A story and a fact

 A friend told me of her recent experience at a supermarket. As she was wheeling her trolley to the carpark a woman, a complete stranger, trollied up to her and started to speak.

 The woman motioned towards her husband, who was walking at some distance behind her. She complained that since he retired he was always with her, driving her mad. The subtext was that the woman had been doing the shopping for decades, perfectly content to be on her own. Now he was always there!

A propos of supermarkets, I believe that in the Netherlands there are special checkout lanes where the checkout person will happily engage in a conversation with you, if that is what you would like. My guess is that this performs a social role to help lonely people. The Dutch also have public houses called “chat houses” in which strangers and friends can meet and talk. Food for thought.