There are still some places to go, even as the potentially terrible winter draws closer. There seems to be something of a reduction in noisy puritanism as well, with an increase in support for those businesses doing their best to stay afloat while keeping staff and customers safer. There appear to be groups in the North – Grub is one – sorting out food truck provision for pubs that don’t normally do meals, to help them get round the latest New Rules (which are either starting from the premise that the virus can tell whether you’re eating nicely or not, or based on some atavistic superstition that making life as joyless as possible will placate the sky fairies.)
The lovely people at Liberation-FS, based in central Birmingham, have been working since the summer to keep their venue not just viable but safe, with house policies which include antiseptic air fogging, mandatory masks inside, temperature checks, 
taking of contact details and advance booking only if you want to pay them a visit. They are currently doing some limited-numbers classes on various aspects of kink (bubbles and bidie-ins only, plenty of space for social distancing) and have turned their main room into a weekly pop up marketplace for your kinky shopping needs.
Further details on which classes are on offer and when can be found either by checking them out on Fetlife or following them on Twitter. The weekend workshops include a kinky shopping experience, and you can browse wonderful Gothy clubwear, ethically-sourced ornaments made of butterflies and bones, awesome leather goods… and books, of course. I try to nip up there about once a month, but I do leave a well-stocked bookshelf with several favourite titles available for you to buy even when I’m not there.
If it’s feasible for you, go along and have a look. We all need to do our best to support small businesses and independent traders when we can do so safely. And we also all have a bit of a duty to remember that survival is insufficient, that we need congenial company, treats and a bit of joy in life. And a little bit of kinky shopping too.
Obviously if you can’t get there, you can still buy your naughty books from me here.