While I was waiting to get into a supermarket (for 45 minutes, since you ask), I passed a number of shops that were closed. This is a typical notice.

This raises an interesting question: is a closed shop a shop? This is not merely a philosophical question akin to “Do we really exist?”. Some years ago, when I was still teaching Economics, I was involved in a research and resources development project which focused on ascertaining pupils’ understanding of economics concepts. As I recall, one artefact of the stimulus material showed a high street at night. Of the row of shops seen, only two — an off-licence and a pharmacy — were open. The question to the pupils was: How many shops are there in this picture?

The correct answer was two. A pupil who answered “two” was assumed to understand that a shop is a market , a meeting place for buyers and sellers. If the market place isn’t open, then buying and selling cannot occur.

So the next time you’re queuing to get into a supermarket, past a line of shops with a sign like that on their doors, just remember that there are, in fact, no shops there at all!

This picture has prompted me to write this article. It could also be a prompt for writing a short story. In 1953, Philip K. Dick wrote a story called The Commuter, about a whole town and its suburbs which for a while existed and didn’t exist at the same time.