A lifetime with Sainsbury’s from ration books to online orders

I MUST be one of Sainsbury’s longest standing customers. My mother had our ration books registered with them during the Second World War (The Yorkshire Post, March 30), and I remember going shopping with her and being fascinated by the speed and dexterity with which they weighed up and packed our rations.

Apart from periods when I was living overseas, I have continued to shop with them whenever possible and wherever I lived in the country – even if it meant a drive of some distance to the nearest branch.

As age and lack of mobility caught up with me, I have been thankful to be able to place my order online and have the shopping delivered. I was pleased to receive an email telling me that I had been prioritised for booking a delivery slot and since then I have not encountered any problems.

I looked for a slot at the end of last week and found two whole days of available times this week. I placed my order which is now being delivered – who could ask for better service?

From: Bob Swallow, Townhead Avenue, Settle.

MY wife and I are old enough to remember the Second World War in Leeds and going to a bakers where there were but four loaves on the shelf.

Mum got one and I remember breaking off the four corners of the newly-baked bread and eating them on the way home.

On arrival, the loaf looked as though rats had been at it. Why on earth people are stockpiling toilet rolls is beyond me – and many others of similar age.

Are the people concerned anticipating having an upset stomach?

Back in the 1940s, toilet paper consisted of newspaper torn into squares then a hole pushed through them and strung up on a nail behind the khazi door.

I do not recall any ill-effects from being in contact with a political revue, a sporting report or, heaven forbid, ‘letters to the editor’.

From: Brian H Sheridan, Lodge Moor, Sheffield.

JOHN Kenway rightly urges us to give our business to the milkman rather than the supermarkets (The Yorkshire Post, March 30). For environmental reasons we abandoned the plastic containers some years ago. However, I like the tactile glass bottles which happen to pour beautifully. Nor do I mind rinsing them thoroughly to return them, shining, for collection. Our milk lady is wonderfully reliable, delivering at about 2am each day.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor