Mostly we walk; otherwise...

When Tesco, the supermarket, offered us a loyalty card some years ago we took it. Are we in fact loyal? Of course we are. Other than our self-indulgent monthly trips to Waitrose (see: All this and dry oloroso) we'd use any supermarket that was a mere ten-minute walk away. Unless it was an Asda, of course, but that would be a case of moral fibre.

With grocery shopping our aim is to be in and out as fast as possible. Anti-social by nature we avoid groups. To be part of a group driven by the need to acquire carrots or quilted toilet paper is ignoble. Better to keep one's needs discreetly to oneself. Once one becomes a self-admitted "shopper" the process proves to be irreversible.

And yet, you say, your needs are copious and often specialised. You have posted about them boastfully. Tesco, the proletariat supermarket cannot grant your every wish. True. At which point we get into the Skoda for these reasons:

Sainsbury: x2 size filter papers, three-for-the-price-of-two  tarts consisting of strawberries bedded into creme patisserie, The Morning Star, El Pais, Figaro newspapers (just to glance at the headlines), utterly organic chickens (but please avert your eyes from the price).

Aldi: Cremant de Jura French fizz, 10YO tawny port at £10, four-in-one fowl roast.

Lidl: Cooked frozen lobsters at £5.

Various butchers: Hereford is heavily endowed with independents where we buy Welsh lamb (easily the best) and rib-eye steaks (ditto)

The losers: Morrison (down by the station too far away; almost "on the other side of the tracks"), Co-op (a deathly hush).

NOTE No apostrophe s with any of the names. Oh yes, we speak it that way. But doing without looks more "informed", don't you agree?