Personal Shopper

Welcome to a sunny South Manchester where the weather has improved. We’re due to have higher temperatures next week, starting at 26 °C tomorrow and rising to 30 °C by next weekend (that’s 79 °F to 86 °F). 

England started their World Cup campaign fairly well beating Croatia 4-2, conceding two goals in the first half that they really shouldn’t have. It’s something to work on I guess for the next game which takes place on Tuesday. 

Let’s dive into some questions from Sunday Stealing. 

Sadly, this week, they are about shopping and this is one of my least favourite pastimes.

IT IS SO BORING!!!

I do shop but I rarely go out to do it, buying most things online these days. The exception to that is really grocery shopping, which I do every week because I am retired and Mrs PM still works. 

As you read my answers, here is a song called Personal Shopper by Steven Wilson (featuring Sir Elton John) that really sums up my views on shopping and is very apt for this post. 

Come on, Dave: hold you nose and jump in. 

Shopping Day. What's on your shopping list from ...

1. Target or Walmart, or other superstore?

Neither Target nor Walmart exist in the UK, though I am familiar with Walmart from previous trips to the United States. We do have lots of superstores though, the biggest one probably is Tesco, which is a chain of supermarkets of varying sizes ranging from small ones called “Tesco Local” to huge ones that sell a variety of other things as well as your normal everyday groceries, such as clothes, electrical appliances etc. 

I do all of my grocery shopping at Tesco because it is the nearest but occasionally (and I mean very occasionally) I will go to other “superstores” such as Debenhams, Marks & Spencers and various others. 

2. Dollar Tree or Dollar General, or poundstretcher/99p store?

Again, we don’t have Dollar Tree or Dollar General in the UK. From what I can gather, our equivalent is Poundstretcher and I can honestly say that I have never set foot inside one. 

3. Best Buy or any other electronics/appliance store?

We don’t have Best Buy in the UK either. However the closest equivalents are Currys, Dixons and Comet. Being a fan of electronic gadgets generally I have actually set foot inside each of the three shops and bought stuff from them. I guess my first choice would be Currys because they have the most choice. But then again, these days I tend to look at what I need online and then choose which retailer offers the best price. 

4. Book/music store?

For books my favourite store is Waterstones, which is a specialist bookstore with some large shops in most places. Sadly, I only read books electronically now, which even more sadly means that I have to contribute, albeit in a small way, to keeping Jeff Bezos in the lifestyle in which he wallows at the moment. 

For music, I used to shop at places like HMV or Virgin records. Again, though, it was easier to buy CDs at Amazon, which means adding even more to Bezos’s already brimming bank accounts. Thankfully I no longer buy CDs, choosing instead to add to Spotify’s coffers. 

5. Bonus question! Where do you want to stop for lunch?

On the rare occasions when I head into Manchester city centre to go shopping with Mrs PM (and it is rare – I can’t recall the last time I actually did it), I suggest that we pop into a pub for lunch. That way I can have a beer to help nullify the trauma and tedium of wandering around shops.