The Supermarket:
I have a love-hate relationship with Morrisons. For the last week, I've been house-sitting round the corner, so I've been walking here to buy groceries every day.
LOVES - The fruit and veg section is the best I've found in any St Albans supermarket. Probably due to the large African and Asian populations in Fleetville, you can find all sorts of vegetables and fruits that you'd normally have to go to a specialty store to buy - I've bought cassava, plantain, christophene, dudhi, Asian pears, and many more. Even amongst more common English fruits and veg, the selection is extraordinarily good - the other day they had seven or eight varieties of tomatoes to choose from, including some I've never seen in England. Another thing that you rarely see in England (though it's common on the continent) is the steaming system that they use for their leafy veg, which keeps things fresh and cool - and you can really taste the difference.
The deli counters - lunch meat counter, cheese counter, pizza counter - are all top-notch, similar to something that you'd see in a good supermarket in Spain or Italy or France, but see all too rarely in England. There's a huge selection of lunch meats and cheeses, both pre-packaged and ready-to-order, both English and continental. I noticed meats from France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmark and Poland, and can attest that the Spanish chorizo, at least, tastes like the stuff you'd get in Spain. Whoever sources the foreign foods really knows their stuff. I haven't bought any cheeses, but I'd love to come here and stock up for a cocktail party.
The bakery section is similarly excellent, with a huge number of different breads, cakes, pastries et al.
DISLIKES - The non-edible sections leave a lot to be desired. Obviously when space is limited, something has to go, but this is definitely not somewhere you want to come for household goods. I needed a duvet and pillows, but there were only two types of pillow available, and three duvets (one option for each of three weights). All of these were brand names, and all were extremely expensive - I could have bought them for half that price at Matalan or Sainsburys, if I had access to a car. They have a tiny kids' clothing section, but it's small enough that I wonder why they even bother. A lot of the prepacked, own-brand foods taste a little odd to me, too - I've thrown away cottage cheese, orange juice and a few other things because they're just not NICE.
HATES - The organisation. Over the last week, I've been here at several different times of day - once at 10am, twice at 3-4pm, four times at 8-9pm - and without fail, every single time I've had to queue because only half the checkouts were open. When I was there at 3-4pm, the place was absolutely packed, and they STILL had less than half of the checkouts staffed. A couple times, staff decided to take their breaks, and rather than getting another staff member to cover for them, they simply closed their checkout. Yesterday (Thursday afternoon) I gave up on the manned checkouts and went for the self-service...which I then queued more than ten minutes for, as two of the machines were broken. There are some times when queues are necessary, but if people are having to queue for ages because you only have half your checkouts open during the busy times of day, you need to hire more staff. The infrastructure is here to serve a large number of people, but that's no good if you don't have enough workers to keep up with the customers.
The Café:
I came here for lunch a couple days ago, as the menu looked cheap and cheerful. Overall, I found it underwhelming. The southern fried chicken burger had a thick, greasy coating with basically no spices in it - not my idea of "Southern fried". After dumping two packs of pepper and a pack of salt on it, it was edible, but didn't really taste like much. Chips were neither great nor terrible. No sauces were available either at the tables or the condiment stand - I guess you had to go buy them at the counter. (I wasn't asked when I bought my meal if I wanted any ketchup or mustard or anything.) Not really an issue for a single adult, but I imagine parents with young children would find it quite inconvenient to have to go back to the counter, especially since the café is L-shaped, as well as having dividing screens down the center, and your kids would likely be out of view. Given the fact that the majority of meals on the menu (burgers, chips, breakfasts etc) would require condiments, it would seem more logical to provide them for free, or at least ask people if they want any when they pay.
Despite the underwhelming burger and chips, I've been here for brunch with the ex quite often, and I understand the breakfasts are very good.
Overall scores:
Fresh foods - 5/5
Packaged foods - 3.5/5
Non-food items - 2/5
Organisation - 2/5
Café - 3/5 (2/5 this visit; 4/5 previous visits) read more
