An observation from yesterday

The YFG and I went to Tesco's cafe yesterday for a cheap date! She had a bowl of chips and a drink and I had a mug of tea - grand sum of £2.80!! The attraction for her is that we sit in the balcony where the cafe is situated and we can watch the shoppers below - we look out for people we know, people who look interesting, etc and we do a bit of People Watching, and I sit there and wonder who these people are and what their lives are like! We find it fascinating.

At about 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, there were quite a lot of people in there. One thing struck me as I looked at what was in the trolleys and the people pushing them - the older the person was, the more likely it was that the products in the trolley were "top" brands: Ariel/Persil washing powder in big boxes, Andrex loo rolls, etc. Younger people tended not to have so many of the "big brands" in their trolleys, either choosing the Tesco own brands or the Value ranges. I sat there pondering why that was.....I wonder whether it is because perhaps those brands were the ones that were in existence before the supermarkets came along in the 70s and 80s, and those people have grown used to them so they stick with them. I know that when my mum died in 1998 and my dad and uncle had to start doing more things without her guidance, they stuck instinctively to the brands she had always bought and used, and to some extent they still do, 12 years later - its partly habit, perhaps, and partly some reluctance to change. I have been using www.moneysavingexpert.com for so long now that I am used to the downshifting challenge and very rarely buy "big branded" anything - there are some exceptions like Heinz ketchup, as no other tastes quite the same, but that is about it!