Shops.....

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I dont know if this is to much like my last post but here goes....

Shops can be nightmares for most of us and i am no exception.

But the way i look at it is how much, in a shop, i can stay anonamouse.

By that i mean how much can i go in, browse, choose and buy with the least amount of interaction and i find some supermarkets good for this.

I have many supermarkets near me but there is one i like very much becuase its still a supermarket but its fairly small and most people go to the much bigger one up the road so that leaves me with a shop that i can shop in and its quiet most times as well.

Although i easily get flustered at the checkout so i keep pretending to browse until the crowd clears and then i can pay and go.

Small local shops are a waste of time becuase they are always the sort that are to do with "community" and that is all very well but that is not how i see it.

I prefer not to be quized and challeneged just for going into a shop that i havnt gone into before, or be asked if i live nearby or have come far etc etc.

We all know about this small banter.

Petrol stations are alright but here in the UK they can also be tricky. I prefer to AVOID supermarket filling stations as they are always busy and to complicated with pay at pump stuff and the like. Small stations are tricky also as they again are part of the "community" and before now i have been in situations were i have been looked upon like scum becuase i wont stay and chat about the bloody weather. But larger stations like Esso, BP, Total etc are fine and i have little problems.

I will still avoid most shops and going by experience one type of shop i really dont like is fast food places like chip-shops as i find the procedure of telling the person what you want a right mission and however many times i do it it just doesnt get any easier.

Plus when i do have to deal with those places is at night when the meruading beasts of night-time drinkers are on the rampage so again i wait in the car and sieze the quiet moment!!

But again all these places have added problems like doors.....

But thats another story!!

Many thanks for letting me share this.

I like self-checkouts. Doesn't Sainsbury's offer that?

Yeah a lot of bigger supermarkets have them but i dont like them as i am consiouse of people watching me faffing about with the machine which i find confusing.

I tend to find that if i find something like that confusing i end up doing it wrong becuase i go into "blind" mode and just cant sea clearly marked instrutions.

Same here! I'd rather a cashier to serve me than use the self-service ones. The cashiers don't normally talk to you, they just say ''hello'' and that's it. I'm not afraid to talk to people anyway. I'm more afraid of doing something wrong in front of some people than to just say hello to someone at a till. How hard can it be?

But with the self-service tills, I don't like serving myself knowing there are people waiting behind me. I'm slightly Agoraphobic, and I heard one of the symptoms of that is you don't like being watched when doing something, and that is correct with me.

I struggle at going in supermarkets, unless I'm with somebody else. When I'm on my own, I start feeling really bewildered and sort of frightened too when I walk in, because I keep thinking that everyone's looking at me and I ''shouldn't be there'' - even though weirdos like me have just as much right being in a supermarket than non-weirdos. (Actually most people are weird if they can go out of their way to stare at me, who is just acting normal and looking normal like everyone else. I must be a pretty boring person to stare at! But they make me feel like I'm a weirdo. So right now I am sitting in my house, needing lots of food but being reluctant to go out and face all those accusing eyes).

I don't have that. I can walk in and move around with little problem. It's the moment I arrive at a checkout that my problem starts. I have to stand still, or still-ish. That's where my nightmare begins. That's when I feel that everyone's staring at me. That's when I feel I might lose it, say the wrong thing, do the wrong thing or really make everyone stare.

I have to get it over with as quickly as I can so I can get out and start moving again. My anxieties become much bigger when I'm forced to stand or sit still when I'm surrounded by strangers. I avoid busy periods because being stuck behind more than one person in a queue is impossible for me to deal with. I calculate how many extra minutes it might be until I can get moving again and I get myself into a state.

As for self-service checkouts, I feel exactly the same way you do. If there's so much as a sigh from anyone behind me, I feel the urge to run and leave it all behind.