Having a party? Let Grocery Butler do the Hard Work!

As anyone who has ever planned a party knows, organising everything for the big event can be an enormous undertaking. You need to choose a date, and perhaps a theme; you need to compose a guest list, send out invitations or e-vites, and collect RSVPs. When you know how many guests to expect, you then have to plan the menu, as well as activities (particularly if the party is for children) - and this is weeks before the big event! In the day or two before the party, you need to write your shopping list, clean the house, and shop for all of the supplies required for the party. Not to mention cook! The very idea is exhausting!

Shopping for groceries is, for many, their least enjoyed necessity, and perhaps the worst part of preparing to throw a party (until it’s time to clean up afterwards, anyway). Supermarkets are not fun places to visit, and unless you venture out to walk the aisles late at night, you will be competing with countless other people and their uncooperative shopping trolleys to get the job done. It is so much easier to buy groceries online.

Here is where Grocery Butler is available to help. We understand that time is precious and when you’re planning a party, the last thing you have time for or feel inclined to do is traipse up and down supermarket aisles with a list a mile long. With us, you buy groceries online from the comfort of your home or anywhere else you wish to, and before you know it, they are delivered to your door thanks to our friendly express delivery service.

Grocery Butler is your own personal shopper. Simply sign into our website, and place your order. Everything you could possibly need is at your fingertips, from bakery items to international gourmet cuisine; non-alcoholic beverages to sweets and desserts. No order is too big or too small – with a minimum order value of $25, you can even call on us when you realise you’ve forgotten a couple essential last-minute items.

No traffic, no petrol, no car parks, and no unsteerable shopping trolleys. What could be easier? Why would you ever not buy groceries online?

Next time you’re throwing a party, call on Grocery Butler to take the hard work out of shopping. We guarantee you will be delighted with our service, and not only will you never again plan a party without us, we anticipate you will be so hooked on the convenience we offer, that you will continue to buy groceries online into the future on a regular basis.

The Evolution of Tobacco

When you go out to buy cigarettes, or you log on to buy cigarettes online, do you ever stop to wonder how lust for tobacco came to be? Wonder no more... Tobacco has grown wild in the Americas for more than eight thousand years, and it has been cultivated for at least four hundred years.

Since at least two thousand years ago, native tribes chewed and smoked tobacco as part of their religious and cultural ceremonies. For example, the Mayans of Mexico carved drawings into stone which depict their tobacco use, and the Native American Indians smoked tobacco through a pipe as for ceremonial and medicinal purposes. It was not an activity done on a daily basis. Christopher Columbus was the first European to witness tobacco use, and in 1531 it was cultivated for the first time in Europe at Santo Domingo. By 1600 its use had spread throughout Europe, and it was used as a currency in England. Tobacco was the first crop grown for profit in North America, and by 1700, smoking had become widespread and the tobacco industry was born.

Tobacco smoking was not without its critics, even then. As early as 1602 smoking was linked to health in the same way that the health of chimney sweeps was impacted by soot. By 1800, many people used small amounts of tobacco recreationally. Snuff was a smokeless, ground tobacco leaf product which was inhaled into the nasal cavity; it was often blended with flavourings such as spices, flowers, and menthol, and delivered a swift nicotine hit. Some people chewed tobacco, while others preferred to smoke it from a pipe. At that time, people smoked an average equivalent of forty cigarettes per year. (Cigars are also a tobacco product, but are made differently, from a different type of tobacco, and have differing origins from cigarettes).

The first commercial cigarettes were made in 1861. They were hand-rolled, and were sold to soldiers at the end of the US Civil War.

Smoking cigarettes became widespread after the cigarette machine was invented by James Bonsack in 1881. The first machines produced two hundred cigarettes per minute (today’s machinery produces nine thousand cigarettes per minute!). In the first year, ten million cigarettes were produced. The markets were expanded, as manufacturing cigarettes was cheap and advertising appealed to the masses. The first brand of cigarettes, Duke of Durham, was boxed with baseball cards.

Cigarette production and use peaked with the two world wars. Soldiers were given free cigarettes on a daily basis. By the 1940s, women had also taken up the habit, as they went out to work while their husbands were away at war. By 1944, three hundred billion cigarettes were produced each year in the US alone.

In the decades since, cigarettes have evolved to include filters, differing strengths, health warnings, and even different flavours. Tobacco has come a very long way since it was first used thousands of years ago.

Next time you buy cigarettes, you should always consider your health and that of your family.