On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 18:00:37 +0200, Athel Cornish-Bowden
> wrote:

>On 2009-07-20 22:00:57 +0200, tsuidf > said:
>
>> On Jul 7, 10:45*pm, Hatunen > wrote:
>>> On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 08:59:55 +0100, Jan Hyde
>>>
>>> [ ... ]
>
>>> When I was a wee tad around 1940 my family normally bought bread
>>> at a neighborhood bakery, and it would be unsliced unless you
>>> asked for sliced. The bakery had a machine that fascinated me by
>>> cutting an entire loaf into slices at once.
>>
>> Our nearest mini-supermarket still has one of those.
>
>So does our local bakery. Probably that just reflects the fact that in
>France (and doubtless Belgium) sliced bread is nowhere near as popular
>as it is in English-speaking countries. Sliced bread is definitely
>regarded as inferior for most purposes and is only sliced in a real
>bakery if you want to spread foie gras on it, and then it's sliced at
>the moment you buy it, not before.

Publix supermarkets have bread slicing machines. The bakery counter
sells whole loaves of bread, and the customer has the choice of either
taking it as-is or having it sliced for them. My wife sometimes has a
loaf cut in half, and one-half sliced. The remaining half stays
fresher until we have used the sliced half.

--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida