Wednesday is Weekly Shopping Day!

Today was my weekly venture to the shops to purchase essential items for the family. Like most people, I am learning how to plan meals, activities and shop accordingly. That initial 'Oh my goodness, how much?' at the checkout, has been replaced with the realisation that I was probably spending more pre-pandemic when I just popped in and out of shops to solve our families' food problems.

The anticipation at being let out of the house and talking to folk face-to-face outside the family unit is almost too much to bear. I am up and dressed and head down to Sainsbury's (other supermarkets are available) for the weekly queue pre-8am. This morning on arrival at the Store I had a minor panic - no queue! Is it shut? With a deep breath I headed to the entrance, checking with a high-viz clad worker that everything was normal. 'Yes,' she said 'Just seems a little quieter this morning!' Fabulous. A cruise round the aisles would be a breeze today.

My bible is always my shopping list and I stress to my family that if it is not on the list, then it doesn't get bought. That doesn't stop the eighteen year old texting me with last minute requests of chocolate and crisps - essential teenage brain food. As I wander down each section, carefully avoiding fellow shoppers and loitering by the tinned tomatoes to let folk wander past, I attempt to carefully stack the trolley and therapeutically cross items off my list. Of course, sometimes the item I require is nowhere to be seen - take certain flavours of pot noodles for example - and I have to make a spot decision on a replacement. This can lead to self-guilt when I return home and other household members are critical of my decision. The pressure is on.

I had undertaken to buy my neighbours some bread as a good deed. A very specific type of bread, so I headed into the bakery section to survey the selection. Imagine my horror when I noticed two different bread with similar names! What to do? Harvest seed or multi grain not multi-seed as I was directed! Could buy both, mmm that is overly greedy and could cause starvation amongst the masses. Which one would I prefer - dark or light? Decision made, the lighter harvest seed was purchased. I now need to rest it on our dividing fence and wait for the response. 

The final action in the supermarket is the ancient art of queueing. Little footprint transfers adorn the floor to help customers stand, in an orderly fashion, in an elongated line two metres apart. Of course, I have overstacked my trolley and am clutching three bottles of fruit squash trying desperately not to drop them on the floor. This pause does give you time to survey the supermarket scene - people navigating trolleys round corners avoiding fellow customers, large see-through perpex walls between checkout operators and customers, two security guards manning the main door. How the shopping experience has changed in just a couple of months! Luckily, I was able to string a sentence together and communicate with the lovely checkout lady. I always worry that I will forget the art of conversation if I am couped up in the house for too long.

So the weekly shop has been purchased, all items stored away and an empty sheet awaits the start of next week's list. The larder looks full, the fridge is rammed with delicious items and two pots of ice cream have gone into the freezer. Now all we need to do is eat our purchases before I head out on next week's much-anticipated shopping adventure!!

Photograph of Ladies handing out bread to soldiers in South Africa, c1900