I miss T.J.'s french onion soup. Especially now that it's seeming to be turning into autumn here in Glasgow. We were quite near TJs, but didn't shop there too often as there really wasn't much that we used on a daily basis that they stocked that we couldn't get elsewhere for a better price. They did always have good holiday half and quarter hams, though, that we're going to really miss this year.
Ah, the crunch butter! Salt-loving daughter has discovered this butter... It's really good on veg!
I don't find Waitrose to be terribly posh, but the quality of the groceries in there is uniformly good. It seems to me that some of their prices are higher than Tesco while others are not. Was in Sainsburys yesterday for the first time (out past Anniesland) and was not impressed - had a kind of Walmarty feel to it, in a bad way. Had to argue the price of soup, of all things, with a manager - it was priced as 75 pence, they insisted on charging 1.10, but did back down when I walked the manager to the shelf with the advertised price on it.
I like Iceland for some things - you can get Greggs in there to bake at home, and they have a line of "American" chicken bits (southern, hot, etc.) that is pretty darned good. And Dr. Oetker's frozen pizzas.
Throw a little extra cheese and some Italian spices on those, and they're great for a rainy-afternoon lunch. M&S Simply Food is good for a litre of milk and a loaf of bread, but, actually our corner shop has two two-litres of milk on for 2 pounds every day and smoked bacon for 1 pound, and I picked up some whitebread for 40 pence in there yesterday....
But normally I just use Tesco delivery for the staples, as it's uniform, reliable, and shop the online sales. (It's interesting, you can watch the sales move from store to store - as an example, Cathedral cheddar cheese will be on sale at Tesco for a while, then go on sale at Waitrose, then the others - on a reliable sort of rhythm.) For fresh produce, if I have the energy I go down to Roots and Fruits where it's displayed out and I can pick what I like at least weekly. (I like supporting small, indy stores when I can.) I do like the quality of the produce in Waitrose. But when shopping there I tend to only buy things when they're on offer unless it's something I absolutely have to have.
Waitrose has these lovely angus beef burgers, four to a package, for 3 pounds. They fry up as "hamburger steaks" just wonderfully. I also found some seeded flour that, when mixed half-and-half with hard-white bread flour makes a really nice slicing/sandwich loaf. They have eggs on regularly 6 for a pound. And on Fridays they have cod fillets coated with various seeds, on reduction, that remind me very much of the seeded cod we used to get from Schwan's delivery service in the States. (For a good price.)
If you have their card, every time you shop at Waitrose you get a free Waitrose magazine and a cup of tea. I think if you buy certain newspapers you get those free, too, but I'm not sure what they are.
