Umprecedented Rush for Christmas Supplies

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 544, 22 December 1928, Page 17

Umprecedented Rush for Christmas Supplies

Busy Days at the City Markets Where Auctioneers Have Had a Rush Week Coping With Demands of Eager Buyers

(Written for THE SUN by D. C. S. TAYLOR.)

kets, wbere cos-

mopolitan crowds have pushed and struggled in the great battle of Supply and Demand that is inevitably waged at this time of the year. A visit to the city's great supply centre is intensely interesting. Maori labourer’s, smiling broadly, arrive in a motor-truck owned by a Chinese. Hindus rub shoulders with Kuropeans in the general press round the auctioneers. An army of secretaries, clerks and under-clerks are keeping the machinery running smoothly. For the moment, however, we will pass them by and go in search of the Big Men. The last keeper of the stronghold passed, we come upon them. They are quite friendly. The Christmas feeling permeates even big business. “Oh, yes,” they say, “things are moving nicely. Trade is fully HJO per cent better than usual everywhere. The Christmas season certainly brightens up business.” Having delivered themselves of this, the Big Men lean back in their comfortable chairs, smile contentedly, and reflect on better busi-

uess. Another question, and they will start from their reveries and admit joyously that the present Christmas dealing is equal in volume to that in the previous season. Better, perhaps. •'>'o, the Christmas Spirit has not slackened. It is increasing. People are seeking more entertainment. They are unbending yes, that's the word they want to make their holiday really «orth while. Yes, the business people are con tent. Drapery firm managers, general Providers and warehouse managers all have pleasant things to say about manifestations of prosperity this Christmas. And the markets reflect the true holiday trade activity. Pulse of Trading They form a little world of their °wn. Almost unobtrusively, the market buildings cover an extensive area °n the immediate waterfront. Outside, the City Council's market buildings are drab. But inside, the scene |s interesting. One gains a distinct impression that one is at the pulse of the city’s supplies. The immensity of buying and selling for a community °f 200,000 people, all imbued with the Christmas notion of purchasing, is not lost. One has to acquire the market temperament to appreciate the barelysubdued fervour with which the mar keters set about their huge task oC dealing with thousands of pound* w °rth of produce and live stock for

Christmas's short span. There is a change after a year of comparatively humdrum auctioneering. Everyone works at high pressure. Assistants scurry through the lanes in the masses of fruit and vegetables heaped, to the inexperienced eye, in hopeless disorder in the vast salerooms. Delightful confusion. The market staffs revel in it. They haven’t any time to spare and they are proud of it. They know that they will have earned their short respite at Christmas.

Inquisitive, bustling crowds are inevitable. They ramble aimlessly through the buildings, moving from one auctioneer to another. They are the sightseers, the trivial buyers. They are not the marketers proper. Marketing is sheer, matter-of-fact business. There are no keener persons than those involved in it. Rob them of their interest in the salerooms, and they would be desolated. They sense every fluctuation in the purchasing power of the community. Christmas, for all its hard work, sees them enthusiastic.

Sale day . . . Lusty youths stand on the long platform fringing the buildings and ring hand bells rowdily. Producers from all over the countryside bordering the city have backed motor-trucks and liorse-lorries 50 of them into the platform, and are busily carrying produce into the salerooms. Trolley-men are active trundling crates of produce and stock into the buildings. The sales are about to begin.

Avid Suppliers

Their unloading ended, the suppliers join the crowds round the auctions. One supreme thought influences them.

They are like a pack of hounds. They must be in at the kill; they must see for themselves exactly how their produce sells. Jail Wong, who presumably gardens successfully at Panmure, vies with Wing Lee of Mangere, in the possession of a vantage point. Their socalled Oriental inscrutability is dropped as their produce comes under the hammer. Chinese, at market time, have the most open of faces. And, after the selling is complete. .. . Jah Wong rushes delightedly to the pay-out window. A few minutes later, and he will be behind the driving-wheel of his motor-truck, bound for Panmure, and comforted by the knowledge that his vegetables sold well. The buyers are cautious people. They want the best for their money. Long before a sale, they are intent on a tour of inspection,. They roam among the goods to be offered and note what will suit tlieir requirements. An assorted set, the buyers. Suburban greengrocers, Chinese and Hindu shopmen, and not a few of the wo-

men who own small stores in the residential areas, are among them. The fruit auction is important. Here, the buyers . cluster on the tiers of seats overlooking the auctioneer and his sales bench. Tobacco smoke hangs like a pall above the crowd. Sightseers thrust themselves into the few remaining spaces; there is scarcely a breath of fresh air. Energetic general hands shove crates of fruit of all descriptions on to the benches. Dozens of pairs of Asiatic and European eyes peer down on to a newly-arrived crate; the auctioneer begins the bidding scale, everybody hangs on his words. Staccato bids, a close tussle over the last few pence between a European and a Chinese, perhaps, and a crate is marked down to the European’s account. In a twinkling, the purchase is whisked away by muscular assistants, and a fresh offering comes forward. Tense Atmosphere The atmosphere surrounding an auction is tense. And yet there is a care-free element. The trolley-men are happy people. There are dozens of them. They perform remarkable feats with their heavily-laden trolleys. Neapolitan fishermen ’could scarcelv rival them in the noisiness of their “stand clear” requests to obstructing people. In the poultry rooms, pandemonium reigns. Fowls, ducks, geese, and lordly turkeys have been sold in the markets in thousands during the past week or so. Aucklanders traditional Christmas dinners in mind—have been eager buyers. At one auction, one firm made a clearance of nearly 4,000 birds. This is regarded as a record sale for Auckland, and is indicative of the enormous clearances made this season. No definite figures can be provided by salesmen, but they are all emphatic that the demand for poultry for this Christmas has exceeded the biggest inquiry in previous seasons. The birds themselves are not wonderfully impressed with sales and salesmen. They spend a dismal time protesting loudly. They are cooped in an immense framework of pens ranged along the walls of the salerooms. From these they screech at the assistants who clamber up rickety ladders for hours on end, to collect purchases for customers. Christmas is not the jolliest season for poultry. Thrifty matrons mingle with the press of important buyers, obviously seeking cheap Christmas dinners. The din, which is more than sufficient to deter mere men from remaining too long at a poultry auction, has no terrors for them. Butter, cheese, honey, and flowers

occupy big benches in the salerooms Assistants, sliirt-sleeved and beaming hover over the produce like guardian angels. Smart girls persuade unwary visitors to the flower section to buy extensively. Smart girls, it seems are Indispensable in the markets

1/-i h / A a sLBE OF IT. —Bearing in mind Vie adage When a pullet is plump it is tenderF this young man attended the markets, this week to make sure of securing nothing but the best -for December 3d. There are huge office staffs, for the most part engrossed In ledger work. In odd corners in the market buildings, minor auctions are conducted in small stock. ' Pigs of all breeds make up the small stock section. They object violently to the cramped confines of the salerooms. Hardened salesmen have not yet decided which section is the noisiest, small Stock or poultry. And salesmen are hardened, of necessity. So, amid a babel of sound, the immense business of marketing is carried on. Staffs are compelled to work overtime to cope with the increase in trade due to the Christmas rush. Before workers in ordinary city offices are on city-bound trams, the market

people are engaged on the preliminaries to a hard day’s work. It is a j strenuous effort to meet the persistent demand from thousands of Aucklanders for holiday supplies. There is no flagging. Capable Auctioneers Vociferous auctioneers are the presiding geniuses over the flurry. Remarkable men, these. Listen to them handling an excited mob of buyers for hours on end, and even the most casual of casual observers is impelled to respectful admiration. The successful auctioneer is evidently born and not made. A machine-like delivery of words, tact, clear-thinking, good humour all go to the equipment of a good auctioneer. How he remembers the sly gags he has been amusing buyers w r ith for ten years past is just as amazing. Just across the way from the market buildings is a favourite rendezvous for retired seamen. Its chief distinction is that it is the depot for Auck- . land’s small fishing vessels. The fishermen have not been unaffected by 4

the Christmas rush and their market has improved. Thus, the holiday market trade ad vances apace. There will be an ap preciable slackening by the New Year. A brief history of the markets reveals that 11 years have passed in the 21 years’ lease of the present site. Formerly, the markets were situated in the Civic Square, but Sir James Parr was responsible for the passing of an Act in Parliament for the disposal of the site. A lease of the present property was secured from the

At Left — NE TV POTATOES. The demand for new potatoes is phenomenal this year. Unloading sacks for the Christmas mart. Bundles of mint may be bought in another department.

Harbour Board. Several of th» mari keting firms moved for a lease for 50 years but failed. Throughout the city, seasonal decorations are being displayed in shop windows. Major and minor propriei tors of shops have been busily stating their good wishes to the public. Silva Bonetti, who conducts a bizarre restaurant somewhere beyond Hobson Street, has gone to great pains in preparing a card conveying the season's greetings. He has placed it next to the menu in the window. At this time of the year, the fancies of window-dressers are allowed to run riot. New fashions are being featured in every drapery store. Drapery trading is one of the most important sections of Christmas dealing. Windowdressers are kept active arranging and re-arranging unconcerned waxen models. Counter hands do not enthuse over the Christmas rush. They regard bargain-hunters with extreme distrust. After several hours dealing with flurried women who are not quite certain .if that perfectly nice piece of cloth would be the right length, their iuter- , est in Christmas shoppers wanes.