Entry for 14th November, 2007

I am just back from the shops (again) and am feeling a bit depressed by the whole experience. More and more, I’m finding that the only shopping that gives me any particular pleasure is the weekly trip down the Main Street with the kids, when we visit the butcher, the baker and the greengrocer. We actually talk to people. We interact.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a luddite, and I understand entirely the convenience of supermarkets and the quality and variety that they inject into our lives. But there are disadvantages. For all the customer services desks and the “We’re Here To Help Badges”, the supermarket is an oddly impersonal experience, where we (the customer) seems to be completely separate from the staff in their clinical white jackets, sitting behind high tech counters. Even if you do talk briefly to an assistant to ask where they keep the oak-aged pesto-flavoured cranberry tea, you can expect never to see them again in your life.
And I’m not sure that the idea that supermarkets offer you variety isn’t a bit of a myth too. Whenever I come back from Morrisons there seems to be a certain theme going on. It’s not too often that the supermarket bags offer up any wild surprises.