Lately I've taken to buying bread on a daily basis. I get a half bâtard from Coles Supermarket and while doing so I imagine I am in France. One of my great-grandfathers was French, so I don't feel as if I am kidding myself. Two slices of bâtard with a sliver or two of cheese, and slice of onion, really makes everything worthwhile.
I was reminded of our daily staple yesterday, when I had a Rexel jam. The staples wouldn't come out cleanly. They either jammed in the exit slot of the stapler, or bent in the paper, or had one of their legs break off mid-punch.
I have the solution to that problem - but I am always reluctant to use it. I have a small supply of coppered staples size "No 16 24/6". I know they will work. I do have a box of 5,000 steel size "No 16 24/6" but they are inferior in the bending department, and lead to the kind of problem I had.
The trouble is I only have about 500 coppered ones left from a box of 1000 I bought 20 years ago, when Hugh, who turned 21 last Monday, 10 October, was just over one year of age.
We were living in Noosaville in Queensland at the time, and my parents had come down from Maryborough for a visit. I must have been having similar staple problems then, for I went on a mission to find coppered staples. My mother came with me. She showed enormous patience as I went from one stationery shop to another, being given strange looks by the shop assistants who were baffled by my request.
Coppered staples are not to be found just anywhere, and at the time I could only buy a small supply, and that was at a premium price. Since then I've had to ration my coppered friends for the times when I run into an inferior batch of steel ones.
No doubt, if I run out of my existing supply, I will pay an even greater premium for a new batch than I did 20 years ago. But these are inflationary times, and the price of bâtards has gone up as well.
A friend of mine sent me this link.
http://www.myshopping.com.au/ZM--968612691_Office_Supplies
She said that at $4.26 coppered staples seemed to have come down in price. So I went to the online store myself: and found the following. A box of 1000 Rexel steel staples in the same size is a mere $1.86. The price difference being $2.40 extra for the coppered ones - which, of course, is more than twice the price of the steel ones. And then I checked the cost of freight to Central Australia - $12.64! Sheesh, the box is less than 7 centimetres long and probably only weighed 60 grams when full.
Yep, coppered staples certainly do still come at a premium.
Posted by: Tjilpi | Saturday, 15 October 2011 at 16:10