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16mm film Colour Sound 1969-1970 15:30
Summary: A film helping to explain decimal currency.
Title number: 1206
LSA ID: LSA/1657
Description: A film made to help explain decimal currency and to illustrate how it is used in a retail setting. Most of the film takes place in the J. Sainsbury's store at 9/11 London Road in Croydon, which became a 'decimal shop' a year ahead of decimalisation and was used for training purposes. The presenter Zena Skinner looks at how decimal prices are displayed, how items are re-priced in the new coinage, and how the use of decimal currency is effected at the till. She also interviews store chairman John Sainsbury, who reassures her and Sainsbury customers that re-pricing into decimal will not be used as a way of hiding price rises, and Lord Fiske (Chairman of the Decimal Currency Board) who talks about the government's media campaign to help explain decimal currency. The film does not highlight the fact that J. Sainsbury's is its sponsor, although it appeals directly to the store's customers' fears about hidden price inflation and the potential difficulty of shopping using the new money. Zena Skinner buys her shopping using a mixture of old and new money, demonstrating how the staff can de depended on to assist. The film captures a late 1960s supermarket's interior appearance and the packaging of own brand and other items.
Credits: Director: Ronald Dunkley; Producer: Jim Roomes; Photography: Alan Hewison; Editor: E. Powell; Presenter: Zena Skinner; Sponsor: J. Sainsbury Ltd
Further information: The film was produced in 1969 for release during 1970. The store at 9/11 London Road, Croydon was frequently used by Sainsbury's for retail experiments and had in 1950 become the first of their branches to change to self-service shopping. The presenter Ze
Keywords: Decimal system; Supermarkets
Locations: United Kingdom; England; London; Croydon
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Comments
then Central Croydon.