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Put it on the
Bill
© by Abraham Lincoln
There was a time, not that long ago, when you walked into your grocery
story with a note. The note contained a list of items you needed. My
mother usually gave me a note and told me to go to Boyer’s or to
Pinkerton’s store to get the things on the note. Sometimes she also
gave me money to pay for the items but more often than not, she would
say, “Tell them to put it on the bill.”
The “bill” was a sales receipt book all stores had and some still have
them. The grocer would write down the date, your name and a list of
items you bought.
It was and still is a form of credit. And at some point in time you had
to pay on it or pay it off or the grocer would not give you any more
credit.
It was called, “Buying on Time,” and most people bought their groceries
on time. My mother would send me to the store with a note to buy, “1
stick of butter.” Since a pound of butter came in a 1-pound box and
there were 4 sticks in the box, the grocer would open the box and take
one stick out and give it to me.
I am sure that buying on time is still being used all over the world.
It is just that we never think about it when we go to a large
supermarket like Kroger’s. I assume you can go to the counter and
filled out applications for credit and perhaps get credit.
The grocery stores carried things that are no longer available. Walmart
might sell horse harness in western locations but not here. You have to
find a special store that sells horse harness, bridles, halters, and
bits; or buy it online. You can only find a fly net online and not in
your local grocery store. When I was a kid you could buy horse collars,
horse harnesses, and fly nets. If you lived in Amish country, you could
go to the grocery store and buy those kinds of things there.
A lot of times we did not have enough money to pay for a stick of
butter or a pound of cheese. And, for whatever reason, mom didn’t want
me to tell the grocer to put it on the bill. She would get a dozen of
fresh eggs she had already candled (to make sure there was no chicken
forming in the egg) and put them in a paper sack and tell me to trade
them for whatever it was that she wanted. She would tell me if what she
wanted cost more than the dozen of eggs, then she wanted me to tell the
grocer to put the difference on her bill.
The grocery store always had a wooden keg of nails setting on the floor
that was opened. You could get a pound of nails; or if the adjacent
barrel had cookies in it you could buy a pound of cookies. You could
put the nails and the cookies on your bill.
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