging area. They are just so slow.

[Pete Zahut]

Singleton's Butchers in Garstang, Lancashire sell raw and cooked meats that you pay for at one counter, cakes and bread that you pay for at another counter and hot pork pies (with or without gravy) and other hot food that you pay for at a third counter. PITA if you want something from all three 'cos you can be in there half an hour at busy times, but well worth it for the hot pork pies! :-)

I agree with the customer

[stuart noble]

I heard from a bloke who worked for Lyons that the apples in their "apple pies" were in fact turnips. Easier to process apparently

[Bob Eager]

Most of the branches of J C Rooks in Kent are like that. Counter on the left for cooked meat, etc. Counter on the right for cooked meat. Counter at the end for hot pasties, sausage rolls, etc. (nice, they are)...

[Mike Clarke]

They probably gave up when they had to start charging VAT on hot "ready to eat" food. The extra hassle of dealing with 2 different prices for the same item hot or cold put many off. Some more enterprising ones manage to find some pies that have "just come out of the oven and haven't had time to cool down yet".

[Mike Clarke]

Yes, you don't have to queue in each aisle.

[ARWadsworth]

[Dave Liquorice]

Not sure I like that idea... rather to easy for cross contamination I would have thought.

[Tim Lamb]

Nothing new there. My grandfather, retired and dead 50 years, used to ask new pupils at his school what was their father's work. One said *pip maker, sir*. Apparently his father was responsible for making pips to put in Raspberry jam.

There is the other tale about the army caterer who was found putting broken egg shells into the scrambled egg mix. When questioned he said it was to make the troops think they were eating real eggs!

regards

[Pete Zahut]

They are not literally at the same counter. Raw meats in one counter unit with 1 or 2 people serving, cooked meats in a seperate counter unit with 1 or 2 people serving. The customer *pays* at one till for either, that's what I meant. Singleton's have been there for decades and are still as busy and popular as ever - no cross-contamination or other hygeine problems there :-)