Supermarket Sweep

Just recently, whilst grocery shopping I have found myself being a bit of a nosey parker, and maybe a bit of a food fascist.

However, before I get into the metaphorical meat and potatoes of this post, I am going to allow myself to wander off on a tangent. I tend not to, or at least try not to do my main shopping in the Tesco near me if I can at all help it and if my limited funds allow, I’ll try to shop at the butchers for my meat, and head to the grocers for the veggies. That’s for the quality of the produce but also because the Tesco near me smells so very, very strongly of urine outside and just inside the automatic doors. The choice of items to buy is limited when compared to other Tesco branches and even then, a lot for the time the shelves are bare. I mean, how hard can it be to make sure that you have enough jars of pickles on the damn shelf? If you approach the staff to ask for something then half the time you get the impression that us customers are an inconvenience to them. It’s even worse at the checkouts where you will, quite often get ignored by the staff. However it’s not purely the staff at fault.

Here’s where the main point of this post comes to the fore. For some reason, the forecourt of the Tesco, and remember, this is the place that stinks of urine, is one of the hangouts for the scummier elements of the local populace. We’re talking beggars, chavs and prostitutes. That’s just outside. Inside you’ll find the phenomenon of the Pikey Corner. Every supermarket has one of these. It’s a shelf where the supermarket puts it items that about to go out of date, at much reduced prices. You can pick up some bargains here but you have to have sharp elbows as round here the Slavic locals use it to stock up. I’ve even had them grab stuff out of my hand or take it from my basket.

When I do go there I find myself looking at what the other shoppers are buying. I’ve been doing this since I started eating better. I wince when I see people that fill their basket or trolley with nothing but processed food, fizzy pop and chocolate. I almost want to grab them and march them over to the whole foods, to the fruit and vegetables. What is worse is when I see entire families that are fat and are they buying healthy food? Are they fuck!

I almost wish that stores would show a bit of responsibly and refuse to serve them, or at least get the checkout, as well as bleeping as it scans the goods, yell out insults. Actually, as I write this, I am thinking that unhealthy foods should be taxed highly and conversely, better foods should be taxed less as a sort of incentive. Then again I don’t suppose you can legislate for peoples stupidity can you?