SATURDAY 24 MARCH 2007 – ORANGE BAG? NO … GARBAGE!

Another first!!!!!! Yes, it’s Saturday and this is the first time during my Year at Sainsbury’s that I’ve visited the orangery on a Saturday. And whilst I thought it would be heaving actually it wasn’t too bad. I met my postman on the way in! A delightful man called Ken who is always incredibly cheerful despite getting up at 4am every morning. He told me that he is in at 4.30am then spends a few hours sorting his walk (this is not putting on sensible shoes or ensuring that each pace is approximately 1 metre long but getting all the pile of post that is his round into street and house order). Then off he goes delivering it all aiming to finish about 9.30am. Not sure it’s the kind of job for me – 4am is a bit early and I imagine there are more rainy days than dry ones. Talking of sorting, Sainsbury’s has done some re-organisation of the store since I was last in. The vegetables and fruit area is all different and there were a good few trolley jams as people sought out their cabbages, potatoes, apples and the like. Actually it all seems very sensible – whereas before the fruit and vegetables were all muddled up now the vegetables are all in one aisle and the fruit in another. Well done Sainsbury’s! Also well done Sainsbury’s for some superb labelling on the packing for their white, multipurpose, tasty and versatile (the cheapest to you and me) potatoes. Rather than the usual vague ‘produced in the UK’ it says ‘Grown in Aberdeenshire by Phillip Benzie’. Fantastic! And an internet search reveals that Mr Benzie is a ‘link farmer’ for the Royal Northern Countryside Initiative and he and his link school won the ‘Count and Grow with Superspud 2006’ competition. So well done them. Anyway, after this heartwarming little story it’s time to move on to … fish. All the salmon this week was ‘Farmed in Norway’ (sorry, not for me) so I bought some cod in breadcrumbs which was a ‘Product of Scotland’. I wasn’t sure about this as I am somewhat wary about believing any ‘Produced in …’ claims any more but I bought it anyway as there was nothing else closer to home on offer. I’ve had a look at the producer’s website which was not particularly helpful (the usual ‘partnering’ and ‘solutions’ stuff) so I’ve e-mailed and asked them where their fish comes from! I’ll let you know when (if?) they reply. Last week I noticed that Sainsbury’s had won the ‘Best Wine Buying Team Award 2007’ but I was a bit worried that as the news did not feature on the Sainsbury’s website there might have been some kind of mistake. Well, I did a bit of research (Google) and I can confirm that Sainsbury’s did indeed carry off the prize (a set of 6 cut glass wine glasses, perhaps?) at the recent OLN Drinks Retailing Awards. OLN … ? Whatever is that? Well, it’s the ‘Off Licence News’, which presumably is a gripping publication aimed at … off licences. Sounds like a good candidate for Guest Publication on Have I Got News For You, don’t you think? OK, on to the checkout (I looked to see if 24 was open, no luck I’m afraid). The first thing I noticed was that Sainsbury’s shopping bags have changed from being orange on white to white on orange and they look … horrible. They also proudly announce ‘This bag is made from 33% recycled material’ which is hardly anything to be proud of as most of these bags end up in landfill somewhere and take zillions of years to bio-degrade. I had an overly cheerful cashier this week who chatted and whistled and scanned with gusto and then said ‘toodleoo’ or something like that as I left. Not having heard this word before I assumed it was Icelandic for goodbye but when I got home I checked it out and it is indeed an ‘informal farewell remark’. Well, you learn something new every day (even, surprisingly, in Sainsbury’s). Whilst I was waiting in line the Coinstar machine I noticed for the first time last week was being used and was making a noise that went on and on and on - just like a fruit machine delivering a huge jackpot! So, I checked it out and what you do is you chuck in a pile of coins and after it’s done its stuff you get a voucher to spend in the store worth less than the value of the coins you put in (the machine takes a ‘service charge’, inevitably). This all seems completely pointless to me but I took a look at the Coinstar website and the whole business is based on the premise that loads of people keep loose change in jars (even me - I have to admit that I save 1p and 2p coins in a jar) and a Coinstar machine is an easy way of getting rid of them (saves you having to count them all up, put them in bags and take them to the bank, like wot I do). So, whilst the slogan ‘Turns Coins into Cash’ is nonsense the best I could come up with was ‘Turn Coins into Sirloins’ and ‘Turn your Money into Honey’. OK, they need a bit of work, I know, but it’s a start. Well, that’s about it for this week but just in case you are wondering, Superspud is a somewhat decrepit Superman like character carrying a potato …

Items bought - 30
Cost - £43.22
Cost per item - £1.44
Checkout number – 8 (again – like buses, you wait ages for one then two come along)
Nectar Points balance 896