IN REVIEW: SUPERMARKETS DURING COVID-19

Covid-19 has brought out some interesting and sometimes unpleasant behaviours in people. One of these is panic buying. While I can sympathise with it as a psychologically comforting response to crisis, it is obviously unfair and silly to buy loads of stuff so other people can’t. This is why despite going to the supermarket four times in the past two weeks, I feel a bit evil. These are my reviews of each supermarket I visited in the last two weeks of the pandemic. I am the designated shopper in my family owing to an asthmatic father and diabetic mother and a need for control (my own). I am also unemployed and quite bored so really enjoy the chance to leave the house.

Morrisons

This was the first supermarket I visited and proved to be the most average – not unpleasant, but also slightly unsatisfying. I had to queue in a long line of people with their trolleys two metres apart to get in, but the queue went down much more quickly than I’d expected. The queue lasted roughly long enough for me to see one person I went to primary school with. So, about fifteen minutes.

This is not bad going – I grew up in the countryside in the north and doing the weekly shop in the small town I went to secondary school in means you’re very likely to have a run in with someone from school who you last saw when you were sixteen getting drunk in a field. They now do something like (delete as necessary): have joined the police / are married/ have kids/ run their own Instagram make up business/ are a farmer. There are not many job options where I grew up.

Morrisons proved most disappointing in terms of supply – the staff were friendly and helpful and didn’t seem like their managers were putting too much pressure on them, but several things were absent:

• No toilet roll whatsoever

• No flour

• No pasta

The only rice I could get was that posh brown basmati which tastes like you’re crunching on brown bits of insect skeleton. The aisle with tins + tomatoey things had been decimated. There was a surprisingly good selection of dairy. I managed to get probably 60% of the things on my shopping list.

This was earlier on when the government restrictions had only just been put into place – some people were wearing masks and gloves and most people in the supermarket behaved in a fairly hostile manner towards each other – some people seemed to flinch slightly if you moved (2 metres apart ofc) in the direction they were moving. This was the most stressful shopping trip out of the four.

Scores:

Stress rating: 4/5

Supply: 3/5

Overall fun: 3/5 but only because I’d not left the house for a week

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Marks and Spencers

In a desperate attempt to get ‘fun stuff’ for my sister’s 24th birthday, we drove to M&S. I’ve never really trusted people who do their grocery shopping at M&S – it seems tory and overly expensive. To me M&S is where I buy my pants and where in sixth form my best friend’s boyfriend would drive us to so we could get fancy salads and a cookie for lunch.

Despite these preconceptions I enjoyed my visit to M&S enormously. I ran into my good friend’s mum – kept our social distance but had a nice little chat.

In terms of supply M&S had loads – I think I got everything I’d wanted to buy although in some instances only the M&S branded option was available – couldn’t get the nice Lyons golden syrup (which I love because of the lion + the bit that says ‘out of the strong came forth sweetness’) but obviously this is a trifling complaint in the grand scheme of things. A bit of perspective during a pandemic is required.

The nicest thing about M&S was the woman at the till who had just reached the end of her four-hour shift but who I had a really nice conversation with – she told me about an old man who’d not followed the rules on what restrictions there were on different products and in a fit of rage at not being allowed everything he’d wanted he’d left all of his shopping and just stormed out! As I left she told me to stay safe. I also got some free seeds at the checkout.

Scores:

Stress rating: 1/5

Supply: 4/5

Overall fun: 4/5

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Waitrose

Waitrose was by far the most fun shopping experience I’ve had during the pandemic. On arrival they disinfected my trolley and showed me how to do the self-scan so I didn’t have to take everything to the checkout (was really easy + reminded me in a not unpleasant way of when I worked at LARGE SUPERMARKET doing people’s online orders). The Waitrose has been re-done since I last went (maybe 2 years ago) and it was very pleasant. It always used to be slightly too cold in the whole shop – now it’s neither too hot nor too cold in a way that you don’t notice. Also great because I knew I was extremely unlikely to see anyone I know – it’s a 30 minute drive from the town I went to school in and don’t know many people posh enough to shop at Waitrose on the regular. This reduced my overall stress greatly.

Supply Waitrose was probably the best – managed to get mum’s favourite bread flour (Canadian and very strong) and also some sunflower oil (which seems to be impossible to get? The only kind available in Waitrose was almost £4 aka robbery). They had loads of eggs, a good few tins of tomatoes and also their Spices/World Food aisle is the most pleasant place to spend twenty minutes. Part of me laughs at how they sell stuff you could find in an Asian supermarket but in tiny and extremely expensive quantities and the other part of me is just glad because there are no Asian supermarkets near where my parents live so I should be grateful for this opportunity to be ripped off.

Found myself wandering around the aisles thinking, wouldn’t it be great if I had a job which was to just do people’s grocery shopping in Waitrose?

Scores:

Stress rating: 0/5

Supply: 4/5

Overall fun: 5/5

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Tesco

Definitely the worst shopping experience so far – had to queue to get in (this wasn’t that bad) but kept seeing people who looked almost like I recognised them but I wasn’t sure where I knew them from. While I was in the store a woman who I do not know looked at me and then said sorry I thought you were someone I know. It was strange because then I kept seeing her around the shop. Saw a girl I went to primary school with who I think did not recognise me and also saw one of my neighbours. Can tell I have been in isolation for too long because I kept seeing scruffy men in their mid-thirties and thinking it could work out for us. Awful stuff.

Tesco doesn’t have much that I want to buy on a good day but this has gotten worse. All the other supermarkets seemed to have ok selections of fresh produce but Tesco had basically nothing. & they don’t sell unpackaged ginger? All the main things that there are shortages of tesco really suffered with – no pasta no flour etc.

They’ve also implemented a one way system which was confusing and didn’t seem to prevent people from going near each other. The staff all seemed stressed, tired and also there were loads of members of staff who looked really bored because there were too many of them. No disrespect tho, make the money! I can just relate to being bored and employed by a large supermarket which may or may not have been tesco.

Another thing which soured my experience of this shopping trip was that we forgot to bring any bags.

Scores:

Stress rating: 4/5

Supply: 2/5

Overall fun: 1/5 – can’t even say that it constituted 1/5 of fun but I did get to leave the house + also bought easter eggs for us.