The old-fashioned general store is fast disappearing. This is, perhaps, a pity, because shopping today seems to lack that personal element which existed when the shopkeeper knew all his regular customers personally. He could, for instance, remember which brand of tea Mrs.Smith usually bought or what sort of washing-powder Mrs. Jones preferred. Not only was the shop a center of buying and selling, but also a social meeting place. A prosperous general store might have employed four or five assistants, and so there were very few problems in management as far as the staff were concerned. But now that the supermarket has replaced the general store, the job of the manager has changed completely. The modern supermarket manager has to cope with a staff of as many as a hundred apart from all the other everyday problems of running a large business. Every morning the manager must, like the commander of an army division, carry out an inspection of his store to make sure that everything is ready for the business of the day. He must see that everything is running smoothly. He will have to give advice. And make decisions as problems arise, and he must know how to get his huge staff to work efficiently with their respective responsibilities. No matter what he has to do throughout the day, however, the supermarket manager must be ready for any emergency that may arise. They say in the trade that you are not really an experienced supermarket manager until you have dealt with a flood, a fire, a birth and a death in your store.

According to the author, it is a pity that there are fewer and fewer old general stores now because traditional commodities are less needed.

6. The main purpose of the passage is to show how the role of the shop manager has undergone an great change.

Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones mentioned in the first paragraph represent any of the regular customers of the old general store.

By the last sentence of the passage, the author seems to point out any qualified supermarket manager will surely meet a flood, a fire, a birth and a death some day.

The supermarket manager is compared to a military leader by the author.