What is it about Irish supermarkets? 90% of the stuff there is imported anyway so why the hell can’t we have some choice? I was in Waitrose in the Summer (with the beloved) and I couldn’t believe that, for such a small supermarket, they had about 9 million more choices that we ever do with our biggest shops?
Annoys the hell out of me!
I could have been sent to Sheffield, but I opted for Reading instead - it’s a lot closer to London.
As far as I can remember, there are 3 Tesco’s in Kuala Lumpur - I think we have 2 M & S stores, but there might be a 3rd in Times Square.
I wouldn’t say I’m desperately envious of Bangkok - I hear the traffic there is horrible (this is from a Thai friend, by the way).
And last of all, no, I am not a Man U supporter. I’m not even Malay, I’m Chinese.
Sorry to have hurt your feelings, Usram. If it makes you feel any better I’ll agree with Fran and yourself.
I’d also agree with Steve Wright, Reading is actually less Basingstoke than Basingstoke . . . isn’t it, though, plum in the middle of one of those phenomenons of the early 90s, a silicon valley/corridor/M4-type thing; dynamic and exponential growth, lots of happy workers in dust free, jump-suited environments and locally-made Hondas ? . . . I suspect I’m behind the times . . .
Your change does’t come out of those machines with that much force …
I do remember Leo’s, but have never shopped there. And there’s only one L in Loyd for reasons only his parents could explain.
That’s not quite all. There’s the Co-Op, Budgens, Aldi and a few others.
I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned Somerfield (formerly Gateway, formerly International). According to their corporate blurb they’ve got over 1,200 stores throughout the UK. They bought out lots of small/old chains over the years including Kwik Save, Lennons, Fine Fare and Keymarkets and their parent company owns Carrefour, the big French chain.
London Calling - don’t do it backwards (even for Christmas) half of the fun is seeing the looks on the other shoppers faces
Mangetout - I’m truly sorry about your lack of white bread - come to Ireland where we have both types. But every so often, I long for a chance to squeeze a freshly baked loaf of caper and honeydew melon brioche before I buy the ownbrand sawdust that I like.
My favourite UK supermarket is Asda they won hands down after they opened an ethnic foods aisle - the Irish bit had Tayto and Red lemonade.
One of the things that I always try to do when I’m on holiday is to go around a supermarket - you can learn more about a place from this than any number of tourist books. The exception to this is Prague, whereI went around the local Tescos.
One great thing we have in Superquinn is the self service idea - you get a portable scanner and you zap everything as you put it in the trolley and then just pay the total at a special checkout - it’s sort of an honour system but it can be much faster than having to queue at the checkouts.
and finally,
Don’t get too casual about the ready availability of Bulgarian peasant bread, the choice is still better than White or Brown and I bet you’ve tried half of the speciality stuff anyway.
But he’s across the Irish Sea!
My main gripe about Sainsbury’s is the stupid stupid slogan. Making life taste better? Huh? Does that make any kind of sense? Life is not something you eat. It is something you experience. I am not saying the two actions are mutually exclusive, but even so.
There’s a Morrisons up here, but I don’t like it. For some reason, I find it very depessing. It’s something to do with the very dim lighting, but I always feel it ought to have an Abandon Hope… sign above the door. My family do their shopping at Tesco’s and the local shops.
This is different than how we do it here in the Western U.S., at least IME. Here, the “self-check-out” is like a combination checkstand and ATM, with a touch screen. You roll up your cart (not “trollies” here) and touch the screen to begin. The pleasant computerize voice says “Welcome! Please scan your savings card.” So you do that and it says “Please scan your first item,” so you run the item over the scanner and it says “Please place the item in the bag,” so you bag it. The bags are on some sort of weighted sensor, so if you don’t put it in the bag it will tell you to again – and again and again and again until you do. Then it says “please scan the next item.” So you scan all your stuff and bag it, and then when you’re done you touch the screen where it says “Pay.” Then it asks if you have any coupons. If you do, you scan them and put them in a little slot. Then it asks how you want to pay and you touch the appropriate option on the screen, and you either put your ATM or credit card in or feed it cash. Then it spits out your change, you grab your groceries and go.
There is usually one human cashier to handle four of these stations and deal with problems – like the machine doesn’t believe you’re buying two cases of pop and keeps insisting you’ve already scanned “the item,” or your cash is so old and raggedy the machine won’t take it, or you can’t figure out the code of fresh green beans from the chart on the wall, or whatever.
They can be quite convenient if you only have a few items and you don’t get behind some none-too-bright technophobe who can’t figure out how to scan a box of Oreos and/or can’t get over the fact a machine is talking to him.
But I’ve never seen the scanner that you just carry with you. Maybe we’re not trustworthy enough. 
At my local supermarket (Waitrose) the self-scan system uses random checks - every so often, you have to get your list of scanned items checked by a member of staff, and this is after you have finalised it so it is difficult to cheat by ditching any items you have not scanned. I was checked more often when I first signed up for the system, but much less frequently now. Presumably my trustworthiness rating has gone up.
“Hello jjimm…hello jjiiiiiiimm!” I’m tempted to change my username to Aldophus Spriggs…
Anyway, last June, I spent several weeks lurking Mr Neutron-like in the balmy environs of lovely Dunstable, Bedfordshire, (“Unstable Beds” to the local yoof motorway sign defacers), and had occasion to repair to the nearby Sainsbury’s where we bought water. Yes. Three or four times a week, we bought and carried huge frickin’ jugs of water (as well as the other groceries) about two miles back from the store. The local water supply being highly chalky, or not chalky enough, or something, according to my native guides.
Anyway, I was pretty favourably impressed with the nosh on offer at Sainsbury’s (I guess it was the old floor plan, based on what I’ve read in this thread). Lots of “ready to eat” non-frozen stuff that you don’t see in most North American supermarkets, in addition to a deli counter; of course a huge assortment of Asian food (ingredients as well as prepared sauces, dishes, etc). But what nearly killed me was the biscuit aisle. I was about 2 months into my Atkins diet; there were chocolate biscuits I hadn’t seen since I was a kid. Penguins…Club…dear God, Jaffas!! I can’t believe I made it out alive.
But the prices–I pitched and bought the groceries since I’m no leech; two smallish carrybags ran about thirty quid (not counting the water, at least…). I remember that we bought two skinless, boneless whole chicken breasts for a dinner we were having for an old RAF pilot. They were something like 7 pounds 30 pee (about $16.75 Canadian)! I can buy a whole rotisserie freakin’ chicken here for CDN $5.99!
How does the average Mr and Ms Briton afford to live? I forgot my anti-perspirant in Canada, and wound up having to pop into a Boots in London (the worst place to pop into, I know), and it cost 3 pounds 60–nearly $8.30 Canadian for something that goes for under 3 bucks here…do you folks all have three jobs?
Hey, look on the bright side - at least you get Nectar points.
I currently have something like 14,000 of the buggers, the product of several years spending money I don’t own on Barclaycards, and now I find that I could… hmm… get a free McDonald’s “Extra Value” (oh the irony) Meal every day for four weeks. Well thanks a bunch.
No need for that at all. Many studies have been done that show that Great British Tap Water is actually a heck of a lot purer than a lot of bottled stuff.
You’re forgetting that deodorant is a luxury item over here… like soap and toothbrushes 
Seriously, though, yes, it is a ridiculously expensive place to live. The plus side is that when we go overseas we spend our whole time going “Wow, only five dollars/roubles/zloty/dalasi? That’s like, 30 pence!” and then eating/drinking far too much of the local produce.
You’re sure this wasn’t actually the Dunstable branch of Fortnum & Masons? Because you can buy a large chicken for six quid at a normal supermarket, easy. Not cheap by Canadian standards, but still. £7.30 for a couple of chicken breasts… sure it wasn’t quail or swan or something?
It seemed pretty steep to me, even for boneless & skinless (4 pieces all told, 2 full breasts). But hey, I just push the bloody cart and pay the bill…you know, gormless colonial tourist.
I sure like buying booze in a supermarket, though. Cheap prices on hard liquor compared to Canada: bought a couple of bottles of single malt to take to a friend in France rather than pay big prices in Canada (plus haul it on the plane). Probably saved about ten quid per bottle!
And as I said, UK is an Asian food lover’s paradise. Well, south Asian anyway. Couldn’t find a decent Chinese ethnic restaurant in the areas I was in (all takeaway crap in day-glo red sauce crap); but I have never had as many truly excellent Indian meals–beautifully presented, outstanding service, just wonderful. Pretty expensive compared to here, but worth every penny.
And loved the Marks & Spencer mini-food floor things in some of the main line stations!! Saw them in Brighton, Glasgow Queen Street and Paddington, I think. Great fresh food, salads, sarnies, etc. Wish we had stuff like that here.
I did miss going to little independed fish/cheese/greengrocers, but where I was staying, there simply wasn’t anything within easy hiking distance other than Sainsburys; and the folks I was staying with didn’t own a vehicle. I had calves like a Romanian shot-putter by the time I got back, mind you.
full cooked chickens are about £3 in Asda. even cheaper in Morrisons. I’d tell you how much it is in Sainsburys but they never fucking have any. Jamie Oliver.
I agree, making life taste better makes absolutely no sense, unless your life comprises of tasting things.
Yup, I remember Leos, my mum used to work there. It was Leos in the 80s and got bought by the Co-Op, not Tesco in the late 80s/early 90s, adn then got bought by Tesco when the Co-Op folded some of its larger retail arms live Living and the big supermarkets.
Look Rodd Hill, If you are going to go and insist on buying speciality goods, don’t complain about the prices. I mean, anti-perspirant has to be imported and if it doesn’t have a long shelf lift Sainsburys will be stuck with old stock. That’s why they charge a premium. Why not do what the continentals do and rub a bit of garlic under the armpits. If you use organic garlic, it’s organic.
That said, I used to live near the Dunstable rd Sainsburys and it was a terrible example of the genre (Much like Dunstable)
Jodi, that autoscan cart you described sounds like some awful dystopian nightmare.
I should have said that the occasional shopper is asked to check the lot through but otherwise, it’s cool
I hate to think I’m rallying to their defence, but it’s just a metaphor (like saying ‘life is sweet’, doesn’t mean that it consists of sucrose).
Anyway, my life does comprise of tasting things, to an extent.
and have they made your life taste better, while tasting things?
remember folks, keep those plans simple, then theres less things that can fuck up