Solo Shopping

Shopping solo has got to be one of the best ways to achieve a sense of loneliness and isolation known to mankind. It sounds odd given at major shopping centres on a Sunday you are literally surrounded by people, so how can you feel lonely?

I think you feel so lonely because all around you are people shopping together, interacting and socialising, and there you are walking around by yourself with no one to talk to. The single worst part of shopping solo? Sitting in a crowded food court at lunch time at a table by yourself, eating silently and just looking around watching people interact.

As you may have guessed today I went shopping at Indooroopilly while Bee was at work... and felt very, very lonely. Scanning the food court showed only a couple of similarly lonely people, funnily enough all male. You could tell the difference in their behaviour, and mine, when compared with everyone else around. People sharing their tables with friends were taking their time eating, mainly due to having to interrupt eating with talking, but also because sitting around a table eating and chatting with people you know is one of the human races most popular socialising activities.

The solos, well me anyway, simply sat and ate their food as fast as they could so they could vacate the scene and carry on with whatever they were there to do. Eating had become more a step in the process rather than something to savour.

In fact the entire shopping experience for me had become a mission. Get in, find what I wanted and get out. If Bee had been with me we would have strolled through the centre at a leisurely pace, stopping at stores we had no intention of buying anything from and taking as long as we wanted. Today I found myself walking much faster than even my normal walking speed to get to my next destination. Sure I did some very minor window shopping but on the whole I was there to achieve something and that was it.

Funny how the lack of companionship can completely change the nature of an activity. It got me thinking about what other activities we would face completely differently when performed solo? For the moment get your mind out of the gutter and think about how much you take for granted the companionship of a friend or loved one when out and about in your daily life, and just how different it would be if that same companionship wasn't available to you. It'd make for a very dull world...