Shop ’til you drop
Maura McHugh is entralled with the idea of 24 hour shopping. I’m not so sure.
Tesco Ireland has announced that for the weeks leading up to Christmas most of its stores will be opened for 24 hours. I’m not advocating that this practice be prohibited, after all if there’s a market for it then by all means that market should be served.
But it’s precisely the fact that there is a market for 24 hour shopping that disturbs me. Remember this isn’t the ‘pop down to the petrol station because we’re out of milk after arriving home at 3 in the morning’ convenience store variety of 24 hour shopping, this is the full blown supermarket shopping experience.
It says a lot to me about the quality of life that we now have in the country that we cannot find enough hours in the day to do our shopping and must instead wait until the wee small hours to buy our turkeys and trimmings, our fairy lights and decorations, and our gifts for our loved ones. Are we really so busy these days that we don’t have time to do the essential chores like shopping, never mind having the time to enjoy the fruits of our labours?
24 hour shopping is a great novelty and for many it is a symbol of an improved standard of living in the country. For me it’s the opposite. It’s a symbol of a country that has become a slave to work and money and no longer values time.
Mark Waters marked time at 7:47 pm on December 1st, 2003 .
