This is a documentary provides an insight into the shopping patterns of four households living in rural North Yorkshire at the end of the millennium.  The film was made by Yorvid Productions as part of the Yorkshire Media Consortium project.   It shows the shopping habits of a family and several individuals in Malton, Kirkby Moorside and Helmsley, and the good and bad sides of shopping in a rural area. Title – Yorvid Productions present  The Four Shoppers of the Apocalypse The film begins...

This is a documentary provides an insight into the shopping patterns of four households living in rural North Yorkshire at the end of the millennium.  The film was made by Yorvid Productions as part of the Yorkshire Media Consortium project.   It shows the shopping habits of a family and several individuals in Malton, Kirkby Moorside and Helmsley, and the good and bad sides of shopping in a rural area. Title – Yorvid Productions present  The Four Shoppers of the Apocalypse The film begins with a boy stating all the things he and his parents are going to buy when they go shopping in town.  The Hare family set off, stopping to collect post from the postman, walking into the town centre as the father explains their normal shopping routine.  First they go to G Woodall and Son.  Then the boy shows which sweets he likes.  They give some money to a man collecting for the Red Cross and go to the market buying cauliflower from a vegetable stall.  Then they go to Beecham Health Foods. Then the film switches to a woman, Jan, coming out of her country house to drive 10 miles to Kirkby Moorside to buy a newspaper.  She is accompanied by her two dogs.  Jan goes into Towler’s Stationers and collects senior citizens to take them to play whist. Elsewhere in Kirkby Moorside, a woman, Linda Preston, leaves her terraced house with a baby in a pram, kissing her husband and other child goodbye, to shop in town, or just chat to the shop staff.  She looks around a shop, talking about how she was brought up there, and how she lost her job looking after the elderly after the home was closed.  She goes into a bakery and continues her shopping, explaining that she likes to shop at Asda in York because it is much cheaper.  Meanwhile, at Burrows Davis Limited, the father has finished work early and phones home to see what shopping is needed.  His wife, Philly, isn’t there, but his son, Tom, states that he wants marzipan.  He goes to Sainsbury’s at Monks Cross, when they had revolving doors.  He comes out laden with shopping, which he loads into his works van, explaining that he didn’t look for marzipan, but that he got enough to last them for a few weeks, for £84.  He then drives back to Malton. The film switches again to a woman leaving a residential home to go shopping, being picked up at Ampleforth Abbey and College.  In Helmsley an elderly woman, Jean, is sorting out her shopping needs with a helper, Sue.  They leave a care home and walk to Helmsley Library where they select some books which are issued still using the old card system.  They then move onto the Yorkshire Bank, the post office, and a small supermarket. Then on to Nicholson’s the butcher. Jan explains that there are two newsagents in Helmsley, but no chemist.  The opening times of the post office in Gillamoor are shown.  She too shops in Nicholson’s, and then goes to Reydale Travel Agents to book a flight.  In the newsagents next door we see the local postcards. Back with the original family, they make a shopping list.  The father and his son shop at a local Safeway supermarket and return home to unpack it all.  Then Jean and her helper unpack her shopping. End Credits With thanks to . . . The Hare Family and Linda Preston and Jean Tazziman and Sue Parsons and Jan Mangles With funding from Ryedale District Council and The National Lottery John Philips Camera, Editor Jeni Vine Producer, Director Equipment and Off-line edit S.I.F. On-line edit Acorn Video ©Yorvid Ltd 1999 The Four Shoppers of the Apocalypse is part of the A4 Contemporary Video Collection