Yesterday’s market
I felt fortunate to have another stall at yesterday’s market. This was held at our local hall on the Karikari Peninsula.
I missed the Easter one because I was in Australia. That apparently was a busy one, as was the one before that which I did attend on Auckland Anniversary weekend back in January. Yesterday was quiet according to the stall holders I managed to talk to. I was reasonably happy with the attendance at my stall, but there were a lot less people than the January one. I sold four books.
There were a number of possible reasons for the smaller turnout, the main one being there was also a fishing competition running and even those not taking part in the competition could very well have been out fishing, such was the excellent weather this weekend. Another major reason, and I have talked about this before, is that people don’t have the disposable cash they had once upon a time. It just isn’t there. Everything seems more expensive than it ever used to be and by the time one buys their groceries, petrol and other essential items, there is not a lot left over.
I did my grocery shopping this morning. The last time was on April 18th. I remember this date because it was Daniel’s birthday and we had called into the supermarket to shop after visiting the cemetery. That is just over six weeks ago. We have bought various things from the dairy in that time and vegies from the roadside stalls but not the essentials, like flour and sugar. This shop cost $600. It was about a three-quarter full trolley. That seems a tremendous amount to have paid and I know full well, for the same trolley load a couple of years ago, we would have paid about $400. If one spreads that out, it comes to about $100 per week, which isn’t too bad, plus say a $20 or $30 extra for things bought locally. But, it is still a lot of money, almost a week’s pension for each of us.
In some ways, I am glad we do shop like this, because I for one always end up buying a few items because I am at the supermarket, rather than because I need them. The less one goes, the less of these items one buys and thus more savings ensue.
For some reason, my card was declined twice this morning. I checked when I got home and I did have the necessary funds in that account. Fortunately, I was able to use my credit card. It would have been embarrassing and time-consuming to have had to return each item. I am wondering why the eftpos rejected my card. Often the second time, whatever the glitch has been, rights itself, but not so in my case. I could see the check-out woman mentally assessing the situation, thinking here was another person taking more than they could afford. Back in Covid times, when there were restrictions in place, it was hard to do our shopping in this way, as it appeared we were hoarding and often there was only so much of a particular item allowed to be purchased. During that time, I think we shopped fortnightly – a bit silly really, because everyone was trying to abstain from mixing, but because of the food restrictions, we had to come more regularly.
But I guess I should be grateful that I can still afford my six-weekly shop and that I have the funds to pay for this. And I am also grateful that I was able to have a stall at the market and I did still get customers.