SHOPPING IN small TOWNS

No tea bags! Shock... horror. "I'm just nipping into the town, back in two minutes", I explain to my darling family as I put on my jacket. I don't think they heard or noticed. I popped kettle on, and thought by the time I get back it will just have boiled.

I head to our nearest town, a little town. A little town I have grown to love so much since we moved house almost a year ago. This little town that always has everything you need, genuinely. Grocers in small towns are clever people. They stock clever. It's a remarkable skill.

There is one teeny tiny, vital item that cannot be got in this little town, and that's cash.  The only ATM is long since gone when the bank closed a few years back. Most of the shops and businesses have card facilities, and there are some that don't. All still open for business? Yes, because these business people are steadfast, hardy and resilient. It is one more thing to consider when you go shopping in this small town, and if you are like me, and don't ever have cash in your wallet. But you get used to it. There is just no ATM.

It has happened me at least twice in two separate shops, I needed to get my card, or there wasn't a card machine, or I left cash in my car parked at the playground etc. I have been told without as much as a 'who are you?', go ahead and drop it in again.  I have found, even when you are a relative newcomer to another small town, that there is an amazing, refreshing trust between the business owners and their customers. Some might think that's no way to run a business, but a number of these businesses have been open and survived two recessions. I reckon they are doing something right.

So lovely it is, to go shopping in a small town. It reminds me of running errands with my grandmother many moons ago, when people were nice to each other and in less of a rush.

I reminded myself of as much, as I stood waiting to pay for the tea bags this morning. I found I was hopping from foot to foot, anxious to get moving,  and pay for tea bags and fly home, but there was a conversation in full flow ahead of me, seemed important. Slightly awkward, I hang back and consider that maybe this is a personal conversation, and I should move myself out of ear shot. I do another lap of the shop and remember I needed porridge and marmalade also. I just thought about the conversation going on, and how it was a blessing in disguise because it slowed me down, made me think. Ordinarily I'd have dashed into the shop, lapped it like the tasmanian devil, and arrived home inevitably forgetting the item I went in for.

This waiting business wasn't so bad. This was a good thing. This is part of the lovely experience of shopping in small towns. How nice that people, can stop to chat to each other here. These little conversations might mean the world to these customers. I had the privilege, of my own conversation as I paid for my own groceries. I thought back to my experience in a larger supermarket the previous  day, and how the check out guy grunted at the nice little old lady ahead of me.  I remembered thinking how rude he was, trying to rush her along, when she physically wasn't able for the speed at which he threw the groceries towards her to pack.

You might pay a few more cent and need to allocate a bit more time if you go shopping in small towns, but it makes for a hell of a nicer and far more fulfilling experience. I honestly drove back home this morning with all the groceries I needed and a lovely reminder that there is still a world full of nice people out there.

You just need to be in the right places to find them.  Sonja x