In the 'hood

In the chemist's recently, I've been struck by the empty shelves in various parts of this rather small shop. I thought they must be waiting on deliveries, or closing down. On Saturday, a sign on the door said they were closed due to a lack of staff. So I wondered if they were so short-staffed that no one could ever stock the shelves.

On the Monday, I went back. The always rushed manager Graham, who pretends to be nice but I think may not be, said, when I asked about Saturday, that he was angry the shop hadn't been on open on Saturday, he'd have opened it, but it was his day off and he didn't find out until afterwards and was brusquely apologetic. I said that if they were short-staffed, did they have jobs. No, he said, they had someone starting the following day.

Like the time I was in before, when I gave my date of birth, he wanted me to have a blood pressure check. I said I wanted to talk about the headaches, so he called the pharmacist to come out.

Young woman, open, friendly, told me to go in the back room. She'd been qualified a year and I asked how she liked it. Sometimes, she said. But she didn't like being shouted at. What? They got shouted at, she said. Often. "I don't mind when patients are nice," she said, "but I don't like being shouted at." She works between various stores, and gets shouted at in all of them. The blood pressure was fine and she gave me some advice on the headaches. Probably useful.

At the till, I asked why the shelves were empty: did they have a problem with deliveries? No, she said, people just steal everything, so they don't put it on the shelves. "I say to people, if there's something you want, ask: we probably have it downstairs." Steal everything? Yes, she said, they come in with bags and just clear things off the shelves.

A kid was stabbed to death up the road, when was it? A year ago? And there was that guy by the bus stop, whacked over the head with a brick around the same time. I saw something in the local news about a shoplifter with a gun. Can't track that down, but four years ago someone in this part of town, a teenager, was arrested for owning a "huge weapons stash." About 15 or 20 years back, the "ladies of the night" two doors down were threatened with a gun. They shut down and now a young family live in that house.

But, really: the shouting? The thieving?