Shopping Zombies

A strange title for a post I know but we saw many of these this morning when we popped to Meadowhall. My son had won a voucher for 100% attendance at school for three years and he wanted to go and spend it in the Lego shop.  I said we could go but we would be in and out, it's a lovely day and there is absolutely no need to be wandering around that place for hours.
  Well! It seems many people think it is the perfect way to spend your Sunday. My son even pointed out to me the amount of bags that some people have (quietly in my ear, not shouting and pointing!) and everyone seemed to be shuffling along, we had to overtake in a few spots as it was getting ridiculous. The whole scene brought to mind a zombie film, vacant faces, shuffling along with no purpose other than to spend.
 If these shoppers were in there with a purpose I'm sure they would have been moving quickly in the direction of the shop they needed to get to, made their purchase and left. However I don't think that is generally the case any more, people just use shopping to kill time and buy what ever takes their fancy at the moment. They will often worry later when the credit card bill comes.
After a busy week at work I don't believe time should be killed, it should be used wisely, lots of people have concerns about when they will be able to retire and have time to enjoy themselves, yet when they get some free time they use it to spend money. This is why people feel they will have to work into their seventies in the future because they want to retain their shopping lifestyles.
I understand you may be thinking well you were their too, well my son had earned this reward from school, it was in the form of a Meadowhall voucher so it had to be spent there and it was his to do with as he wished.
He sat and enjoyed building the model.

One of my dogs getting his nose in the picture.

The trouble is many adults feel like this about all their income, ''well I earned it I can have whatever I  want'' yes you are right you can,  just don't complain about it later or when you are still working right into your old age.  The trouble with this kind of thinking is that many people who don't work also feel the same way.
I didn't buy anything while we were there as we went with a purpose and then left to come home and get on with other things.
Having no real interests or hobbies can create this need to go out and shop because it gives people somewhere to go, the other side of this is that some hobbies can be expensive in themselves.  With the school holidays ahead for me and the children I will be making lists of things we want to get done (free or low cost like dip for a quid at our pool) we will be busy but not shopping.
On a positive note a good conversation was had between my son and a young lady who worked in the Lego store, she said she was a new team member and that she would be building some of the display models soon.  She explained how long they took and how she was looking forward to that.  My son has said when he is older he would like to get weekend or evening work there.  It would be nice if his hobby helped him save a little for some independence in the future.

I do not intend to offend anyone with this post but I would hope it might make a few people look around at the zombie faces the next time you are in a shopping mall and run like hell!