A Nation of Shopkeepers

There is something nice about being in a city free of supermarkets, department stores and the high street chains. Tirana is a city of small shops. Every street seems to have a row of butchers, bakers and fishmongers. There are boutiques, shoe shops, mobile phone stores, toy stores and hardware stores. Then there are the corner stores, selling some fruit and veg, a few groceries, and some cleaning products together with those unexpected items that suggest something bought in cheap on a whim. Most of these stores are small; many are tiny - able to hold three or four people at most. Here is a small selection of the many, many shops on the streets of Tirana.