The Waitrose Self-Service Tills
I have used self-service tills in Marks & Spencer, B & Q and I think Sainsburys for some time and it has only been in the last month or so, that they’ve installed them in my closest branch of Waitrose at Upper Street.
At this point, I should say I’ve had a stroke and although unrelated, my left hand is not the best, as my arm was broken fifty years ago, by the school bully.
Consequently, I find Waitrose’s system of bags on the self-service tills to be totally unacceptable, as it is impossible to put goods into the bags with one hand. The Marks system is very much superior and I have no problem. The bags Waitrose use seem to be much more difficult to separate than those of other shops. But it has always been thus!
Thinking about it, the Marks system is much more right-handed than the Waitrose one, although both feed goods from left to right.
I now find, I’m shopping much more in Marks on a daily basis, because I prefer to use a self-service machine, so that I’m on my way quickly. As sometimes at Upper Street, the self-service tills are completely free with long queues at the manned check-outs, others might think as I do about the new tills.
I could shop at another branch and frequently do, if I travel across London, but Upper Street, is the only branch that does Home Delivery for me and it is the only branch on a single bus ride from my house.
The Waitrose-Go-Round
I know that sometimes I buy some odd food, as many coeliacs do, but I’m finding getting what I need seems to be getting more and more difficult.
On Friday, I went to Upper Street, Islington to get most of my shopping, but yesterday, I had to go Holloway Road, or as I say, Jones Brothers, to get some of the rest. At other times, I find myself in Bloomsbury and Eastfield.
Currently, the products I find difficult to get are the St. Helen’s Farm Goats Milk Yoghurt and the Eat Natural Breakfast Toasted Muesli with Vine Fruits. I can get the latter in Sainsbury’s next door to my usual Waitrose. I’m not sure, but they may undercut Waitrose and shoppers have been ignoring it in the more expensive store, so the computer says they shouldn’t stock it.
But it all goes to make my shopping difficult.
The Elusive Genius Gluten-Free Fruit Bread
I found some at Waitrose in Eastfield last week, but despite labels on shop shelves in other Waitroses, I’ve not found any more.
Either there isn’t much of it or what there is sells well! I suspect the latter.
Remember many coeliacs are in their fifties and sixties and in many cases, fruit bread was a treat at Sunday tea. It ceertainly was for me.
Let’s hope Waitrose open up their computer system, so we can see where the bread is available. But then we’d do a raid on the shop.
A Disappointing Trip to Eastfield
The Waitrose at Westfield Stratford City is the only place I’ve found the delicious Genius gluten-free fruit bread.
As I needed one or two other things and also a prescription dispensed, I took the train to Stratford and walked to the centre.
But I didn’t get anything I wanted, except for the drugs.
- Waitrose were out of the gluten-free fruit bread and also the normal Genius bread as well.
- Marks didn’t have any gluten-free bread either, but they did have three gluten-free ham sandwiches. So at least they must be stocking them now!
So I left a few minutes after I got there and returned home.
I think though, I can recommend the Boots pharmacy there. I got everything I wanted without waiting, as obviously, the store isn’t the place where people would normally go for their prescriptions. It’s lovely to shop without queues.
One thing that annoys me about the centre, is that to get between the main entrance and Marks at the front and Waitrose and John Lewis at the back, means that I have to run the gauntlet of a crowded corridor and lot of shops with the exception of Starbucks and PC World, I never have visited and never will. It would be much better if the two end escalators were round the other way and I could walk across at first floor level, descending as required. There is also no direct link between John Lewis and Waitrose inside the store, which puts me off visiting both on the same visit. I should say I don’t buy much in Waitrose on most days, as I’m only getting my supper. For a big shop I go to Waitrose in Islington and get them to do the carrying.
First Impressions of Eastfield
As Bill Turnbull has used the colloquial term for London’s newest cathedral of shopping, I feel free to use it now and in future, as so many do.
So what is it like?
These pictures show that it is glitzy and it was very busy today.
Here are a few more detailed points.
The Marks and Spencer is enormous and I was actually able to find some trousers for the winter in my size of a 30 waist and a 29 leg. I joked with the assistant, that all the small sizes get bougt by the staff and he didn’t disagree.
The food hall is also large and there was both good and bad news. There was no gluten-free sandwiches, but the manager, told me she’d had that question several times in the day. So perhaps Marks will sort that one out.
John Lewis was its usual self and probably almost as large as Oxford Street.
But it was the next door Waitrose that was impressive. I’ve not seen a bigger one, that wasn’t a food shop with a mini-John Lewis attached like the one near Higham Ferrers. It seemed that they were trialing a few new products, including some Genius fruit bread, that I’d not seen before. This Waitrose will probably become the shop where I’ll go for special food shopping instead of Canary Wharf or Jones Brothers, but I’ll still do general grocery shopping at Upper Street, as they deliver. Eastfield doesn’t deliver as far as me.
The restaurants I saw, were not my sort of places, as they were typically fast food, burgers and non-gluten-free. But this doesn’t matter, as after the Olympics, it’ll be next to one of the biggest parks in Europe, so you’ll go to Marks or Waitrose and buy a picnic.
There were a few teething problems, one of which was the lack of signs to the trains in the centre, but it is infinitely better than the rather tired Lakeside and Oxford Street.
I was impressed too, that the General Manager of London Underground was there talking to travellers. Bosses should do this more often.
A Saturday Morning Routine
There are two radio programmes, I like to listen to on Saturday morning; Danny Baker and the unsporting quiz, Fighting Talk, as they appeal to my unusual sense of humour.
The trouble is that if I’m going to football, as I am today, it doesn’t really leave much time for me to get to the shops, as I have to leave by about midday to get the train.
So this morning, I got to the Angel, by bus at just after 8:30. I actually took a seventy-free, as if you sit at the back and get out of the rearmost door, it’s much easier to walk to the four shops, Carluccio’s and the physio, that I visit at the Angel.
Today, it was just Boots for some rat poison, Marks and Spencer for some gluten-free sarnies for the train and a beef Stroganoff for tonight and Waitrose for two large carriers of heavy stuff like alcohol and Coke. I went to Waitrose first and found that if I shopped immediately, could get it delivered before the start of Fighting Talk at 11:00. I think I rather caught them on the hop, but hopefully it’ll come on time. But I do have two hours of total float in my critical path, so if they come by one I’m OK.
The only problem, was that Marks didn’t have the gluten-free sandwiches, but then I’ll pass three of their shops that stock them on the way to Liverpool Street. If they don’t have any, then I shall complain. If there aren’t any, it’s probably because they are too good and all those food fadists on a gluten-free kick have snaffled them!
I was back home listening to Danny Baker by ten o’clock.
It sounds like I’ll be repeating this on Saturdays in the future.
The routine could be even better, if Carluccio’s opened at 8:00 for breakfast on Saturday, as they do in the week.
Update at 11:20 – Waitrose have just delivered, so I have plenty of time to catch the train to Ipswich, after scouring Marks for some gluten-free sandwiches.
Thinking about this post. When C and I lived near Newmarket we would go shopping early, often visit one of our horses in traing and then we’d generally be back home around eleven.
I suppose, I’m only repeating what we did together by myself. In some ways, it was easier in Suffolk, as Waitrose opened earlier. But then I had to carry the shopping from the car to the hall. Here, that is all done by the van driver from Waitrose.
Who said manners and service are dead.
On Line Grocery Shopping
It was reported today on BBC Breakfast that on-line grocery shopping is not being the great success it should be.
As a widower, who lives alone and who is very computer literate, you’d think I would do a lot of on-line grocery shopping. When my wife was alive, we did quite a bit as we both worked full time and I actually worked at home to take in the deliveries.
Now, I’ve had a serious stroke, can’t drive and have moved to Dalston and although I buy lots of goods like books, furniture and electrical items on the web, I haven’t bought any groceries on-line.
Last week though, I saw the future. I went to my local Waitrose in Upper Street, did a large shop and then they delivered it an hour or so later. As I had a job to do at home, it only meant, I had to get the bus home to arrive before the delivery did.
The only problem was the driver had left his pen at the previous delivery. So I gave him one of my many spares.
But it was just so much less hassle than waiting in at home to collect some goods that might be quite not what you want. As after all, I had chosen them in the shop, so if they were wrong, it would have been my fault.
As shopping innovations like this get more common, on-line shopping will continue to lose out. And in some cases it will replace driving to the supermarket.
It Pays To Complain
A couple of months ago, I bought a Genius loaf in Waitrose in Islington Upper Street and it went mouldy almost immediately. I think it might even have been mouldy when I unwrapped it. I did post details here.
The outcome was better than I expected. I complained to both Genius and Waitrose and got a voucher for five pounds from Genius.
And then today, I got another five-pound voucher from Waitrose.
On the bread side though, the last Genius loaf was more or less fresh to the last slice.
So it’s a result in all ways.
Choosing A Shampoo
I get fed up with shampoo. For years I used the same brand and then it was rebranded for split ends, more bounce, better colour etc. I just want something that gets my hair clean.
Today in Waitrose at Canary Wharf I couldn’t even find the one I changed to or the standard Essential Waitrose cheap one.
So I bought what I used to use, when the children were young; Johnson’s Baby Shampoo.
AT least it should be kind to my sore eyes.
Asparagus Egg Dippers with Smoked Salmon
I’ve eaten in some very good restaurants in my time, although these days I tend to like to cook myself, as I like the thrill of creating something. But I’ve never eaten in Heston Blumenthal ‘s, Fat Duck, as I feel that his eclectic taste and ideas may not fit with being a coeliac.
So today, as I had some spare asparagus and I was going to Waitrose, I made sure that I had the basics for this recipe of Heston Blumenthal’s that the supermarket is promoting.
It was very simple and all it required was :-
- 250g of asparagus
- 1 tbsp of grapeseed oil – I’m not as posh as Heston thinks he is, so I used some good olive oil.
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- 100g of smoked salmon – I used some from Pinney’s of Orford.
- 2 medium eggs although I think mine were large ones – Interestingly, I buy them in fours from Waitrose, which is a very sensible number for someone living alone.
The method is as follows.
- Remove the woody part of the asparagus stems by gently snapping off the ends (they should break naturally) – I’d never have thought of snapping them, so at least it saved a knife from the washing up.
- Coat the bottom of a frying pan with the oil then add the asparagus, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cover with a lid. Place the pan over a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes, or until the asparagus spears are cooked but still a vibrant green. Remove the pan from the heat and place the asparagus on kitchen paper to remove any excess oil – I actually tasted some after thy had been cooked and they were good.
- Cover a chopping board with a layer of clingfilm. Put the salmon slices on top in a single layer, then lay another layer of clingfilm over the top. Using a rolling pin, flatten the salmon so it becomes uniform in thickness. Remove the clingfilm, cut the salmon into strips and use to wrap each spear, leaving the top sticking out, and a few centimetres showing at the base – This was far too complicated and I can’t separate clingfilm with my hands, so I just separaed the smoked salmon and cut it into strips. It wasn’t too difficult and I’ll do it better next time.
- Using the smallest possible pan, just cover the eggs in cold water, and cover the pan. Bring to the boil quickly, over a high heat. Once boiling, remove from heat and leave to stand, still covered, for 6 minutes – I’d never have thought of boiling eggs in this way.
- After 6 minutes, remove the eggs from the pan and place them in egg cups. Crack the top of each egg with a spoon and remove the top. To serve, dip the salmon-wrapped asparagus spears into the soft egg yolk.
I actually opened the eggs as I always have by battering them with the bowl of a teaspoon and then peeling off the shell with the handle of the spoon.
I also put a hole in the bottom of the shell, so that witches can’t use them to sail away on the sea.
They were very good and a wonderful combination of three of my favourite foods; asparagus, eggs and smoked salmon.
They’re gluten-free too!
It gave me a lot of satisfaction to do this recipe. I also learned several simple techniques, that work well.
So perhaps the success of his cooking is lots of simple ideas, brilliantly executed.
The Anonymous Widower 