I've been thinking lately about our 24/7 shopping culture, which is supposed to give us more time....but does it?
When I was growing up shops were open Monday - Saturday 9-5:30, if you ran out of anything outside of these times you either tried to borrow from a neighbour or went without. It made people far more organised, they planned for what they needed and most homes had a shopping list somewhere in the kitchen to put down things that had run out or was needed for the next week, so that they wouldn't be forgotten on the trip to the shops, which tended to be daily or at least a few times a week to the local shops, not many women with children worked in the 60s and 70s.
When I got married in the mid 80's (I was a young bride!) supermarkets tended to be open until 8pm but still no shops opened on a Sunday. You still had to be a bit organised.....no nipping to the shops when you find that you have run out of toilet rolls at 10 in the evening, and everyone had Sunday together.
By the early 90's shops were open on a Sunday, so what should be a relaxing day could now be spent wandering round the shops.
Now we have supermarkets open 24 hours a day and most shops now open on a Sunday, we don't need to be organised, we can buy whatever we want whenever we want it, Who needs to have a shopping list in the kitchen when you can just nip into the supermarket or all night attachment to garages if we run out.
Over the past 18 months, I have had to look closely about the way that I shop and become more organised. My employer has moved premises, instead of being within a 2 minute walk to town I am now based about a 20 minute walk away. Then for the last 6 months there have been major roadworks on the road that leads into the city, adding about an hour each way to a trip that should take 15 minutes.
Because of this I don't just pop into town on a daily basis in my lunch break to purchase things that we have forgotten, I go in when I have a list of things I need and in actual fact have only walked into town about a dozen times since we moved. I have also rediscovered a shopping list, I have a magnetic pad on the fridge and we write things down as they run out, everyone has learned that if it isn't on the list it doesn't get purchased, no telling me the day before a cookery lesson at school that there are some vital ingredients needed as they just won't be bought....a detention soon focused the mind into making sure Mum knows the week before what is needed! Also because of the queues, I my occasional use of internet food shopping has become a regular event.
Despite refusing to sit in queues of traffic to get to the big shops we are all still clothed, fed and watered. I have continued to shop locally for my fresh food, and have when we do need anything extra used the local market towns. I have become more organised, making lists of things we need and pre-planning for things like birthdays so that I get cards or whatever I need in plenty of time.
Guess what....instead of struggling with not using the convenience of round the clock opening hours, I have actually found that I have more time. I make plan, make lists and think about what we need...if we run out we do without until the next big shop, or a few items warrant a lunchtime hike into town. I still work a way out of town, but the road is now opened, but I will not be going back to my old ways. It seems to me that by the very nature of stores being open longer for our convenience to give us more time, it is actually having the opposite effect in many cases, we don't plan because we can buy anytime, but being able to do this is cutting into our free time and unless you live within walking distance of shops is costing you fuel and impacting on the environment, and unless you are a better shopper than me money as we rarely come out with just the 1 thing we went in for.
So give me a bit of organisation any day if it gives me back my free time.
