Outside supermarkets these days, in the time of pandemic, you regularly see Shop Alone on a large-ish placard. This is a great idea for several reasons …

• You don’t have to take hubby with you – they hate supermarket shopping and make it more difficult. I often hear women complaining!
• You don’t have to take the children with you – also not lovers of supermarket shopping, not having them with you makes it all so much easier
• You can’t go with a friend – so you’re buying things you want and not what she wants. Your idea of a nice snack may not be hers …
• You’re FREE -Not for long, but it’s better than nothing …

Many of us have become desperate to escape the constant companion. Another reason to Shop Alone.

There are others who are longing for a constant companion but, as with all pandemics, you can’t share them around.

Of course, supermarket shopping is nothing like shopping for clothes. In the meantime we have to make-do with shopping for food …

You’re probably chafing at the bit to get out and go and look at clothes, and things girly with your mum or sister or girlfriends. Coffee, lunch, and a good giggle are the stuff of dreams. BUT, please don’t buy anything to drape on your body. Buying is for you and you alone.

Going back to happier pre-Covid days, like me you will have been witness to some poor woman, possibly your own age, being helped by a friend, her husband and/or a sales assistant, to choose something to wear. you know how frustrating it can be for an onlooker.

You know what I mean. There’s the lovely little lady in her late fifties, or sixties or even her 70s, already feeling insecure and wondering how to dress her no-longer-size-10-body, trying on something ghastly. Huge pattern, wrong colour, too tight, too short and just too …

It really upsets me when I see this happen and I usually have to walk out while the husband (who will usually say “you look lovely”), the assistant (wanting the sale) and the friend (who has her own agenda), are all doing a great job of talking her into something that belongs on another body.

You know, if we’re over 55 we’re old enough and ugly enough to make up our own minds!

Why do so many women, of any age, feel it necessary to have someone else help with decision making? Especially when it comes to clothes. Are we really so unsure of ourselves we cannot decide if something we try on actually works for us? Really?

Perhaps you should consider a Taking Stock process … resurrect your self-esteem.

You are your mother’s little princess and she will always happily take you shopping or, as you grow older go with you. There is a time when you value her input but not usually when you’re a teenager!

But it means the habit of shopping in company starts young!

Shopping with girlfriends
Some of us over-55s still go shopping with our girlfriends. Why?

Like me you will remember going out with a bunch of giggling girls and coming home with something that was the wrong colour, the wrong shape and had blown your allowance totally. And all this because your best friend thought is was ‘divine’.

And I see little girls doing it today. I see big-girls-who-should-know-better doing it! They travel in gaggles often accompanied by muffin tops, and if they’re teenagers they seem to have so much money! Sad to say they’re still making the mistakes we made.

I remember my Grandmother used to say “You might as well be out of the world as out of fashion”. How true it was.

But I digress …

Friends always have the best of intentions but not necessarily the same agenda when shopping. While you’re looking for a pair of pants they may be looking for shoes, which means you’re in the wrong shop … for them!

Likewise, your partner may not wish to say the wrong thing. If, like most of us over 50 you have gained a little weight, especially around the middle, he either doesn’t notice or doesn’t want to mention it – which is very sweet. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help.

• You can take a rest when you want and have a coffee … all in your time frame.
• You don’t have to worry that your companion (girlfriend, husband or whatever) is feeling bored
• You can keep going as long as you can keep going!

I developed a passion for shopping alone a long time ago. I have one dear friend who is the same; when we go out together we split up and arrange to meet at a particular coffee shop at a specific time.

I’m spending hard-earned money on my clothes so I like to make sure I get what I want.

My advice? Be like me (!) and when you go shopping, work to your own agenda rather than that of other people …

What do you think? Does shopping with others work for you? Or do you have a variety of clothing items you will never wear because they were chosen by somebody else?!