Groceries

One of the pleasures of living in my area is that if I’m short of a tea bag (awful thought) I can just nip out round the corner and get a box Yorkshire Gold (other brands are not acceptable) in a matter of minutes from my local grocers. What I would not expect to find is hundreds of boxes in stock waiting for me.But that is what may have been the case back in 1345 when The Worshipful Company of Grocers was formed by a merger between The Guild of Pepperers, dating from 1180, with the Spicers who bought and then resold spices and other items to the public. But also, a wholesaler was sometimes called a spicer en gross. A gross meant a large amount of some product. Spicer en gross was sometimes shortened to grosser etc.The Company then was responsible for maintaining standards for the purity of spices and for setting of certain weights and measures. Its membership until 1617 included suppliers of medicinal spices and herbs when the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries was formed.

The Great Twelve City of London Livery Companies

The Worshipful Company of Grocers is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London and is one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies (not my capital letters), ranking second in the order of precedence after the Mercers. The Company's motto is "God Grant Grace".The Grocers' Company continues as a charitable, constitutional and ceremonial institution which plays a significant role in the election of and supporting the Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs of the City of London. The Company provides banqueting and conference facilities at Grocers' Hall situated in Prince's Street, next to the Bank of England.The Ancient Guild of Pepperers chose a camel as its symbol due to pepper originally coming over land rather than sea. The camel is incorporated as the crest of the company's heraldic achievement which also includes two griffins holding the escutcheon (shield) on which is displayed the coat of arms: "Argent a Chevron Gules between nine Cloves six in chief and three in base Proper".
It is ranked second in the Companies order of precedence after the Mercers' Company. It is said that the Grocers' Company used to be first in the order, until Queen Elizabeth I, as Honorary Master of the Mercer's Company, found herself in procession, after her coronation, behind the Grocers' camel which was emitting unfortunate smells. As a result, the Mercers were promoted.In time, the name grocer came to refer to a trader who dealt in staple foodstuffs—like tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, and flour—that were sold in amounts measured for personal consumption. The first known use of the word grocery was in the 15th century, and it referred to the goods sold by a grocer:
Wee bene ageyne charged wyth merceyre, Haburdasshere ware, and wyth grocerye.
— Libel of English Policy, 1436.The Libelle of Englyshe Polycye (or Libel of English Policy) is a fifteenth-century poem written after the siege of Calais in 1436 but before the end of 1438, and a second edition of the work before June 1441. I haven’t read the thing and it is not particularly relevant to the subject of groceries but I enjoyed finding out about it.

Upmarket Victorian Grocery

In the Supermarket Basket
a bottle of Guinness
small pizza
extra cheese
and a scrunched up note
apps and bans
2 x yell and red pep
halloumi
250g dark choc
wine
a serious list
divided into sections
of dairy and fruit etc
and only one of them ticked
which doesn’t seem right
and leads to thoughts
of maybe a mobile ringing
an argument about the car
or washing up
or a letter found
in someone’s pocket
and someone’s partner
stiff with rage
storming out after
politely replacing the basket
back in the stack at the Entrance
ready to be read
by the customer standing in line
at the Checkout
a customer who needs to know
about anyone else’s life
and more importantly
just what the hell is halloumi.
First published in Acumen, June 2016Thanks for reading, Terry Q
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