SUNDAY 4 MARCH 2007 - CHECK OUT CHECK

A bit out of kilter this week. My wife has now gone to the South of France for 4 months (lucky her – sun, brie & vin) and she asked me to go out with her (ostensibly to see where she would be living and to test the route but really as a bag carrier!). So my usual weekly shop was delayed until Sunday and because she had kindly left me lots of stuff in the freezer (hopefully labelled) I only needed a quick visit to Sainsbury’s. And the brevity of the visit coupled with the lack of fellow shoppers meant is was not an unpleasurable experience (note the double negative). Talking of fellow shoppers there were 2 small men with shaved heads identically dressed in grey judo style outfits doing their shopping today. I assume they are member of a religious sect but which one? Presumably one that allows shopping in supermarkets … Answers on a postcard please. Today I needed some light bulbs. The light bulb area is always such a mess, why should this be? I assume that customers open packets to make sure the bulbs are intact and then don’t put them back properly. And of course there is a bewildering array of different shapes, colours, bayonet/screw cap, watts etc. All I wanted was an ordinary 100 watt bulb for my hall. A pretty simple request, but could I find one in all the jumble? Er, no. I got really excited at the checkout today – the young man in front of me when asked if he wanted help with his packing said yes! Great, I thought, now I can see what happens and who does what. But, of course, he was joking so my hopes were dashed. But there is some good news! I have now been through all the real checkouts apart from 7, 8 and 24 and also through checkout 6 as well. You will recall (perhaps not) that checkouts 1 to 6 are only for baskets, cash, under 10 items etc so I’m not quite sure how I managed to get through checkout 6 as I don’t do baskets, cash, under 10 items etc but there you go. So, only 3 to go – and I guess for completeness sake I will organise my purchasing so I can go through checkouts 1 to 5 as well and complete the set. Moving on, you can park for free in the car park if your stay is under 30 minutes or if you spend over £15 in Sainsbury’s, in which latter case (note the elegant grammar) your ticket is validated by Sainsbury’s. When you stick your ticket in the pay machine the message ‘No Charge’ comes up in the display. I presume there is some kind of time check to stop people sticking their ticket in the machine when they arrive and then staying for hours & hours and getting out of the car park for free. I wonder how long you’re allowed to get out of the car park before your ticket expires? And then what happens? Something to ponder but not check, I feel!

Items bought 14
Cost £15.93

Average cost per item £1.14

Checkout number 7

Nectar points 654