Walking through Buchanan Galleries (Glasgow's upmarket shopping mall), past the open stalls in the walkways. Ahead of me two assistants at a cosmetics and cream stall for men and women are accosting passers-by to come and try the various beauty products and processes for sale. The three people ahead of me were all stopped, invited and given an advertising flyer. I wasn't. I suppose they recognise a lost cause, eh?
Sitting in one of our favourite coffee haunts that does the most outrageously good meringues – so big I haven't risked one yet! The three women meeting up for their afternoon refills are asked for their order. Two of them go for cakes to die for – the third says, "Ah'll go fur the low calorie option. Kin ye gie me a meringue wi' less cream?" That would be called creative calorie accounting then?
In Borders I'm engrossed in the poetry section. A tall man in a leather jacket, iron filings for hair, says to no-one in particular and anyone who's listening, "Onybody heard of Edgar Allen Poe? He writes stuff". I asked him if it was for a present, and was it poetry or stories. It was stories he was after – his daughter was "intae that stuff". We headed to the fiction, arranged alphabetically, came to P and there was Poe's tales. "Ah don't usually come intae bookshops, ken. And there's too many books in here onyway." Decided not to disagree, since by then we were getting on fine.
Later, on the hunt for a fleecy throw of a particular colour for someone who'd asked, noticed Primark sells 8 pairs of cotton socks for £2. That's 25 pence a pair. Today they are accused of paying 7p an hour to workers in Bangladesh where there is 70% food inflation and the going rate of pay has stayed at 7p for 2 years (£19 per month). War on Want (see here) accuses Primark, Asda and Tesco of not matching previously given commitments to ethical standards of pay in developing countries. They of course have their answers – but am I the only one that thinks 8 pairs for £2 means somebody somewhere is getting a very bum deal? Who? Not us. Not Primark. So who?
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