Saturday 9th January 2021 Poll - Weekly Main Shop

[AsleepInYorkshire]

Happy Saturday the 9th January 2021

Our main shop is Morrisons. It's less than 300yds away and we have a staff discount card which normally allows 10% (except on alcohol - double harrumph ). During lockdown the discount has been increased to 15%. We also have a large Tesco in the town centre and an Asda just around the corner from that. Recently both Aldi and Lidl have appeared. There's a a Coop about half a mile away which used to be a pub. There's also a new B&M 50yds away from Morrisons.

Apologies I couldn't put all of the outlets/supermarkets into the poll but please feel free to add a post.

AiY

[jackdaww]

our big shop is done at ALDI.

sometimes a few things from morrisons .

BUT at present , with covid , were using the excellent ASDA delivery service - and NOT going out .

[bungeejumper]

It's been a rolling transition for us. We've shopped at Sainsburys for thirty years, but when covid struck I couldn't even get registered for a home delivery, never mind book a slot. Which was a bit tricky, since my doc was telling us to shield as much as possible (because of a past but not present condition), and not to do physical shopping.

So that was when Tesco got a look-in on the Bungee Towers grocery account, something I'd never considered before (because there isn't a Tesco store within ten miles of here). And although there's a lot of good stuff they don't sell - such as anything to do with garlic, for instance - they've been regular and faithful and mostly cheerful, and that counts for a lot these days.

We tried Asda once, but it wasn't impressive The driver said he wasn't going to bring the stuff ten yards up our drive from the front gate to the door - and because he also wasn't doing bags that week, he just dumped the lot out in the rain beside the gatepost and left us to retrieve it all ourselves. I asked him what he did when delivering to multi-storey blocks of flats? He said he left the groceries in the front vestibule and phoned the customer to come downstairs and collect them. Service with a smile.

Tesco seemed to be short of aubergines, mushrooms, proper yoghurt and most types of tomatoes yesterday. Earlier this week it was lettuces, courgettes and grapes. I'll take a bit of convincing that the B word hasn't had a hand to play in all this.

BJ

[vrdiver]

We have Morrisons, Asda, Aldi, and a B&M all within walking distance. If I am in Aldi I often see Asda staff in there as well.

Morrisons for maximum choice. Asda for one-stop/best price (especially as I buy their Christmas discount cards so get a 6% discount by "pre-paying").

Aldi for best price, but hard to get everything on the list, so will end up going to one of the others as well.

B&M I would wander around out of curiosity; it sometimes stocks different products (e.g. last summer I found root beer, which the others didn't have) but generally I'm not a fan of them.

These days I try to do the main shop on either a Monday or a Thursday night. One hour before closing seems to be a quiet time, with few other customers to worry about sharing space with.

VRD

Edited to add: Asda have started announcements saying they are limiting certain items to three per shopper. mainly fresh veg from what I remember hearing.

[richlist]

For some of us our main shop is dependent on wether we can get a delivery or click & collect slot. If we can't get one from Tesco we'll go to Iceland or somewhere else. So no two weeks are ever the same during this pandemic.

The result of your survey will likely be totally different when this is all over and normality returns.I

For those that prefer to shop in person surely it depends on which supermarket is nearest to them, not necessarily which they consider to be the best e.g we never shop at Morrison's or Waitrose cos there ain't one anywhere within miles.

[gryffron]

I voted other, cos there is no one place. I'm a very disloyal shopper.

I used to live in a suburb of Nottingham, where I had major Asda, Sainsburys and Iceland shops within a few hundred yards of home. I got to know all the things I liked best from each shop.

Now I live in a different city, but I still rotate my main weekly shop through a number of different shops (even though they are a few miles apart now) in order to buy the best bits from different places. I don't visit them all in one week. But rather rotate and stock up with each shop's "best bits".

My weekly shop pre-lockdown was roughly Asda 40%, Sainsburys 20%, Iceland 20%, Aldi 10%, Lidl 10% with top ups as required from the Tesco Extra which is nearest. Now almost entirely online from the first two.

Gryff

[dealtn]

Our town has 2 main venues, Waitrose and Morrisons.

I prefer Waitrose, but occasionally hold my breath and enter Morrisons. For the once or twice a month "big shop" I will drive the 5 or so miles to the Sainsbury's in the next town.

However a big spanner has been thrown into the works by the recent decision by Morrisons to offer us a 10% discount due to my wife's work in the "pandemic". As a result my breath is being held more often, but my burden is somewhat lessened by insisting my wife does more of the shopping!

[Gersemi]

Like some others, I don't do a 'weekly' main shop. The big shop is once every 3 weeks (click & collect) with supplementary shops locally (within walking distance) - a small co-op, greengrocers and butchers.

[tjh290633]

I have just done our weekly shop at Tesco, which is the nearest large supermarket. There are three smaller stores within 2 miles, the Co-op is nearest, then a Sainsbury Local and then a Budgen, which is the biggest of the three. Waitrose is about a mile further than Tesco, in the town centre. I forgot the garage, which has a Londis shop on site, and the paper shop which sells a few fundamental items, including milk and eggs.

I understand that our Tesco has one of the highest turnovers of wines and spirits in the chain. It certainly has a very wide range at excellent prices.

TJH

[UncleEbenezer]

My usual supermarket now is Lidl. That's since Tesco ruled itself out by joining Morrisons and both Coops in piping muzak at its customers (I first thought it was just for December, but alas it seems not). Anything other than those is too far to go.

This is a shame. The local Lidl is nowhere near as good as the Lidl where I lived before my move (Aug. 2019). Morrisons is by far the biggest store, and has the most variety. Morrisons, Tesco, and the bigger Coop tend to be less crowded than Lidl and have much more reasonable checkout queues. But with the noise, if I ever use them it has to be straight-in-and-out.

Happily we also have some great independent shops that (between a handful of them) make up a decent portion of my food shopping.

[jackdaww]

My usual supermarket now is Lidl. That's since Tesco ruled itself out by joining Morrisons and both Coops in piping muzak at its customers (I first thought it was just for December, but alas it seems not). Anything other than those is too far to go.

This is a shame. The local Lidl is nowhere near as good as the Lidl where I lived before my move (Aug. 2019). Morrisons is by far the biggest store, and has the most variety. Morrisons, Tesco, and the bigger Coop tend to be less crowded than Lidl and have much more reasonable checkout queues. But with the noise, if I ever use them it has to be straight-in-and-out.

Happily we also have some great independent shops that (between a handful of them) make up a decent portion of my food shopping.

==================================

agree on mindless music - and morrisons is very noisy anyway - loud staff announcements an awful checkout alarms .

[PinkDalek]

Apologies I couldn't put all of the outlets/supermarkets into the poll but please feel free to add a post.

https://www.fortnumandmason.com/

[bungeejumper]

I have just done our weekly shop at Tesco, which is the nearest large supermarket. There are three smaller stores within 2 miles, the Co-op is nearest, then a Sainsbury Local and then a Budgen, which is the biggest of the three. Waitrose is about a mile further than Tesco, in the town centre. I forgot the garage, which has a Londis shop on site, and the paper shop which sells a few fundamental items, including milk and eggs.

Sounds like one of those puzzles. If I only go to two shops a week, but never the same two, and if it's Tuesday when I visit the garage but Budgens is closed on Fridays, and if Colonel Mustard did it in the kitchen with a giant salami, then which shop will run out of taramasalata first?

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

Sounds like one of those puzzles. If I only go to two shops a week, but never the same two, and if it's Tuesday when I visit the garage but Budgens is closed on Fridays, and if Colonel Mustard did it in the kitchen with a giant salami, then which shop will run out of taramasalata first?

BJ

Talking of which, has anyone seen taramasalata this year? It's one of many things missing from the shelves, and (unlike the mushrooms mentioned there) I haven't been able to find it since then, either.

[Dod101]

I have to drive about 20 miles except for a small not too bad Co op. I am the one who said M & S but I also use Tesco as they sit close to one another. It used to be mostly Tesco supplemented by M & S but recently it is the other way round, mainly because since I spend not much anyway I might as well buy what I like best.

Dod

[stevensfo]

My usual supermarket now is Lidl. That's since Tesco ruled itself out by joining Morrisons and both Coops in piping muzak at its customers (I first thought it was just for December, but alas it seems not). Anything other than those is too far to go.

A story I never tire of telling is about the time I went to the large Tesco store in Stevenage during Christmas. I felt curiously calm, even...happy. It dawned on me after a while that the whole place was silent. The difference was a real eye-opener. At the till, I congratulated the girl on finally doing away with that awful brain-dead monotonous muzak. What a brilliant idea! She looked at me sadly and explained that the whole loudspeaker system had broken, but the manager was working like crazy to get it back up and running.


Steve

[johnhemming]

Although we do the big shop at Lidl we often shop at the Co-op or M&S. There is also a small Sainsburys in our suburb and an Aldi quite close by. We don't go to Sainsbury's that much, however.

[swill453]

So that was when Tesco got a look-in on the Bungee Towers grocery account, something I'd never considered before (because there isn't a Tesco store within ten miles of here). And although there's a lot of good stuff they don't sell - such as anything to do with garlic, for instance

What garlicy comestibles don't you find at Tesco? I can't say I've noticed a lack.

Scott.

[todthedog]

Local Lidl or Aldi, both good, I tend to do a weekly shop at the 'crack of sparrow' so no crowds.
I ban myself from any shop with musak

[bungeejumper]

What garlicy comestibles don't you find at Tesco? I can't say I've noticed a lack.

The flavoured foods aren't so bad, and once in a blue moon they do stock garlic paste, but I don't think I've ever seen ordinary garlic bulbs in stock online. I fear it might be a reflection of the not-so-cosmopolitan area where my not-very-local store is located.

Which reminds me. We've had a Waitrose in our nearest small town for five or six years now - ever since Somerfield were forced to quit the premises. (Anti-competition rules in the course of their amalgamation with the Co-op.) The place is far too small to carry a decent Waitrose range of products, but the real problem is that the new tenants kept on the Somerfield shop staff when the changeover happened.

A nice gesture, you might think, but a tragic clash of cultures. It took years before the (ahem) Waitrose staff understood any of the foods they were selling. Ask them for garlic bread or okra or tahini or practically anything more exotic than Mrs Miggins's Frozen Fish'n Chip Feast, and you could almost hear them muttering "foreign muck" under their breath. To this day, it's probably the most deserted Waitrose in the country. Which is both a convenient thing and a bad thing.

BJ