They're expensive but the quality is brilliant- and if they make mistakes they offer generous recompense. This morning, for example, one of the eggs in our box of 15 was broken so the delivery man gave us the whole box for free. It's the sort of gesture that builds customer loyalty. Again, if they have to substitute one item for another the substitute item almost always represents a trade up- and you get it for the same price.
Julie Burchill was on TV last night singing the praises of the big supermarkets. A brave thing to do- but then Burchill is fearless; I admire her for it even when I dislike what she's saying. On this matter though I've been in her camp for years. We forget- in our ineradicable but idiot nostalgia for all things dead and gone- how the small shop was so very often a rubbish shop. The supermarkets are not only a good thing in themselves, but have forced the small shops that are left to raise their game.