Sharpener...

Today I attempted to buy a pencil sharpener in the Whitgift Centre.  Sainsbury's closed ages ago.  Flying Tiger has lots of pencils but no sharpener.  So I tried Poundland but whilst they also had a lot of pencils I drew a blank there too.  I tried the Card Factory but no luck there either... I had almost given up when I remembered WH Smith... The upstairs is closed due to the roof leaking but the downstairs was open.  The electric sliding doors juddered open to reveal a dimly lit cluttered space.  I couldn't find them straight away but two mature ladies were stacking the shelves and pointed me in the direction of the sharpeners ... There was a wide selection from functional to novelty which almost made up for the dingy feeling of the remnants of the store.  Of course there was no one at the desk only self service machines so I served myself and went.  It made me wonder how many pencils that are perfectly serviceable are thrown into landfill because only 1 in 5 pencil retailers sells a sharpener.  The search took me half an hour which cost £2.60 in parking fees.  It would've been cheaper to order one on Amazon.... but I got one... I suppose...