Yes, it’s Sunday again, the day we do the shopping. Not that I mind; in fact, I quite enjoy it in a strange sort of way.

Baron Street – a fine sunny day

Chapel Market lies between us and Sainsbury’s and so we pass through it both going and coming back. This market has always been vigorous and busy with stalls selling good quality products. How well it is attended, especially on Sundays, is a good indicator of the state if the economy.

Chapel Market
Photo by Tigger

Though there are still not as many stalls in Chapel Market as we would expect on a “normal” Sunday, there seem to be more than in recent weeks. There are a few that were previously missing, such as the stall selling mobile phone accessories. Are these retailers of “non-essential” goods creeping back in as they feel the pinch from the loss of income?

As usual, we arrived early at Sainsbury’s and found a queue stretching from the entrance and round the corner all the way to the bus stop and beyond. During the first lockdown, the store had marked out the pavement at two-metre intervals with yellow and black adhesive tape. These marks are still in place, even if a little worn. We found our mark and waited patiently The pandemic has been a good time to learn patience!

When the queue starts to move, it picks up a surprising turn of speed. I need to take time out, however, to collect a trolley. Tigger hangs our own shopping trolley on it and we enter the store, obediently stopping to squirt sanitiser gel on our hands before proceeding.

Some empty shelves
Photo by Tigger

While we managed to find everything we wanted, we couldn’t help noticing that some of the shelves were sparsely stacked or even entirely empty. Does this indicate supply problems (which would be somewhat worrying, especially as we lurch towards Brexit) or that they simply hadn’t managed to finish replenishing the shelves before opening (a not uncommon problem in this branch), I don’t know. Time will tell.

Having completed our purchases and negotiated the checkout, we were free to go home. Once again, we passed through the market.

Traditional market cart
Photo by Tigger

Motor vehicles are prohibited from the market and so goods have to be brought to the stalls from lock-up stores or vans parked in nearby streets. Modern wire trolleys of the sort used in supermarkets are used but also a small number of traditional 4-wheeled carts. I would guess that some are over a hundred years old but are still going strong. Often there is the original owner’s name engraved in the sides of the cart.

Interestingly, such carts of still being made to traditional designs – see a number of online sites, including this one.

Stall selling plants and flowers
Photo by Tigger

This large stall in White Conduit Street sells plants and flowers and was very busy with a queue of customers. Has the lockdown induced people to spend more on beautifying their homes where they are forced to spend more time than before? Are plants considered “essential” products, I wonder?

Just out of shot on the right is the shop where I went for our equivalent of “essential products”.

Inside Mercer’s

I refer to Mercer’s, where I went for our takeaway coffees. With these in hand, we made for home.

Why didn’t we go to Jusaka, our usual place for coffee? Because these days they remain closed at the weekend, the amount of trade that they do then not being sufficient to justify staying open – another indicator of the downturn in the economy. It’s going to take hard work and probably some tightening of our belts to set things to rights, if and when we manage to beat the pandemic. Brexit can only make a bad situation worse.