SOS ~ SAVE OUR SHOPS

Posted at 14:19

I love the early mornings. I love orange juice, hot coffee and most of all, I love my local shop.

To me it’s my source of all the local news you see. There’s bacon butties on offer there and good banter to go with it and I’m an official member of the 'Early Risers Club' there too, treading a path for others to follow, often meeting fellow explorers trudging through all seasons, weathering storms or even basking in the summer sun.

The characters in my shop often change as the day progresses, beginning with the dog walkers, truckers and builders. And these are closely followed by precocious kids on their way to school taking longer to choose sweets than a woman does choosing new shoes. And then there’s the constant stream of everyday grocery shoppers to add to the list.

Julie the store proprietor there, takes it all within her stride. Once the rush hour dies down she likes debating all kinds of local issues with all and sundry and always takes a feisty viewpoint, taking the part of devil’s advocate and whenever I run out of ideas for this blog (hard to imagine I know), she’s usually my first port of call for further resources.

You see to us locals it’s more like a drop in centre than a shop, where busy customers can readily exchange all forms of news and gossip as they grab their essential provisions. For the not so nimble, it’s often their only social contact for the day and for hectic families bereft of milk or bread it’s a real life saver too.

I often like to make a flying start by arriving early at the shop well before the pie man makes his daily delivery because once he turns up, you can guarantee that the faithful will always follow.

There's chesty smokers desperate for their first fix of the day, van drivers in search of bacon butties to keep them company as they sift through the morning papers, mums on the school run topping up their children's lunch boxes. Yes they all come hobbling down the road from all corners towards the shop as if they were all on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, knowing it will sooth their vexations, slake their thirsts, feed their hunger or even help brighten up their moods.

Obviously the corner shop is never going to be as cheap as the local supermarket is but what we find in Julies shop is often not available elsewhere. The supermarket for example, simply won’t enquire after my pets and their ailments, stock rare sweets for individual kids, offer people advice or even worry if I don’t show up.

So if you’re lucky enough to have a local community shop like mine too, I implore you to give it your support, especially if here in England. I mean we’ve already lost many of our local pubs, petrol stations and Post Offices to the larger conglomerates and economies of scale. And with the further loss of our local shops we eventually won’t even have a community to go home to.

SOS ~ SAVE OUR SHOPS

   

1 Comment:

1. Unknown said...
   6 July 2011 at 06:23  
   I love mom and pop stores agree completely I do go to the supermarket but boycott Walmart I have for years

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