Supermarket snobbery

I'm not a supermarket snob, really I'm not. My approach to grocery shopping is based on pure pragmatism. I shop at what ever supermarket is nearest to me. It's an easy decision to make when you're reliant on public transport, and find yourself ferrying around 5 or 6 gallons of milk a week.

That said (yes, I know, "I'm not a snob, but..."), Somerfield depresses me. They have done ever since I found myself living in Brentford a couple of years ago, when I found myself shopping there regularly. I had a brief respite afterwards when I lived next door to a Sainsbury's instead (former bastion of the middle class supermarket run before Tesco mutated into an unstoppable behemoth and Sainsbury's became terminally confused as to what it's place in the market is), but I've been back with Somerfield ever since I moved into my flat.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly why I dislike Somerfield so much. On the face of it, they're just another supermarket chain and discounting the enormous out of town supermarkets which have started cropping up, I find most supermarkets to be largely the same as one another, with little to differentiate them in terms of goods on shelves. But there's nevertheless something soul-sappingly wretched about Somerfield. The layout of the stores seem awkward (what's with the bizarre L-shaped dairy section?), the staff are surly (admittedly I would be too if I worked there), the design of their own brand products are horrendously poor, and there are almost never enough cashiers manning the registers. And their carrier bags are too thin.

It's by no means a desperate state of affairs, but it gives you some background as to how much cheer I felt when a letter dropped through my door informing me that the local Somerfield supermarket is due to cease trading shortly in order to undergo a transformation into a... Waitrose. A Waitrose! Imagine the tingle of middle-class excitement that ran up my spine when I discovered this. I've rarely shopped at Waitrose's in the past, since they've formerly been confined to England, and usually to the posher suburbs at that, but the few I've ventured into have all been infinitely more pleasant than Somerfield. Hurrah!

The downside of all this is that I've realised I'm actually excited about the opening of a new supermarket. There's something terribly, terribly wrong with that...