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On Tuesday I ventured into our local town centre, Bury St. Edmunds, for the first time in 3 months. Mr Johnson had kindly allowed me to travel to our holiday home in July, and I wanted to buy some sun cream in Marks & Spencer’s whilst the shopping centre was relatively quiet. They stock the only sun cream that my face can tolerate.
Relatively quiet was an understatement. I passed by many shops that were open, but they had no customers. A bouncer stood outside Debenham’s, but the cordoned queueing section was empty. Cafes were either closed or just doing take-aways, and of the shops that were open, a couple had 50% off advertised in the windows. The few people that were about had managed to find their way to the shops with the biggest discounts.
Barring Covid, I had a sudden theory as to why the shopping centre might be unusually empty. All the public toilets were closed, and there were signs on shop doorways that had lavatories informing the public that their toilets were also closed. There and then I decided to cut my visit to Bury short, in case I was taken short…
Dismayed at an inconvenient lack of conveniences, I carried on down the alleyway leading to the market square. All around me were arrows telling me to keep 2m apart, but that wasn’t necessary as there were no crowds. I passed by my opticians, and there was a note on the locked door for customers to ring the bell. My bottle of lens cleaner spray was empty, so I rang the bell and held up the bottle (they fill it up again for free). Out came a vision wearing a mask, apron and gloves. She took it off me as though it might explode, and returned with the bottle held at arm’s length. Just to be awkward I found a clean tissue, stood back, held out my arm, and gingerly accepted it (two can play at that game).
Anyway, onwards and upwards to Marks & Spencer’s. There were entrance only doors and exit only doors. A bouncer stood outside, wearing a mask. I quickly found the suncream and stood on the required spot on the floor to queue for the till. I could see people trying the door leading to the toilets, but were out of luck. Perspex screens had been erected between customers and cashiers. I was asked to turn over my store card to expose the barcode for scanning, just in case it was contaminated I suppose.
In Clinton’s next door I bought a birthday card but was asked not to pay with cash. I never thought I’d live to see the day when I was not allowed to pay with a £5 note. Deep joyload.
This is shopping Covid style. Depressing, isn’t it?
dgkaye said:
Sounds pretty accurate here sister. I just shop from the comfort of my couch lol ❤
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Stevie Turner said:
I think that slowly but surely internet shopping will take over from the High Street, if it hasn’t already.
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dgkaye said:
So far it seems that way here. Ive been doing it long before Covid -except groceries, I don’t like other people picking my produce lol xx
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Stevie Turner said:
Me either.
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dgkaye said:
🙂
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Phil Huston said:
I went to a giant sporting goods store with my daughter while she shopped for puppy things in a section larger than most stand alone pet stores. I wandered around, as is my custom, looking for bits of conversation. We all had masks on. I passed the armory, where future gun purchasers stood the required (as marked) 6 feet apart. One guy says to the lady behind the counter “Never thought I’d be buyin’ a gun with damn mask on.” “Yeah, pretty creepy she said. “Specially after it leaves my hands and now some fool I’ve never seen but an ID picture of is standin’ there with a gun, a box of shells and a damn mask on.”
So. Be glad it was something innocuous that was depressing, not masked fools buying firearms.
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Stevie Turner said:
I did laugh at this, although it’s no laughing matter. There’s one shop in our town centre that I could attempt to buy a gun from if I were so inclined, but I’d have to be accompanied by both great-grandparents…
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Darlene said:
That is crazy. Things have been very tight here in Spain, and rightly so. The beaches are slowly opening up but with extra staff (students) hired over the summer to ensure safe distancing. And, all the restrooms are all open!! Every other sink is taped over and extra staff are cleaning them on a regular basis. Spain is keeping us safe and giving jobs to people.
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Stevie Turner said:
We had half a million people descend on Bournemouth beach yesterday in the hot weather. No shops were open, nothing. All they could do was sit on the beach. Morons. The police treated it as a major incident. They now want to block off access to all the beaches, but not sure how they’d do that.
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Darlene said:
I read and am very disappointed. I have always thought of the English as being very sensible people.
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Stevie Turner said:
Some are, obviously not those. One half naked chap covered in tattoos was interviewed and complained there were too many people on the beach. He obviously didn’t include himself in the numbers!
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Clive said:
I doubt I’ll be going anywhere near the shops for quite some time. I don’t enjoy shopping at the best of times, and we are a long way from that right now.
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Stevie Turner said:
I went out this morning to Diss. A few shops had closed for good, some had notices in the windows that they will be re-opening tomorrow for the first time since March, and others were open but made people wait outside so that only 2 customers were in the shop at any one time. I felt quite safe walking outside without a mask, but would probably wear one if I lived in London.
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Stevie Turner said:
Oh, and the toilets were closed! Grr! How do they expect people to flock to town centres if no public toilets are open?
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Clive said:
I wouldn’t stand a chance! I think it’s going to be some time before people get used to ‘new’ shopping. At least you have the IoW to look forward to 😊
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Stevie Turner said:
Yeah, can’t wait. Two weeks today. Roll on July 9th…
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jwebster2 said:
I’ve never been a big shopper, but I cannot really imagine why anybody would want to shop now
I can see a lot of shops taking a severe kicking because people just don’t want to buy stuff
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Stevie Turner said:
And also they might not have the money if they’ve lost their jobs or are on reduced pay. I only go into town if I really need to buy something. I hate shopping.
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jwebster2 said:
The fact that my lady wife has managed to offload the tesco shopping to me shows how much she loves it 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
About as much as I do. However, if Sam went he’d take about 4 hours and come back with all the wrong stuff. He also takes no notice of sell by dates.
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jwebster2 said:
I take a list, and have been known to insist on empty packets so I get the right thing 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Lol. I once put on Sam’s list a ‘large mushroom stir fry’. He came back with 2 enormous boxes of mushrooms and a small stir fry. I asked him why there were so many freaking mushrooms, and he said he’d read it as a stir fry and also lots of mushrooms!
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jwebster2 said:
does he, perchance, like mushrooms? 🙂
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Stevie Turner said:
Yes he does, but not two large family sized boxes for just the two of us!
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jwebster2 said:
they do freeze 🙂
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CHINA ALEXANDRIA LIVING THE DREAM said:
Reblogged this on LIVING THE DREAM.
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CHINA ALEXANDRIA LIVING THE DREAM said:
GREAT POST STEVIE, WILL WE EVER GET BACK TO THE NORM? I ONCE SPENT A DAY ON THE TRAIN TO GET TO THERE TO SEE A PUBLISHER WHO SEEMED KEEN. IT WAS ONLY WHEN I MET HIM THAT HE TOLD ME THAT HE WANTED THREE AND A HALF THOUSAND BEFORE HE COULD PUBLISH, A FULL DAY WASTED, CHINA
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Stevie Turner said:
Publishers like him need to be avoided. Good thing you did, even though it was a wasted trip.
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robertawrites235681907 said:
I haven’t been out to the shops yet, Stevie. Our infections are doubling week on week now and everything is open. I have driven past and the shops look empty which is sad and worrying for the owners. I can’t risk my parents or my darling Michael. Having had swine flu two years ago, I don’t want this virus myself either.
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Stevie Turner said:
Ours are reducing thankfully, but they keep catastrophising about a second wave. It’s causing so much fear.
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abbiejohnsontaylor said:
It would be much more depressing if you had the virus, don’t you think?
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jwebster2 said:
Actually as somebody who has almost certainly had the virus it’s just irritating. 😦
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Stevie Turner said:
Of course, but you have to balance common sense avoidance measures with opening up the economy again. It’s depressing to see the fear in people’s faces and sometimes over-the-top precautions caused by catastrophising scientists with no proof of a second wave of infections, and the press.
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