All the talk recently of excessive packaging of items bought at the supermarket prompted a nostalgic conversation with a friend the other day about the days before you bought your fruit and veg pre-packed, and sometimes double pre-packed.

You just went along to the greengrocer's shop with a stout shopping bag or a basket and he or she would weigh the items as you asked for them and tip them into the bag unwrapped. You can still get that sort of service at some market stalls, where items are weighed out from great heaps of produce and can be put straight into your bag if you want.

But largely the days of unpackaged greengroceries are vanishing.

Whatever their green merits, they could cause problems for delivery boys. At least, they did for this particular delivery boy. When I was about 14, I did a Friday evening/Saturday morning round for a local greengrocer who used to weigh the items on the customers' lists straight into cardboard cartons.

As with the best will in the world I couldn't carry more than two cartons at a time (and that with some difficulty) the greengrocer built me a cart. One Friday, as I was trundling it with five orders down an unmade road, one of the wheels collapsed and the cart toppled over. Apples, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and the rest were all over the place.

By referring to the various bills I was able to reassemble the individual orders after a fashion (after dusting the grit off the produce and placing the bruised items with the bruise facing down) but I suspect that some of the customers didn't get as much of some particular fruit and vegetables as they'd paid for while others got more. No-one complained.

But how much easier it would have been if they'd all been pre-packaged in polythene bags or plastic cartons!