Who’d have thought it

My heart sank when I got off the bus in town yesterday – teenagers all over the place. Just like half term all over again.

It was the newsagent who gave me a different slant on things.

We’ve got so used to only “hearing” the bad news, we don’t stop to think there might be a good side to it.

He had mentally prepared for a bad day: during the week most of his custom comes from those who work in the government & council offices & facilities in the surrounding streets.

What he got was lots of people coming into town for the day.

Not so good of course for those who get most of their custom from a nearby school or college. Winners & losers.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when I went down to the shopping centre, but I was. Lots of younger children, mostly with just one adult rather than en famille as tends to be the case at weekends. Christmas shopping, with no sense of the frenzy of recent years, a more sober sense of purpose you might say – but the children were clearly happy. I don't think all the shoppers were strikers - just people who needed to find a way to keep the children amused on their unexpected holiday.

It was all hands to the till in Primark. McDonalds was having a bonanza.

Sometimes Dad or granddad in sole charge; one group – the two young adults in charge surely not old enough to be the parents - who were off to see a film after their meal; another which put me more in mind of a school group & made me think that perhaps those who were on strike might be providing supervision for the children of those who were not.

I haven’t overheard any negative comments about the strike (apart from those on the radio) – but then I would expect more of a sense of solidarity & fair treatment here oop north.

I wouldn’t expect yesterday’s spending to be in any way an addition to what people were planning to spend, more just making best use of the time available for doing all the extra work of Christmas. And, most important of all, to keep the children happy & not spread the anxiety on to them.

Even so retailers are probably grateful for the cash flow benefits.

The BBC did not seem to have heard of this good news.

Link
Public sector strikes: Business assesses cost
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