FRIDAY 19 JANUARY 2007 - NO CLAIM GAME - SHAME!

Well, uncontrollable excitement today as I will spend over £10 and hence will get my first game card in The Big Five Drive vegetable/fruit etc promotion. More of this later! What first? Ah yes, potatoes. Now, as I said I would last week, this week I did some potato price comparisons with some startling results! I always thought that the loose baking potatoes (bakers) were expensive and, my goodness me, they are. Bakers come in at £1.19 per kilogram as compared to King Edwards (perhaps technically there should be an apostrophe between the 'd' and the 's'? One for Lynne Truss to answer!) at 63.6p per kilogram and Sainsbury’s multi-purpose (the mind boggles) potatoes at 47.6p per kilogram. So, over twice as much for the pleasure of having slightly bigger potatoes. And looking at the potatoes in the Sainsbury’s multi-purpose bags they, like the bakers, have been washed and there are a few that aren’t that much smaller than the bakers. As the saying goes size isn’t everything (I should know) so it’s the multi-purpose ones for me in future! Anyway on to the hinged pine boxes. “What?”, I hear you ask. Yes, the hinged pine boxes stacked up by the Indian ready meals. Goodness only knows where these have come from but there is a huge stack of them and at 25% off they are hard to resist! I’ve never seen these before so I can only assume that they have been imported from a larger store in the hope that they will sell. Well, nice as they are, I just don’t see too many of them shifting even though they are well made (I checked) and have that nice woody smell when you open them. They remind me of the exhibit at the Tate Modern some time ago which was just stacks of white boxes so rather than trying to sell them at 25% off perhaps Sainsbury’s would do better by entering them for the Turner Prize. It seems that anything that isn’t art qualifies so they would be in with a shout of winning it I’m sure and then, when they have won it, they can sell them to Charles (or is it Maurice) Saatchi or some other philanth, phillann, rich bugger for a huge sum. OK, you’ve waited long enough, it’s time to reveal that I did indeed get a game card and … didn’t win. How disappointing was that? I asked the cashier if anybody ever won and he said that that 1 in 2 people win! So, by the law of averages, next week I will win. I asked him what happens when you do win and he said that you have to take your card over to the enquiry desk for validation and then you come back to the checkout and then … by this time I was losing the will to live. I have to say I’m having mixed feelings about winning now. Whilst it would be nice to get some free sprouts it sounds like it is a real mission to go through the claiming process. Anyway, as I’m bound to win soon I will find out! Now, here’s an interesting one. On the way in to the car park there is a sign that reads ‘Welcome to your Sainsbury’s’. Interesting, but technically incorrect. Sainsbury’s is actually owned by its shareholders so really the sign is only true if you are a shareholder. So, not wishing to be left out I have decided to buy some Sainsbury’s shares! I’ll get on to my stockbroker next week. Sorry, typing error. I’ll get on to a stockbroker next week and buy a few. Not too many as I’m sure as soon as I buy some the price will plummet! I’ll keep you posted. Finally I noticed that the Life Insurance leaflet has been reprinted with ‘Sale 5% Online Discount’ on the front so presumably it’s not a big seller (I hope I’m not to blame). I picked one up out of idle curiosity and noticed that the ’34 year old non smoking woman’ in the previous leaflet has turned into a ’34 year old non smoking man’ in this leaflet! The figures are the same as before though (£5 per month for £50,000 of level term cover for a 15 year term). I wonder if they are still wrong? Not my problem, see you next week!

Items bought 25
Cost £38.57
Cost per item £1.54
Check out number 16

Nectar Points balance 1082 (I feel an encashment coming on)