Brianna Parkins: ‘Shops used to be a sanctuary. Now you’re elbowed out of the way by 12-year-olds reaching over you to sample SPFs’

I dread being asked if I have any ‘fun’ hobbies? As if anyone devotes time to a hobby they find unfun. People get very judgemental about hobbies. You are allowed to say “going to the gym” is a hobby i.e. the picking up and putting down of heavy things. But I cannot say “shopping” without the hobby police shouting: “But that’s not a REAL hobby.” It’s shallow, it’s shameful, it’s consumerist. Rod Stewart is allowed to spend millions on model train sets but I’m the slave to capitalism for spending an afternoon sniffing expensive candles in Brown Thomas before putting them back.

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