When I hired that van the other week, I had to walk home from the hire place through a part of town I hadn't visited before, and it had a Co-op that I didn't know about, which was only 15 minutes from my house.

So I visited it this morning and found it was 3 times the size of the one nearest my house! It had all kinds of amenities, including a pet food fridge and a display of tools.

But its newspaper selection was very poor. It didn't have the FT, and the Co-op nearest my house does.

Maybe all the local merchant bankers had already picked up their copy of the pink un'?

I once again went to the large Co-op. They have a sewing materials section too, and even a corner with fan heaters and things! It looks like an ordinary Co-op from outside too, I'd never have suspected it contained such resources.

There is a large Co-op and a small Co-op in walking distance of me, good thing about the small one is that it is open till 11PM even on a Sunday so if I need that last minute drink before Monday morning I know where to go

Don't forget that they won't sell you booze after 10:30pm on a Sunday though!

I never go out to buy booze on a Sunday. I buy my Sunday supply on Saturday and put it in the garden shed overnight so I won't drunkenly drink it on Saturday.

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There is a large Co-op and a small Co-op in walking distance of me

As well as the two Co-ops previously mentioned, there is another which is even closer than the one I referred to as the closest. I don't go there though because it's very small (and next to a notorious estate).

Since the plague began I've been popping to the Co-op before lunch 3 days a week.

Today I've got a work meeting, so I've got to pop to the Co-op now.

I need some gin for this evening, but I'm worried they'll think I want to drink it now.

I frequently buy alcohol on my early morning raid on the supermarket. With little or no shame.

And sit in front of daytime tv drinking heavily.



I'm sure this post was going to be more uplifting when I started it.

Something I've recently discovered is that if you look up your local supermarket on Google Maps and then scroll down its listing, there's a graph that shows when it's busy and when it's not, for every day of the week. In some cases, it's even done in real time.

For instance, my nearest Poundland:


 

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I frequently buy alcohol on my early morning raid on the supermarket. With little or no shame.

And sit in front of daytime tv drinking heavily.

If I was actually going to drink it now, I wouldn't mind. It's the mistaken impression that I object to.

The Call of the Wendigo wrote:

Something I've recently discovered is that if you look up your local supermarket on Google Maps and then scroll down its listing, there's a graph that shows when it's busy and when it's not, for every day of the week. In some cases, it's even done in real time.

That would have been really useful when the plague was raging.

I popped out in the car to two branches of Lidl today. The first was being roped off by the police - in the very short time it took me to park and walk to the door, a barrier had been erected, with cones and crime tape. They nearly didn't let me drive off the premises. I had to drive to a new and unexpected location. I had been hoping to get a box of their 6 natas for £2, but it was singles only. The idiot behind the till told me that six individually bought were the same price. I said no, the boxes are £2. She looked me in the eye and said 'well like I saying to you, these are £2.94 so that's exactly the same'. I said no, the boxes of 6 are £2. Then she tried to tell me that's because they are raw ingredients that have to be assembled and baked at home. I couldn't be bothered to argue, so that's me 94p poorer than I could've been.

I was very disappointed with Lidl when I went there on my sherry quest on Tuesday. It was the first shop I've been in where the staff were careless of social distancing.

I went in the Co-op on my way home from the storage place this morning, and the nice checkout woman wished me happy Christmas.

I did the whole Boots then Aldi thing yesterday.

I was dreading it, imaging frantic panic buying and long queues and empty shelves, but it was really very quiet.

I barely had to wait 5 minutes for my prescriptions and, despite there being no sprouts or parsnips or carrots at Aldi I managed to get everything else.

More-or-less anyway.

Most importantly I now have 7 bottles of wine.

I shall pop out again today and try Sainsbur' and/or Emines to fill in the few things I couldn't get.

And some more wine.

I bought a big bag of bargain Malteser reindeer at the Tesco Express, and I must have left it at the checkout

I popped to the Co-op this morning, but the self-checkout broke down while I was using it, so the nice checkout woman invited me to come to the main checkout, which I did. But I was so flustered by then that I placed my rucksack carelessly on the counter, and it toppled backwards and the milk carton in it split open and the milk went everywhere.

The NCW came out from behind the counter and wiped it all up, while I apologised profusely. She told me not to worry as accidents happened in the store all the time, and she also said to help myself to a free replacement carton of milk on my way out

but also