Will real window-shopping still exist post pandemic?
19 Apr 2021
Dear LPG,
I got thinking about the shops in our high streets; especially the ones that have been designated non-essential.
I wonder whatever happened to that 20th Century pastime of window-shopping. Before 2020 I spent many a leisurely afternoon exploring the high streets of neighbouring boroughs and finding that shop window that did not necessarily attract my attention because of its size or the modern goods that were on display. I have to admit that I would often be a little daunted because of a fear of seeing something that my eyes were attracted to while my pension book told me that I should definitely be deterred.
I have always enjoyed those really unusual shops which you often nearly get past before something in the window works like a magnet as it stops you in your tracks and you just have to turn around and put your head through the shop door. I know that many of them are surviving online but for me there is nothing as special as stepping over the threshold into a completely different world of really unusual browsing for just a little while, and occasionally buying a little momentum of my visit. I have been a part of so many conversations which began when two or three people commented on one of the more unusual items on sale in such a shop and, often though briefly, my imagination is set on fire metaphorically.
The news has kept us up to date, and even the big conglomerates have difficulty keeping their heads above water. We have all seen the news stories documenting the demise and restructure of some of the biggest shopping groups that we all thought would be there forever, while the 21st century has had its casualties. I fear that when all the nonessential independent shops, be they second hand shops, charity shops, or specialist shops, are finally allowed to reopen after a year of disruption, and we are allowed to get out and about again, there will be even fewer of them left.
One of my favourite memories will always be my discovery of the Christmas shop which is not far from London Bridge station, and although I have not been there for years I would be very upset if after the pandemic ends no one else will have the opportunity to experience what it has to offer even if you don’t buy anything.
I have to say that necessity has forced me to learn how to use the internet to shop but the pictures of things that are found there are never going to replace that feeling of being surrounded by the ambience of some of those smaller, independent, more unusual shops that may not be able to open, even when they are allowed to again.
FB, Lewisham.
FB shares the link that inspired today’s writings and LPG found a few more…
