Doing the weekly shop is a whole new experience here in the west. One that I am just beginning to get into the groove of.
Hurray to no more driving around in circles in underground car parks trying to get a spot nearest the supermarket. Or even worse scrambling around for coins to pay the parking metre for the privilege to park while I spend my money at their supermarket!
There are some of the usual supermarkets in Westport, Tesco’s has reached far corners of Ireland and there is even a Dunnes (although it probably qualifies for the smallest Dunnes Stores in the country), and of course there isn’t a town in Ireland without a spar supermarket, with Westport being no exception.
So for the first couple of weeks I trundled among them all and tried them all out. One thing they all have in common is very friendly check out girls who keep a keen eye on what’s going through their scanner. On two separate occasions in two different supermarkets I had a checkout girl picking up what I was buying and telling me “Oh no don’t buy that there is a different brand much more value, I’ll go get it for you”, and with that up she goes and speeds off down an aisle and comes back delighted with herself with her better value prawns. What could I say, I had no choice but to thank her for helping me and put the real prawns that I wanted back!
You don’t get that kinda customer service in Dublin.
I have also had a full on conversation with one girl who saw I was buying those readymade croissants you can buy in tins. Anyway checkout girl picks the tin up and asks me all about them, how you cook them, what they taste like, a good 2 minute conversation and then announces that they sound very interesting but she doesn’t like croissants so she won’t try them.
So this week I steer clear of best-intentioned checkout girls and shop in the local butchers, green grocers and country market.
The country markets are on once a week, so sadly some may say, I was looking forward to another new experience and some country homemade bargains.
But Auntie May has not let the celtic tiger by-pass her. Don’t be fooled by the apron pinny over the country home knitted jumper, with her gingham table cloth displaying all her home baked wares. She is eying you up as soon as you enter and thinking kerrching! Home made brown bread for a fiver. No flies eh!
But the cake squares look delicious and surely full of homemade goodness even if they are priced a bit on the high side. There were 5 ‘Auntie May’ stall holders in total and I felt guilty not buying anything, so I ended up buying something from every stall just so as not hurt any of their feelings. Oh, and a bit of a cartel going on as I thought it strange that all their brown breads were a fiver. Cartels always summon up images of underhanded dealings and I got a kick out of imagining all 5 Auntie May’s discussing selling tactics over a pot a tea.
Anyway, the country market way beats supporting the supermarkets any day.
Love your storywriting and brings back memories of spar in ballymote, cynic me now thinks of nosy checkout gals. Wait till u go into the chemist looking for condoms, love to hear their advice…x