Tesco

Everyone here has an opinion about Tesco. I've even mentioned this supermarket giant once in a while on these very pages, airing others' complaints, making my own complaints, sharing our neighbourhood's concerns, and even admitting that we shop there once in a while. Well, the Tesco that was rumoured to be opening up on Church Street opened two weeks ago on Green Lanes instead, even closer to us than the Church Street location would have been.

While it would be great to do all our shopping at farmers' markets and independent shops, the reality is that we tend to do most of our shopping at Sainsbury's and our local fruit-and-veg shop, with Marks & Spencer, Tesco, and farmers' markets occasionally filling in the gaps. I'd like to say that the opening of a Tesco five minutes from home hasn't changed our shopping patterns, but the truth of it is that we've been there quite a few times in the last two weeks and it's made our lives a bit easier, partly because of the cashpoint (ATM) just outside the shop, but most of all because the shop is open from 7:00 A.M. until 11:00 P.M. seven days a week. Now, this wouldn't be remarkable in Canada--in fact, Canadians are probably wondering why it's not open seven days a week until midnight, like supermarkets in major Canadian cities are--but in central London, these are practically unheard of shopping hours, especially on Sundays, when many supermarkets close at 5:00 or 6:00 P.M. Having said that, it's not a large Tesco "Express" (their brand name for their smaller shops), but it still has a decent selection of goods (including the necessary ingredients for my favourite breakfast that Bob makes) and in the time it takes one of us to wonder if we should go out and buy whatever ingredient we're missing for dinner, the other person can head out and be back again with the item in question. The more important consideration is: can we resist such easy access to crisps? Luckily, the selection at "our" Tesco isn't that great . . . er, um, not that we've checked.