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From: Alan Badmington
Date: 20 Oct 2012
Time: 08:30:15 -0500
Remote Name: 95.144.98.96
Hi Judy, I enjoyed reading your joint presentation with AC. When I noted the title of your paper, I immediately thought of my past experiences of shopping in a store (to use US parlance). (smiley) You may be aware that in the UK, we tend to refer to retail outlets as shops and not stores. I know I’m digressing slightly but I just wanted to mention that I feel today’s supermarkets can encourage avoidance. Customers can enter a store and spend as long as they wish searching for the item(s) that they require. When they find the item(s), they are able to hand it/them to the teller, pay the appropriate remittance and leave the building without uttering a word. I know than some PWS welcome this but it can increase our fear levels for future visits. When I was a young boy, things were so different. There were no self-service stores – you had to ask for whatever you wanted. I recall that my mother would send me to the local grocery store for potatoes. This used to cause me some concern because I always experienced great difficulty in saying words commencing with the letter “p”. As I stood in line (waiting to be served), I would rehearse (in my head), “Potatoes, potatoes, potatoes” – becoming more and more agitated as the line diminished. When the assistant finally asked me what I wanted, I would reply “Onions” - because I didn’t have any difficulties with words commencing with vowels. But, I suppose there was a consolation – we had the finest onion soup in the area. Goodness knows – I went home with onions often enough. (smiley) Today, things are so different. A few years ago, whenever I entered a store, I commenced the practice of purposely asking for directions to a specific item (or department). I knew where they were located – I simply wanted to create the challenge of speaking to total strangers. To make things a little more challenging, I enquired about items that I would generally have difficulty in saying (for example milk, sauce, pepper etc). I wouldn’t necessarily purchase the items – I just wanted to say the words aloud. (smiley) Nowadays, I don’t need to adopt this strategy because (having regularly challenging myself in this and other situations) there are no longer any words that continue to hold an emotional charge. One further point – I always take time to engage in conversation with the teller and other people who may be standing in line. I discovered rather late in life that the human voice is such a wondrous thing – so I use it at every possible opportunity. (smiley) Kindest regards Alan