Social aspects of shopping in 1940s war-time Britain

Based on experiences in Edgware, north London in the 1940s.

Why shopping was a social activity

It is understandable that shopping was a social activity for home-bound women in England during the Second World War. They had to trail from one shop to another to complete their purchases, as there were no supermarkets. More often than not, they had to stand in queues because everything was so scarce, and as they could only buy what they could carry, they often went out shopping several times a day. They carried their purchases in cane / wickerwork baskets, which themselves were heavy even when empty. Life was a drudge for them, with few pleasures, as the facial expressions in the photos show. Stopping to talk provided some sort of relief and a valid excuse to put the baskets down for a while to rest arms. (There were a few baskets on wheels around, but they were not common. I asked my mother why she didn't use one, but she just gave her standard answer to questions she didn't like: "Because not".)

To add to the women's tedium, they only had each other and their children to talk to. All the men, apart from the elderly or disabled or those in Reserved Occupations were away from home for the war effort; the young women were similarly occupied, and women all their children at school were required to fill the jobs vacated by the men. So the social life of the women left at home consisted primarily of meeting one another while shopping. The people they met were other mothers of children of pre-school age, much older women and occasionally a few older men sitting smoking on a communal seat. So apart from the occasional outing to visit friends and relatives, no social activities were readily available for women with young children.

As shopping had to take place most days, the women bumped into one another frequently, and there must have developed what could have been a pleasant close-knit community. My mother's view was that it was a collection gossiping busy bodies.

The social activity of shopping - chatting and gossiping

From my perspective, as a child out shopping with my mother, it seemed that every few yards women wearing headscarves would be bumping into other women wearing headscarves who they stopped to gossip to. Often curlers would be sticking out from the front of the headscarves. The women probably felt that there was no point in making the best of themselves with only other women, small children and older men to see.

As my mother was of a nervous disposition, she seldom wanted to stop to gossip, but it was expected. All the women did it. So I spent quite a lot of time just hanging around waiting, and of course listening. The talk was always of shortages and of the menfolk who were away, often no-one knew where, because that was secret. "Pre-war" was a term that seemed to turn up in every conversation. It seemed to have an almost a mystical significance. If something was pre-war, then it was high quality, worthwhile or good in some other way.

The pattern of gossiping in the street continued well into the 1950s, even though the war had ended.

Street scenes while shopping

Sometimes while waiting as my mother was caught by another shopper, small planes would fly overhead, always low-flying, and I would check the marks on their wings to confirm that they were 'ours' with the familiar red white and blue circles on the wings. Of course they always were ours. If German Nazi bombers had been anywhere near, there would have been the wail of the air-raid siren to warn us

   

     

Sometimes, too, a fleet of tanks would roll through the High Street (Station Road). I thought little of it because I was too young to know anything else.

This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as Join me in the 1900's and is © Pat Cryer.

The 1940s and 1950s are also written as the 1940's and 1950's.