Independent Shopping Year: Day 2
Last Asda Shop: NYE 2013 to cache a few essentials before New Year’s Closed Day.
And lo, on my last visit to Asda, I was ID-ed.
I gave the cusp-of-40ish cashier a look that I like to think conveyed “C’mon sister, I’m buying eggs, spuds and ale. Grown up stuff; don’t mess with me.” But it only took her the briefest re-appraisal to agree on my age as I said it. I resisted an urge to protest and took the beer.
Today, Jan 2nd, required tools as well as victuals.
So I set off to North Street, merrily thinking I’d hit plenty birds with just the one rock. Minutes later I was crestfallen to discover my local chock-full indy hardware shop-keeper had as much idea what a “shave hook” was as I’d had half an hour earlier before my boyfriend explained it. Shrugging, she said she couldn’t tell me if she had one, or if she did, where it might be. At least in Screwfix they can bloody look it up, I thought. Happily, I found it in seconds on the rack nearest the counter - about 2ft from the good lady’s face.
Then, disappointed at the Deli. No loo-roll! Travesty! (They normally sell loo-roll; obviously if this were strictly a vegetables-stuffed-with-animals or vice-versa sort of establishment, that’d be fine and I wouldn’t expect top hats or dumbells or DAB radios either, but they do sell basic cleaning of self and home stuffs). Furthermore, despite a glut of short-dated 2-litre bottles of milk, clearly out of favour even in the absence of any half-sized siblings and unlikely to attract sufficient attention in the remaining two days of their lives, they offered no discount.
I decided however, in my infinite wisdom, that these are but minor and human shortcomings; of which actually I have plenty, not least forgetfulness. The deli guy came after me with the rice crackers I’d abandoned on the counter, and the hardware lady, though I interrupted her text conversation on my return, knew exactly where the radiator keys were.
Oh and I sawed a kitchen roll in half with a bread knife: instant loo-roll, ta-daa.
(Lion Stores, Southville Deli)