Published on 12, July, 2020
When I started shopping in Tesco as a child all of those decades ago (long before the turn of this century), it was stacked high with 'the cheapest' produce on grubby pallets instead of clinical white shelving, this kept the cost down for the beginnings of the large scale 'discount retailer'. Anyone who used Tesco in those days was commented on to be "poor". Often insultingly from youngsters but matter of fact by so called grown ups. I always refer to it in those long passed days as 'The Poor Shop'.
In the 1990s whilst investing in more outlets Tesco started to become cleaner and more streamlined. Of course their ever increasing buying power enabled higher margins to turn it into the investor behemoth that it is today.
So it was with confusion that a person said to me in the 2000s
"I bet you shop in Tesco don't you?" I answered that I do and they said that it was
"The Posh shop".
However much I tried to explain that Tesco was always the poor shop, they would have it only that this pristine store in their locality was the posh shop and therefore the whole organisation was 'the posh shop'
In the 2020s Tesco is no longer the poor shop, they have lost their competitive edge as German supermarkets make their presence felt with 'adequate produce' manufactured to just within the confines of food safety regulations where, incidentally, I do most of my shopping along with other equally good value retailers, happy that the difference between now and then (decades ago) is colossal in favour of quality and hygiene.
Millions of families have been raised on this produce, my own included, and it has served a large part of our nation (UK). Today though, and for years, I've seen scalping practices employed at Tesco to push prices as far as possible through the ceiling of inflation for the sole purpose of generating profit for those gamblers who risk their own and others finances on the stock market. They are responsible for keeping your food expensive. Tesco have lost billions to the newcomers though and the trend continues shown by the amount of new German originating stores opening and due to be built.
The point though is this, Tesco is now testing out the 'no till' shop where you can walk in, pick up your goods and walk straight out again. In that store you will find only the very best of the best produce designed to be twice the price whilst the majority of the rest of the produce (bendy, slightly soiled and misshapen and all) can be filtered out to the masses in not so urban areas which will maintain the discounted food for us masses.
This to me is reminiscent of the glaring disparity between societies in Demolition Man (Stallone, Bullock, Hawthorne, Leary). Sure it is fiction. It is also the continuation of a creeping privilege servicing and promoting those with more surplus income where they can trade without concern for price whilst the majority continue the battle of balance between income and outgoings, oblivious to what 'surplus income' is.
However much social engineering goes on over the years by grandiose shop keepers the masses (including me) continue to wash their veg, grow their own where they can and search out value over convenience. At least we are now being accommodated for in the larger stores with low stimulus hour. Before the current pandemic though the best time for me to shop was in the 24 hours opening store at night, it was wonderful.
LINK to news story - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58951984
Gosh that's complicated, thanks for clarifying.
in Brighton, there is 2 big Sainsburys and plenty small ones, one of those big ones occupies a large brick building that looks like appropriated factory building, underground car park. nice wide alleys, and so spacious you rarely pass by other customers, and then nice experience ends when you reach tills and massive queues. 20min minimum waiting off peak.
I remember back in the 1980s when the first Sainsbury's opened in my city. It was very popular and there was a pleasant atmosphere while shopping in it.
After around twenty years the building was getting very grotty, almost falling apart and the store was always crowded, Sainsbury's decided to replace it with a new higher quality store, twice it's former size, just a couple of hundred metres down the road.
The new store however lacks character and the shopping experience is now just nah.
I came up with a better example for the popular tendency to omit polish letter thesedays:
ja drzemię - I am napping
on drzemie - he is napping
while in polish it is grammaticaly correct to say 'drzemię'' and it means the same as ''ja drzemię''. You can omit pronouns beacuse verbs are conjugated. So, how someone who does not understand polish grammar can tell a difference if you omit pronouns and polish letters?
while doing it i accidently stumbled upon a website where you can check declension and conjugation in other languages:
en.bab.la/.../drzemać
I can eat a lot too
Similar shopping habits to me, except I am the one who shops everywhere, but my parents had very restricted shopping patterns. The first time I brought home groceries from M & S my mother went berserk and told me that I was insane. After that it became more surreal and insane.
Tricky one for me this one. I grew up shopping with my parents in a wide variety of supermarkets from Presto, Gateway, Safeway, Asda, Tesco, Co-Op as well as local fishmongers, butchers and greengrocers in my hometown back in the 1980s/1990s to right up to M&S, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi now. I prefer Tesco or Sainsburys as my main supermarkets but would never turn my nose up at the Co-Op or Asda should one be around if I'm out and about. Waitrose definitely the posh shop with M&S in 2nd place however, I would not see anything wrong with treating yourself to something at M&S, if you fancied doing so. ;-)
Sounds like you can eat anything you like! I can't because most foods make me ill. Lucky, lucky you!
because of communication happening online more and more it is dying out
nobody bothers to write szczęka when they can do szczeka,
it might be additional nightmare for foreigners to grasp, first word means jaw second barking
I do not even add polish keyboard settings in windows anymore
Yes, declension of case is a left-over from Latin and is still present in Germanic languages. I knew it as a major part of Russian, but I didn't think it was widespread among all Slavic languages. Oh, well!
that was version for long preservation
Sauerkraut is yummy and very good for you. I eat it every day, along with kefir and kombucha. I should be healthier really.
Americans make sauerkraut much more easily than that.
for the fermantation process keep the keg in a room temperature, like in a kitchen and once a fermentation starts you might want to keep the lid on the keg because it smells a lot LOL
oh yes, we had one like that, than you shred 20 cabbages, few hours work LOL while puting shreds in a keg you salt it a lot, don't put a lid on a keg, but put something heavy insde the keg to press shreds down, it will push gases created during fermentation out and excess water to the top, remove excess water daily, it takes about 1-2 months for cabbages to turn into sauerkraut, then you can jar them and clean the keg, jars kept in a cool storage should last few manths, or all winter
In Northern Ireland, we had Stewart's and Crazy Prices, who merged; and eventually taken over by Tesco.
Also Welworth's who were taken over by SuperValu - Southern Irish - and now owned by Centra - also from the South.
Curley's in West Belfast and Dungannon are now branches of Sainsbury's.
Ah I see, thank you.
Barrel sauerkraut. In a jar.
This is a barrel to me, is this what you mean?
oh yes, jar it when it's still hot, let it cool, keep it in a frisge even a month before opening, imeant bigos,
sauerkraut in barrel in a cold place after it's ready
Sounds good, almost like a charcuterie. I've looked into making it and kimchi. You can make small batches of edible stuff in smaller jars. But just like the kimchi the traditional and seasoned barrels are the tastiest.