Shop Till You Drop

Thursday nights are the highlight of the week in Karratha as the shopping centre opens until a thrillingly late 9pm. We drove up at about 6.30pm and the car park was packed - as we walked in through the doors it immediately became apparent that the entire town had flocked to Centro - 'the largest shopping centre in the Pilbara'- to see and be seen. There were a few people buying but many were just wandering around, stopping now and again to talk to people they knew. Other than the fact that there is not much to do in the evenings in Karratha, the main reason for this weekly mass onslaught of people is that many who live in the town are employed on the big mining and oil and gas projects and work six days a week. They finish after closing time and many of the shops aren’t open on Sunday, their only day off. One would have thought that in a town with such a workforce it would make financial sense for shops to open on a Sunday but perhaps they don’t need the business. With the extortionate prices all the shops here charge, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

It certainly makes a change from Pattaya, in which the shops open seven days a week from 11am to 11pm, but is not really any different from the UK. I used to get regularly frustrated in England by not being able to get to certain shops in the week as they were only open while I was at work. Not that there’s much choice here when you do manage to get to the shops when they’re open. There are two supermarkets, a number of gift shops, a handful of cheap clothing shops, a camera shop, a small electronics shop, a health food shop (which seems to only sell protein shakes and other ‘I want to build up my puny body to look more macho’ goods) and a small bookstore. It’s better than nothing I suppose, and certainly the best for a good few hundred kilometres. I think that when it comes to looking for something a bit special, internet shopping will be the way forward. The only question is whether they will deliver this far from the city - it's a good two day drive from Perth to Karratha. Yes, these are the life or death issues affecting a city girl in the remote country!