Shopping in London

So shopping in London has been an interesting experience. It has everythng you could possibly want, but not where you might expect or want it to be.

There is no Target or Walmart here and you could say some Supermarkets like Sainsbury or Waitrose are miniture ones of those, but truly they are not the same. There is no one stop shop for it all. Which is fine I guess, except when you want it all in one place.

Case in point...we do public transport and so the least amount of traveling you have to do when shopping with two little ones is best, but that is kind of impossible here. When planning for Alina's bday party I had to go to one shop for the food, another shop for her present, another shop for the plates etc, and a few different shops for the decorations and table items and another place for pictures. It was a bit of pain to say the least.

Now shopping online is a big deal here, but I am a visual person and I need to see it in front of me. There is a store here called Argos which is kind of like Target, execpt there is no store...you go into the "store" read through a huge giant catalog, write down what you want, pay for it and then stand in line while they get it or send it to you.Ahhh I hate it. I want to walk through aisles and see things for myself, touch and feel things. It does save you money though as you don't generally do any impulse shopping.

Also stores here close EARLY. There is only one late night of shopping and that is Thursday nights. Otherwise stores shut at 6pm and supermarkets around 10pm. Supermarkets shut at 4pm on Sundays.

I don't really have a problem with this, as it is nice that people don't have to work all crazy hours and that life is not centered around shopping, but it is a pain on Sunday evenings and you have not planned ahead...which is usually my case.

There are a whole lot of mom and pop type shops here and I do like that. I like that big corporations like walmart have not taken over and families get to have their own business's. It's just a pain for a lazy person like me who doesnt want to have to go to a million places to get what I want.

I can say though that I do not shop like I use to. No heading to target to buy things I don't need. I really have to need something in order for me to make the effort. Also I don't have anywhere to store it and so unless I am going to use it, I am probably not going to get it.