Click and Collect

Ordering shopping from a store and picking it up or having it delivered seems to be a modern service but it is not. I remember, as a child, going down to the town with my mother on a Saturday morning. Before we left home my mother wrote out a list for the grocer and greengrocer. We queued up at the high wooden counter to wait our turn. The shop assistant took the list and noted the price against each item. She then added it up and presented the total to my mother for payment. They then agreed a time for the shopping to be delivered. We continued to the greengrocer and repeated this process. We were then free to have a drink at the local cafe or look for some clothes.

On our return home the message boys would turn up at the pre-arranged time with boxes of the items which my mother had bought earlier. The boys cycled up the hill in the style of Open All Hours with the shopping in the big basket on the front of the bike. If we were still out the shopping was left on the doorstep.

One day my aunt was returning to her house when she was met with breakfast cereal blowing down the road. When she rounded the corner she was met with a comical sight. My 8 year old cousin had been playing outside when his neighbours shopping was delivered and left on the doorstep. My cousin decided that he had found this shopping and started to share it out amongst the local children. My aunt laughed but she explained that it belonged to her neighbour. Luckily an apology and replacement shopping was accepted with no hard feelings. So not such a new idea but a great old one revived.