The lost art of conversation

My Mum has often told me stories of what food shopping was like when she was a little girl. She said my Grandmother would give her a shopping list and the shopkeeper would get her items. This could obviously not take place in silence.

Clothes shops would have counters too & endless little wooden drawers crammed with items to sell but the assistant would know exactly which little drawer contained the item you asked for. Again,  lots of chatting would take place and you would need to engage with the assistant to get your items. Then would come payment, in cash no doubt and despite it not being worked out by the till the correct change would be given.

I know we're all in a hurry and believe you me I want to get out of Tesco (other supermarkets are available) as fast as humanly possible but at what price?  It's all super fast, pre-packaged & sterile. There are lots of supermarket checkout staff who like a bit of a chin wag and I'll gladly oblige, especially as I don't always see that many 'grown ups' on a day to day basis.

Now we also have self service check outs where you don't have to speak to a soul. I was self serving it the other day to buy a bottle of wine which needed to be authorised and the assistant came over and without so much as a side ways glance pressed the 'customer looks over 25' button.  Rude.  The quick assumption about my age I mean, not the silence.

My mission is to try to get everybody to say at least a couple of words during an everyday transaction, we don't need life stories but let's just re-connect with people.

Esther xx