Tesco rage!

Last night was a bad night for me! It started off OK - I went out to a lovely lady's house and sold books to all her invited guests. We all had a good evening, chatting and looking at beautiful books. It got to 9.45 pm and the party was over. I had decided that if the party was finished before 10, I would go and do my shopping. After all, that new Tesco in the town is a 24 hour one, and I thought that at 10pm, the aisles would be less crowded, and I would get my shopping done OK.

I was right about the aisles being clear - I floated around the store and filled my trolley with a good load of shopping. I hadn't been shopping for a couple of weeks apart from for fridge food and fruits/veggies, so there was some stocking up to be done. The shop floor staff were helpful, guiding me towards things that I couldn't find, and didn't seem to mind the odd interruption to their shelf-stacking (well, I wouldn't object either - it looked a bit boring!!). The staff outnumbered the customers by a considerable margin.

It was all going swimmingly and I got some great bargains in the "reduced to clear" section, including some packs of salmon, cod and haddock which had been reduced from more than £3 each to about 60-odd pence each - fab! Then I hit the checkouts - and it felt like a brick wall. All the checkouts were closed and I had to scan the whole lot through a self-service till. It took ages, and because I made a joking comment to a member of staff about a reduced level of service at that time of night, she fetched a line manager to speak to me patronisingly about the security risks of having access to cash in tills - he reckoned that there might be a hold-up (his words!!) so it was better that the staff had no access to cash. I politely said that now he had told me that the tills close at 10pm, I'll be sure not to shop there again at that time of night. I have since written a letter to the manager explaining my disappointment at the service offered, and suggested that if a hold-up is a serious risk, they should consider employing more security staff.

This has opened up the whole Tesco debate for me again. I had been planning to have a delivery again, but then thought that I would go on this occasion because I was in town anyway, and would get the chance to look at the reduced items. It would also be less crowded at that time of night. I did stick to my guns about the range of things that the Tesco is now selling and only bought food and cleaning items - I was not tempted by the homewares, books, electrical items, stationery, clothing and shoes! I didn't buy any special Christmas stuff beyond two jars of mincemeat, and I kept to the list - very strictly. So I was successful in a way.