Anyone who disagrees with you is a muppet eh?

I guess they don't have shopping malls in your neck of the woods but that seems like everything under the one roof to me! If I went to say Highpoint in Melbourne I could get a lot more things than I could at Tesco Extra in Dumfries or Carlisle.

A Tesco or Asda has groceries and a limited range of clothing plus electrical goods, a token optician, chemist etc - hardly everything. One thing that might have escaped you is that some people don't have too much money on their hands. Hence you get what is known as a 'cherry picker' in the trade - they go to a number of stores to buy the specials. Hardly a muppet! Others enjoy going from shop to shop; hardly a muppet! Others prefer fresher fruit, vegetables, meat and fish which is what you get from a market or your local shopkeeper. Hardly a muppet for wanting better quality!

OzTennis

Ah, but you would have to irradiate the said items as well to make them suitable for sale in Tesco.

OzTennis

LOL! KNICKERS AND STRINGS!

Whoops, I think I said that a bit too loud

Do you think Mandy would wear strings? Not something I would like to think about really

It's all down to personal taste really....if your pardon the expression

I've just been busy keeping my home delivered shopping.

It's funny that you should mention that, but their rewards scheme did give you quarter price entry into Legoland.

They didn't do Eurodisney (when I was there), but you could get quarter price tickets for the chunnel.

It'll happen here eventually; and then everyone will have to find something else to complain about. Weather too hot!

A

Supermarkets are almost ALWAYS in a mall which has all the other shops close by and undercover and a carpark. You dont have to go outside and you dont have to cross roads to get what you need. What you do is this...

You get your trolley from the supermarket. You put your kids in it. You go round the supermarket and get what you want there and pay for it. The shopping stays in the trolley. The kids stay in the trolley. You walk next door to the next shop. Your trolley goes with you. You buy some more stuff. It goes in the trolley too. When you have finished you take your trolley to the car, unload the kids, unload the shopping, put your trolley away and off your go.

It's hardly any different from doing your shopping at Tescos or Asda. The advantage is you're not forced to buy whatever Tesco or Asda have in stock - you can shop around, get the best quality/cheapest produce, the nicest bread, support the local butcher etc.

Australians have kids too.

Tesco incidentally was in the news last week because they posted their latest 6 monthly profit figures and are on course for annual profits of £2.3 bn.

"They employ 250,000 people, 2nd largest employer in the UK after the NHS. They have 1,819 UK stores incl 119 giant hypermarkets plus 600 stores overseas and 589 Express stores in the UK. They want to exceed 1,000 express stores so they have an empire of small community stores in villages and suburbs. Non-food sales are up by 13% in a year. They are opening 1.3 mill sq ft of new sales space in the next 6 months; they take 170,000 orders each week on Tesco.com; they have 12 mill Clubcard members and their chief exec is paid a salary without bonuses or share dividends of £3.2 mill p.a. They started up Tesco Mobile from scratch and have 750,000 customers. They have 30.5% of the UK grocery market and £1 in every £8 spent in the UK is in Tesco.

A parliamentary committee of MP's has just been set up to investigate the rise of Tesco and the other leading supermarket chains, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons-Safeway. They fear their expansion is ripping the heart out of many communities and removing choice and variety." (quotes from a newspaper article)

OzTennis

...There's still hope for all M&S fans yet then

Well if its any consolation M&S food has gone down the pan ... literally.. spent £20 on some ready made stuff on Sat, cos couldnt be bothered to cook and it was bloody awful we threw it away.

As for supermarkets over there I used to be able to get everything we needed from the one place mainly Coles. they all had fresh bread, veg and meat have things changed since 2003? Cant quiet understand why you are having to go from one place to the other.

Oh with the exeption of the alchohol forgot that was seperate.

In Oz the only problem with taking a trolley in & out of different shops is your bags that are already in the trolley have to be searched (most of the time)which is a pain especially when your trolley is full sometimes i don't know who's more embarrassed me or the shop assistant

Donna.

I guess that could be a problem if you go into KMart or Target in the same trolley run (they're the only shops here that check bags) but no fruit shop, chemist or butchers do bag checks. They'd have no customers if they did - because everyone here takes their trolleys into them!

Supermarkets are good for people who like supermarkets and associated ease of shopping and no human interaction and individual shops for those who like better quality meat and veg, oh and to get to know more locals and local traders as well, take your pick its a free world! What cheeses me off is people who moan about what isnt there that they had at home or what isnt available that they could get back home. F F Sake youve just moved halfway round the world what do you expect!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHGH!

Rant over....

Of course For I am always right I will never be convinced on this one I'm affraid, UK supermarkets are the best in the world and a model other countries should follow. Britain still has all the other shops too so you don't have to do your whole shop in a supermarket. And I for one always feel guilty as sin and very uncomfortable when I'm pushing my full Big W trolly into Woolworths or Target.

Oh i TOTALLY agree with you! I can't wait to get back and buy my food at "proper" independent stores - much cheaper and the produce is so much better tha UK supermarket food.

I have to say, I notice the difference in the amount of packaging and the amount of ready meals (Australia has less of both) but the actual fresh food and produce available in Australia is much better than in UK supermarkets IMHO.

For OP I would recommend you try one of the butchers, bakeries and fruit and veg shops that are usually in the smaller shopping malls outside the Coles/Woolies supermarkets and get your other stuff - baked beans/washing powder etc in the supermarket but your fresh food at the specialist shops. so a trip to the supermarket might take a bit longer, but the meat in the butchers and the bread at the bakers is so much better and your car is still parked in the same place when you get back to it, so it's not like you are "traipsing".

Michelle