The Boyfriend and I are polar opposites when it comes to supermarket shopping. With analysis, there are reasons I find it such a chore as opposed to passionately loving it like he does:
While I patiently sift through the coupons and special offers to find the best deal, he buys anything that takes his fancy from the DVD aisle;
While I look for the freshest organic produce and ingredients for lunchboxes and recipes, he scours the donut aisle (squeezing each fresh batch the way I squeeze fruit);
I am doing an entire weeks shopping; he is skipping gaily round throwing enough for one - yes, ONE - meal into the trolley. (In my opinion this is a waste as he has to go more often than once a week. Prior to starting his new job, I suspect he was in there almost every day while I was at work.)

After a couple of years together, his dad let slip last week that The Boyfriend never went to the supermarket before he met me. Novelty value must have carried a certain weight!

But, all this aside, I eventually refused to go to Tesco and I put it all down to one thing - Tesco Boredom.
A phenomenon whereby you find that you know Tesco like the back of your hand and can no longer muster any excitement about the special offers. When you know which member of staff works which shift and where the tea bags are. You stop caring that you can buy three frying pans for 99p.

So, with familiarity breeding contempt, I started seeing Asda on the side. It is through no small effort that I have persuaded The Boyfriend that we should shop at Asda in recent weeks. He likes routine, to the point where he is a creature of habit. Unfortunately I have no time for this kind of whinging when there are supermarkets to visit. He put on the same T-Shirt he always wears to go shopping, left at the same time (on a Saturday as always) and had to take me to Asda.

Our first Asda to visit was on the other side of town, next to the homes of our respective grandmothers. This Asda only ever warranted one visit from us, as despite a good selection of fresh fruit and veg, there were no vegetarian items in stock and it was on the small and stinky side. The biggest issue was the lack of car parking. The few spaces available were ones you had to pay up front for and then claim the money back off your shopping. Oh, and they didn't offer. You had to ask, or rather demand.

We decided to try another Asda. There is one nearby, and although it's in the middle of a housing estate, it's reasonably signposted. Also, it's a Mega Asda. It rises out of the car park like a huge glass and brick gingerbread house. This monument to consumerism is open 24 hours and even has a shoe repair shop. Car parking is fairly extensive and even at weekends, there are no queues for spaces.

For a couple of weeks, things between me and Asda were great . I liked the novelty, the endless aisles of junk food and cake. I danced with glee at the price of packet sauces. It didn't take long for things to deteriorate between us though. My mistake was deciding that Asda and I should become exclusive.

What did we like about Asda? On reflection, The Boyfriend liked the fact that products were stocked at 'shoe height'. By this, I mean that their shelving is lower than other supermarkets and as such you can kick products close to their sell by date out of the way to get to the stuff at the back. We've already established that the novelty was the attraction for me. That's about it. Oh, and we liked shouting 'That's Asda Price!' at each other.

What put me off? They don't have the loyalty card that Tesco do, so I worry that I'm missing out on vouchers. Some things are cheaper (biscuits, cakes) and a lot are not (Shampoo, Tinned fruit, Organic Pasta ). Savings at Asda compared to Tesco aren't massive.

The final nail in Asda's coffin came when they didn't restock their shelves for over a month. I sent the following letter:

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Dear Sir/s,

I am writing to tell you that I will be withdrawing my custom from ASDA and why I will be doing so. I feel that leaving you without the opportunity to improve your stores would be unfair on other customers.

Today, I visited ASDA, XXXXX to find that the single small freezer of vegetarian options was yet again, empty. I asked staff nearby and although polite and helpful they were able to tell me only that they 'didn't know' why it was empty or if there was any more stock. No one was available to check for me.

Since the first week of December 2006, I have visited this store every week in an attempt to purchase 'Quorn Roast'. So, that's around eight weeks of waiting for this item to come into stock. The label remains clearly visible on the ticket strip, but the freezer is perpetually empty.

Today, not only was I unable to buy this item, but there were also no Chicken Style Quorn Pieces and no Quorn Deli Slices of any description. In fact, the sole vegetarian option on display in the empty cabinet was ASDA own brand bean burgers. I'm sure you appreciate that I cannot serve a burger up with a roast dinner or make it into stew, stir-fry or curry.

I simply wanted a member of staff to check the stock for me and to let me know if these items had been discontinued or removed from stock for some reason. I went to the Customer Service desk to follow up this matter as the staff on the shop floor denied any responsibility for the freezer section.

Firstly, your customer service desk is almost impossible to find. Instead of a separate desk with a straightforward 'Customer Services' sign, it is a corner of the Tobacco and Lottery kiosk with the green 'Happy to Help' logo. A little misleading. Interestingly, this desk is also positioned at the entrance to the shop in such a manner that all incoming customers have to push through the monumental queue for this facility and the front of the shop becomes congested and difficult to navigate.

There were only two customers in front of me (eight behind) but I still had to wait 20 minutes to speak to someone. Your 'kiosk' is desperately understaffed. When I finally reached the front of the queue and asked the lady behind the counter, she simply said 'I don't know'.

I cannot believe that ASDA is incapable of providing a facility for its own customer service desk to check stock. This would make it the only major supermarket not to do so.

I asked if she would be able to do anything, but she just handed me a bulging complaints book. She told me I could write it down. So, 5 minutes to find the customer service desk, 20 minutes of queuing to voice my complaint. 5 minutes of trying to ask a simple question about a stock item and I get to write it down. Why should I waste 30 minutes of my time just to write in a book?

This is appalling customer service. I have written my complaint in the book, and having flicked through to look at the problems experienced by other customers, I think I can safely say that it won't be dealt with. Your baskets are piled dangerously high, crates are left in the middle of aisles with people tripping over them. Freezers and shelves are empty with no sign of restocking and on top of that, staff have no way of finding out which items are out of stock.

I asked to see a manager and after waiting a further 15 minutes, none was forthcoming. By this time, I had spent the best part of an hour being ignored by your staff. I left it at that.

Iceland is close by, as is Marks and Spencer. Waitrose and Tesco are on my way home. I have no need to spend £80 + every week in a store where I have to experience this level of stress while trying to do my weekly shop.

To sum up, if you do not want other customers to follow my decision to shop elsewhere:

1) Open a designated customer service desk that does not block the entrance to this store.

2) Staff it. (Don't just use staff from the Tobacco and Lottery, they're busy enough).

3) Install a computerised stock system.

4) Employ a manager for your freezer section.

5) Restock the shelves regularly.

6) Get staff to clean up the crates all over the floor as they go along. That's a basic health and safety issue.

7) Instead of shutting every other till at 3.50pm on Sundays to create a bottleneck as customers try to leave, keep tills open until 4pm when the shop shuts. Everyone will get out more quickly and efficiently.

I hope you will act on these suggestions and I look forward to a response.

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Some weeks later, I have still not received a response.

According to a few other consumer websites, Asda have yet to respond to a single letter of complaint. Allegedy, if you go to their HQ and kick up a fuss you get a £15 voucher. Unfortunately that won't cover my train costs.

The Boyfriend's grandmother was seriously injured when some baskets, which were piled high, fell on her in Asda a year ago. Despite this incident and a stack of complaints, Asda ignore Health and Safety. She was treated for these injuries, Asda have admitted liability and she is going through legal action for compensation. It really annoys me that the baskets have not been moved and are still precariously balanced by the side of the door.

Asda inexplicably chooses dim lighting which makes it's supermarkets look a little grotty. It spends all display resource and effort on the not-that-great-and-doesn't-rival-the-high-street George clothing range. The aisles are cramped and the shelving crooked and warehouse like. The other thing is the length of time staff take to clean up spillages.

And so, Asda and I are no longer together. It's not a particularly acrimonious break up, but I will be bad mouthing it to other people and ignoring it for a bit. I don't miss it at all, I won't sit around moping and I'm going to see Morrison's this weekend.

You're too young to commit to just one supermarket.