Post by Zoe Williams
We rightly praise shopkeepers trying to do the best for their customers. But I’ll never forgive the price-gougers exploiting the pandemic
Corner shops, however, are less clear cut: I am fascinated by the raw emotion they ignite, and am obsessed with whether or not I will maintain my fierce new loyalties and hatreds once lockdown is lifted, or forget them within a week.
So, there was an everything-and-nothing shop I always felt guilty about, after a small supermarket opened and just sold more, better, cheaper stuff. But since lockdown, they have turned out to be price gougers. Full fiver-for-hand-sanitiser, loo-roll-out-the-back-for-roughly-the-price-of-drugs bad guys, the kind of people who would swap you a jar of jam for an emerald broach in the middle of a siege. About three weeks in, they stopped serving people at all, and would only serve Deliveroo drivers, through a hatch; fags for £25 and whisky for the kind of price that even someone in the grip of delirium tremens should think twice about.
“Are you for real,” I asked, trying to score some Carlsberg through the hatch, “after all the Haribo and Monster Munch I’ve detoured here for, to keep morale up?” “Yes, darling,” they said, deploying this empty endearment as if their hands were tied by the gods of health and safety.
But then there is an establishment with a surprising but very niche butchery counter and a hardware section out the back, known to us as the testicles-and-fuses shop. I never thought I would be able to buy Nutella in there. Nor did I expect much reciprocal loyalty, given how seldom I needed the gonads of a lamb. Oh, mate. They have deeper mines of Nutella than I knew there were in the world, and are like the Euripides of DIY. If I am back on Ocado, eight seconds after normal life resumes, I shall have severely disappointed myself.
• Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
News is under threat ...
… just when we need it the most. Millions of readers around the world are flocking to the Guardian in search of honest, authoritative, fact-based reporting that can help them understand the biggest challenge we have faced in our lifetime. But at this crucial moment, news organisations are facing an unprecedented existential challenge. As businesses everywhere feel the pinch, the advertising revenue that has long helped sustain our journalism continues to plummet. We need your help to fill the gap.
We believe every one of us deserves equal access to quality news and measured explanation. So, unlike many others, we made a different choice: to keep Guardian journalism open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This would not be possible without financial contributions from our readers, who now support our work from 180 countries around the world.
We have upheld our editorial independence in the face of the disintegration of traditional media – with social platforms giving rise to misinformation, the seemingly unstoppable rise of big tech and independent voices being squashed by commercial ownership. The Guardian’s independence means we can set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Our journalism is free from commercial and political bias – never influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This makes us different. It means we can challenge the powerful without fear and give a voice to those less heard.
Reader financial support has meant we can keep investigating, disentangling and interrogating. It has protected our independence, which has never been so critical. We are so grateful.
We need your support so we can keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent. And that is here for the long term. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
We rightly praise shopkeepers trying to do the best for their customers. But I’ll never forgive the price-gougers exploiting the pandemic
The best local shops earn a fierce loyalty from their customers. Photograph: Pat Tuson/Alamy
Heroes and villains of the business world are quite boring: Richard Branson is always the villain; James Timpson is always the hero. We didn’t need a crisis to learn this; any fool could have said it a decade ago. Timpson has been rehabilitating prisoners, fixing them up with employment upon release, actually setting up training workshops in some jails, for years. And Branson has been the man he is, also for years.Corner shops, however, are less clear cut: I am fascinated by the raw emotion they ignite, and am obsessed with whether or not I will maintain my fierce new loyalties and hatreds once lockdown is lifted, or forget them within a week.
So, there was an everything-and-nothing shop I always felt guilty about, after a small supermarket opened and just sold more, better, cheaper stuff. But since lockdown, they have turned out to be price gougers. Full fiver-for-hand-sanitiser, loo-roll-out-the-back-for-roughly-the-price-of-drugs bad guys, the kind of people who would swap you a jar of jam for an emerald broach in the middle of a siege. About three weeks in, they stopped serving people at all, and would only serve Deliveroo drivers, through a hatch; fags for £25 and whisky for the kind of price that even someone in the grip of delirium tremens should think twice about.
“Are you for real,” I asked, trying to score some Carlsberg through the hatch, “after all the Haribo and Monster Munch I’ve detoured here for, to keep morale up?” “Yes, darling,” they said, deploying this empty endearment as if their hands were tied by the gods of health and safety.
But then there is an establishment with a surprising but very niche butchery counter and a hardware section out the back, known to us as the testicles-and-fuses shop. I never thought I would be able to buy Nutella in there. Nor did I expect much reciprocal loyalty, given how seldom I needed the gonads of a lamb. Oh, mate. They have deeper mines of Nutella than I knew there were in the world, and are like the Euripides of DIY. If I am back on Ocado, eight seconds after normal life resumes, I shall have severely disappointed myself.
• Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist
News is under threat ...
… just when we need it the most. Millions of readers around the world are flocking to the Guardian in search of honest, authoritative, fact-based reporting that can help them understand the biggest challenge we have faced in our lifetime. But at this crucial moment, news organisations are facing an unprecedented existential challenge. As businesses everywhere feel the pinch, the advertising revenue that has long helped sustain our journalism continues to plummet. We need your help to fill the gap.
We believe every one of us deserves equal access to quality news and measured explanation. So, unlike many others, we made a different choice: to keep Guardian journalism open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. This would not be possible without financial contributions from our readers, who now support our work from 180 countries around the world.
We have upheld our editorial independence in the face of the disintegration of traditional media – with social platforms giving rise to misinformation, the seemingly unstoppable rise of big tech and independent voices being squashed by commercial ownership. The Guardian’s independence means we can set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Our journalism is free from commercial and political bias – never influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This makes us different. It means we can challenge the powerful without fear and give a voice to those less heard.
Reader financial support has meant we can keep investigating, disentangling and interrogating. It has protected our independence, which has never been so critical. We are so grateful.
We need your support so we can keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent. And that is here for the long term. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you.
Corner shops are reflecting the best and worst of us in lockdown
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