Buying Safety Pins
Sat 2007-09-22 On Thursday I had a green experience.
I was in Reading town centre with my wife Liz who has recently lost some weight and whose trousers kept falling down. I suggested that what she needed was some safety pins. But where to buy them from? My first though was Mothercare but I then realized that babies nappies (diapers) are probably no longer secured with safety pins. My wife suggested Jackson's department store and, as we were just over the road from it, that is where we went.
Jackson's always reminds me of the Co-operative department store in Guisborough that my mother used to drag me round in the early 1960's. A labyrinth of rooms on different levels, joined by short staircases with wood-panelled walls. Pigeon holes stacked with pullovers. Assistants behind long wooden counters writing out receipts by hand.
We went down to the needle work department which was manned by two dotty old women. Liz asked if they had safety pins. "Oh yes" said one, pointing to a box in the corner. There in the box were hundreds of loose safety pins. No packaging. I was taken aback. I have become so used to moulded plastic packaging that it was a shock to come across goods being sold without it, as if they were naked. The label on the box said "10 pence each". Liz took two to the counter and paid for them. We went out with two safety pins. No packaging. Just safety pins. That's how it should be.
I think I will be going to Jackson's more often.
