Do you avoid people in familiar public places?

I do this a lot. I live in a small town where pretty much the largest place to go into where you will see people you know is a Wal-Mart. I dread going there because I know I will see or run into people I know. I get all anxious/nervous cause people are all over the place and I'm trying to keep my eyes peeled at all times so that If I see someone before they see me I can hide real quick all cloak-n-dagger James Bond style.

I'm just trying to get in and out of the place and handle my business without having to get stopped every 5 minutes by some old acquaintance wanting to make idle cliched chit-chat. It is my mission to avoid people there at all costs to the point if things are too bad I will abort and just leave. The best way I handle this problem is to try to only go there real late at night between 1:00 and 5:00 in the morning....sigh.

Can anyone else relate to something like this?

Yeah I do this...not as badly now as in the past. The closest wal-mart to me is in the town I grew up in....well kinda grew up in, from 12 to 20, anyways. I used to run into a lot of people I went to high school with, but as the years pass more and more people have moved away so I see less and less people Yay! Plus I've figured out no one realy wants to have an in depth conversation..usually it's just a "hey how are you?" as you're walking by each other.

Yeah I get the same whenever I go into town or shop for anything. I usually try to avoid the busiest days/hours. I just hate talking to people I used to go to school with because most of them are working good jobs, married or just back from amazing travels.

Not anymore, i used too. Now i just find if i avoid days of going out like a saturday for shopping, il just get worse.
I don't like taking small steps, i want to get better so i just dive right in

Yep, I usually avoid them if I spot them first. Also, I prefer to avoid going to town during weekends for fear of bumping into people I know, staying home is safe, that way, you won't run into anyone!

Yeah all the time i see people from my old high school or people i used to know . I usually might give a headnod or if i really liked the person i might say hey but if they try to talk to me i just keep going i don't have time for that bs anymore.

After school i can take 2 different busses to get home, with one of them i can get home earlier but to get that bus i need to walk through a park and there are a lot of school people i may know hanging there so i don't take that bus, but when im feeling good i just take that route to meet some people!

Haha! same here.
Theres a tesco which i havent been to in years. All the gossips go there and im bound to run into someone.
My last time there with social anxiety didnt go well so its really put me off. I was too afraid to pay for my stuff because i didnt want to speak to anyone and ended up just going round all the aisles for no reason!