A flour boy was the bottom of the ladder within the Grocery Trade. A flour boy was responsible for weighing out the flour into the “housewives” standard weight for a batch of bread. Baking the family’s bread was a basic duty of the housewife in those days. He was also responsible for weighing out the corn for the very large number of men who kept poultry. The job of flour boy has long since disappeared from the trade.

In 1909 pre-packaging of goods in the grocery trade was almost non-existent. Tea was sold by weight (no teabags in those days!) from a big container and could be blended by the grocer. Green tea was bought as easily as Ceylon or China. Almost everything for sale was weighed and packaged in the shop, by the assistant grocer. Tea was packaged into little blue sugar bags and butter was taken from a huge slab using two large butter patts.