It’s amazing really - the amount of people that come and go at a supermarket.  I’m full of a cold, so I’m sitting in the car in the car park whilst the others do the shopping.
There’s such a constant stream of cars, in and out, in and out, non stop.  In the last 40 minutes, there have been six different cars in the spaces next to me.  So these people have just popped in for a couple of items.  Makes you think - was their journey really necessary?
I’m as guilty as the rest of them.  I’ll jump in my car at the drop of a hat and be off to the supermarket - even if it’s just for a pint of milk.  I’ve heard it said that most car journeys in this country are less than two miles in distance.  Sitting here and watching people, I can well believe it.
On a different tack - when I was a kid the supermarket wasn’t open late, or on a Sunday, or on a Monday.  Mondays were the days when the shelves were restocked after Saturday.  Even with these ‘limited’ opening hours, we never seemed to run short of food.  And for the odd item we would nip to the Bob Shop across the road.  So why do we need to spend so much time at the supermarket nowadays?  It’s not like it’s less busy because it’s open longer.

She was tired this week.  She looked as if her arms ached as she reached for each item and dragged it across the scanning gizmo.  No smile, or when she tried it didn’t reach her eyes.  I thought I saw the thought, “There must be more to life than this,” flit through her mind.
I asked her when she finished - “Half seven, another hour and a half.”
Not too long to go I said.
“Yes, but my daughter’s home from Uni and she’s going out at half seven.  I’ll miss her…..”

In my local supermarket, a bottle of own brand lemonade has been 27p for the past year.  When I went to stock up for Christmas - just a few days before the great day, I discovered that it was now 42p - a rise of 15p or 55%!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was there a great shortage - had there been a run on lemonade all over the nation.  Well it didn’t appear so, stocks seemed to be just as plentiful as ever.
So it got me thinking that it was just a great big Christmas supermarket rip-off.  They’d seen me coming and in future I’d have to buy ahead.
Well, I’ve been waiting for it to come down in price and it hasn’t.  So what’s going on here.  I’ve looked at the price of lemons and that hasn’t changed, neither has the price of plain water.  So clearly the price is not in any way related to the cost of the materials.  It seems to me that it’s a made up price - charge what you can get away with, charge what people will pay.
I’m not sure how I feel about that.

It was Christmas Day and I’d just sat down to some mindless TV having scoffed loads of food.  And there I was transported back to my childhood - all those adverts for summer holidays on the screen - I remember them well. But then there was something new - a bank announcing a sale, and then another, and another.  Banks and sales - I thought, “There’s something funny going on here.” And when you think about it, it really is quite bizzare - how can money be cheap, how can it be worth any less than what it intrinsically is?  Of course the answer is that it isn’t, it’s just that when we don’t have any, the banks lend it to us for more than it’s worth.  So is a sale just the time when they rip us off slightly less than they did before? And you might say well it’s not a rip off because it’s their money and we should pay for the service.  But this is where it all gets dodgy, because it’s not all their money - banks are allowed to lend more than they have - it’s called leverage.  So they lend you something that they haven’t got and charge you for it. Sounds like the Emperors New Clothes to me.

There’s a big dint in my car - and its from a supermarket trolley.

Why do they build supermarket car parks  on slopes?  Why not on the level?  Do they want to upset us?  Because they do.  Yet again there’s a dint in my car and its because someone has let a trolley crash into it.

Did they leave a note on my windscreen admitting what they’d done and offering to pay for the damage?  Of course they didn’t.  This seems to me to be a growing problem.  People just leave their trolleys anywhere - they’ve stopped bothering to return them to the ‘trolley park’.

There are two solutions:

The first is a hearts and minds thing - how to change people so that they respect one another and so change their behaviour.  Well its not going to happen anytime soon - I fear that things will get worse before they get better.

So the second solution is to fit chains to the trolleys.  The ones where you have to put a pound in the slot before you can release the trolley.  At least then people take them back so that they can get their pounds back.

Some supermarkets are already doing this - so maybe I’ll shop at one of those from now on.

Well I’ve just returned from the weekly shop and it was better this week.  We’ve identified a checkout operator who knows how to handle food.  She’s not slow, she’s not fast, she just does it right.  So there we were queueing up and the supervisor came over to tell us that the till next door was free.  We declined her offer and she just looked at us like we were bonkers!!  In the end we went over to her to explain that we like our food to be respected rather than thrown about.  But she just looked at us blankly and gave us a smile like we really were mad.  But then it was probably her speediness at the till that got her to the heady heights of supervisor!

Wife and child are going Christmas shopping tomorrow.  I’ve escaped it for now - but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold it off…..

So there I was - Friday night and it was the end of the supermarket run.  My carefully chosen items, selected with thoughtful anticipation had been lovingly placed on the conveyor belt.

It was my turn to be served.  First I was met with those words that have now lost all value - “Want any ‘elp with y’ packin’?” The operative didn’t meet my eye as this was said - simply stared at the till.

And then we were off on some kind of macho-inspired race to get everything down that conveyor belt and into a pile before I could get it packed into bags.  The steak was minced, the strawberries were mashed.  I don’t even try for peaches anymore - they always end up as pulp.

So what do these operatives eat?  It certainly isn’t food.  They don’t appreciate it, they don’t love it, they simply move it from A to B in as disrespectful (to the food) a manner as possible.   Now I don’t work in a supermarket and maybe if I did then I would be the same about food, but there’s something going on here that devalues it - and it doing so it devalues the whole experience and the people involved - both buyer and seller.

So let’s love our food.  Let’s treat it with respect.  And maybe let’s even meet one another’s eyes and exchange a smile.

We don’t rush until we get to the checkout!

When was the last time that you ran as you pushed your trolley through the supermarket?

As a rule, do you go round the supermarket as fast as you can - never browsing, never pausing to consider a product, only looking for the items you have already decided that you need?

Of course not. We like to wander along the aisles - feasting our eyes on all the goods available. Sometimes we have a list - and sometimes we don’t. We know the basics of what we’ll buy - the things we buy each week. But after that, well it’s an art rather than a science. Some meat, some veg, some fruit, some stuff for the freezer and the microwave - and hopefully it’ll translate into sufficient meals for the week.

We might meet someone we know and pause for a chat. We might come across an item and feel tempted by it, but stand for a moment - item in hand - considering whether we will or we won’t, before either adding it to our basket or returning it to the shelf.

And so it goes on - at a fairly leisurely pace…

Until we reach the checkout.

And then it all changes. Which is the shortest queue? Who is the fastest operator? How can I get out of here as quickly as possible?

We don’t run round the supermarket - but we’re always in an almighty rush when we get to the checkout!

But why is this so? What makes us feel like this? Does it matter?

There are some of us who live to shop - but I can tell you now that I’m not one of them.
Am I anti-shopping? No
Do I hate shopping? No

Shopping is a fact of life, but I prefer to think of myself as someone who shops to live - and not the other way round.

People say that it’s the great British past-time.  Each Boxing Day morning and you can’t get on the M60 because of the queue for the Trafford Centre - it’s been closed for a whole day and people are suffering withdrawal symptoms.

But how many people are really happy when they shop?  Do you you see people laughing and smiling?  Or are they grim-faced and determined as they trudge wearily on in search of the ever-elusive bargain?

Does shopping fulfil us, give us a sense of satisfaction, or does it leave us with a slight sense of uneasiness, of never quite achieving what we aspire to?

I like to observe shopping, to think about what happens, to have an opinion - and my plan is to share it with all of you.