Today might be the day that everyone has – finally – gone shopping; the library is remarkably quiet, though perhaps that is just because many people have not yet surfaced from what was supposed to be the biggest office party night of the year last night.
Thursday was a wash out for the shops. There were only six people on the 1 o’clock bus into town – something which hasn’t happened since bus passes went completely free. Coming home, the bus had to linger at timed bus stops at least twice, something else virtually unheard of these days, mostly because increasing congestion & growing numbers of passengers to load mean that buses are rarely running ahead of time.
Perhaps everybody had just decided to stay at home because of the dire warnings about the weather that were issued earlier in the week. Which means that the Met Office undid the good turn that the public sector strikers had done for the shopkeepers at the end of November.
It wouldn’t take very much to put people off & persuade them to hold their purses tight however. Yesterday evening I overheard one woman say to an acquaintance that ‘things are really dire’ in response to a question about her Christmas shopping.
Two new outlets have opened slap in the centre of town – one for Pay Day Loans, one offering to buy your gold.
The Pound Store is the only one which has queues all the time at the till.
And unsold Christmas Specials at bargain prices were piled high just inside the supermarket door last night.
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