If you've read any of my other ops, you might know I don't rate Londis very highly. But in all fairness to Londis, just because we've got the most awful excuse for a supermarket in the world I've visited a couple of different Londis stores in the last couple of weeks and have to say...... it's not the most awful excuse for a supermarket, it's the most awful excuse for a supermarket chain!

OK, the particular Londis store I'm doing this op on is on College Road in Kingstanding, Birmingham and I've used it on an almost daily basis since we moved here in September last year. They've got all the right ideas, but for some reason these ideas never turn out right between the thinking and actually putting them into practice.

They sell everything from basics such as milk and bread to wierd and wonderful foodstuffs as freshly made pork and pickle pies and fresh cream cakes. The best way to let you know what they sell is to give you a kind of 'Londis tour'.

oOoOo THE SHOP FRONT oOoOo

Well, the main window has been broken since we've moved here and no effort has been made to replace it so I assume they're keeping the cracks as part of the decor. The front of the shop is a bold green colour with shop name (Londis) printed at least once on every available surface. There is a set of automatic doors which are simply tied open with rope and you can hear them screaming on their tracks to close once the person has passed through the door into the shop. Displayed outside are sacks of potatoes, trolleys which you're not allowed to use (?) and a kids ride where they invite you to spend 50p on a 30 second ride on a dodgy looking tiger. Next to the ride they sometimes sell bedding plants, bags of compost and small plants but I think this may be a one off as they were there one day and haven't been seen since.

oOoOo THE FRUIT AND VEG AISLE oOoOo

Personally, one look at the filthy floor reminds me never to buy fresh fruit or veg from this store. The fruit and veg racks are the same as a grocers - you know, metal shelves with mirrors at the top and a suspicious looking set of scales hanging from the ceiling. You can buy basic veg - spuds, carrots, onions, mushrooms, salad veg and if you're lucky they might have leeks or parsnip. This isn't likely though as I think these are seen as a bit too exotic for their tastes! lol The choice of fruit is erm... limited. If you don't like apples, pears or strawberries then go without! Now I DO like apples, pears and strawberries, but not when rotten pieces of fruit are mingling with new pieces.

Come out of the fruit and veg section and into.....

oOoOo THE GREETINGS CARD SECTION oOoOo

What Londis lack in fruit and veg, they certainly make up for in cards and wrapping paper. There is an entire aisle devoted to cards -you can buy birthday cards, anniversary cards, sympathy cards, sorry you're leaving cards. As of yesterday they still had Xmas cards on display. One thing I've got to say about the cards is the prices are disgusting. You're basically paying Clintons prices for Aldi quality. I forgot to get my mum a Mothers Day card this year and had to run round to Londis before she arrived - a standard card cost me £2.49 and Londis wrapping paper is a whopping 45p a sheet. Prices aside, Londis have a good selection of cards and I suppose it's worth paying a bit extra when you've forgotten a special occasion. In this aisle you can also buy sellotape, drawing pins, party hats, paper plates and disposable table cloths.

Directly facing all the cards is.....

oOoOo THE NEWSPAPERS oOoOo

I've got to give Londis credit for their newspaper section. They sell all the major newspapers - from The Guardian to The Sun - and they stock a great selection of magazines and kids comics too. If there's a magazine you want they'll order it for you providing you pay in full - and I don't begrudge them this cos I can imagine the kids round here ordering all sorts and never going back! lol This is one thing they can't overcharge for!

oOoOo GROCERIES oOoOo

The top 3 aisles are full of tins, toilet rolls, nappies, cereals and packet stuff. You can buy more or less anything in here that you can get in the supermarket but you don't get a choice of brand, if you don't like HP beans then don't have beans for tea! lol The prices are over inflated on this sort of stuff and you can expect to pay prices like 59p for a tin of potatoes that are only 19p in the supermarket. Saying that, a couple of items cost less than the supermarket - for example, I brought a jar of Dolmio bolognese sauce for 99p when it's usually £1.39 in Kwik Save.

The toiletries section is basic and contains toothpaste, loo roll, deodorant (a Lynx rip off called Linus! lol), shampoo and soap. Again, you haven't got a choice in brand with the exception of the shampoo which is available in about 30 different brands!

oOoOo FROZEN AND CHILLED SECTION oOoOo

At the very back of Londis you've got a fresh meat counter which also sells pork pies, fresh pies for cooking, sausage rolls, cooked meats and a rotiserrie where you can buy wonderful whole cooked chickens and cumberland sausages straight from the spit. The chicken costs £2.59 and the sausage is brilliant at £1.49 - both of these are cooked to perfection and the bloke who works this counter is happy to give you advice on both the health and safety aspects (ie, don't reheat the food unless you want to get the 'squirts') and he'll also give you recipes and serving suggestions if you ask him very nicely. ;oP This section is really clean and you can see the assistants wiping down the surfaces and sterilising the equipment behind the counter. You've also got the opton of trying the food before you buy it on certain items, the products you can sample are basically the cooked meats, cheese and sometimes there's a plate on the glass counter top that has a selection of pies cut into bite sized pieces with a cocktail stick shoved through each one so you can try one safe in the knowledge that 50 other people haven't had their grubby mitts all over it before you!

You've got another fresh food counter at the back of Londis which holds bacon, sausage, samosas, katlamas and all sorts of ethnic foods. They've got a great selection and the staff behind this counter know what they're talking about, they're happy to advise on the best way to reheat the products and also if (like me) you worry about trying spicy food in case it's too hot, you can get advice on the best (ie, milder lol) product to try. I came unstuck on this one once though because I asked what the strength of a special samosa they'd just come up with and the girl behind the counter told me it was mild so I brought it and when I tried it........... *phew* brought tears to my eyes! lol

The frozen section in Londis is basic to say the least. If you want ice cream of any description or chips you're in the right place - if you want anything else, forget it. When I went in yesterday I counted 3 freezers packed with ice creams, ice lollies and gateaux, another freezer full of chips and the other 2 freezers were out of order! But what you have to remember is Londis is basically a corner shop so you can't expect them realistically to have the same frozen variety as a major supermarket. They could try harder in this section though and include some frozen basics such as mixed veg or frozen dinners.

oOoOo BREAD AND CAKES oOoOo

This is another section where Londis really excell themselves - a whole aisle dedicated to bread, cakes, pastries and freshly cooked baguettes. You can get either Kingsmill, Hovis and Warburtons sliced bread along with the cheaper brands. To be honest, I won't buy my bread from Londis for the simple reason that it's usually 15p - 20p dearer than in the supermarket and it always seems to be slightly stale. You've got a good selection of cakes, ranging from the more expensive Mr Kipling cakes to a half moon lemon cake which costs just 49p. The fresh baguettes are delicious, freshly baked on the premises and displayed on a wooden bread stand, you choose which you want and put it one of the provided paper bags to pay for it. These range from 25p for a crusty cob to 89p for a baguette which cuts in half to serve 2 people.

oOoOo MUNCHIES oOoOo

My favourite section! lol A complete aisle 'choc' a block full of sweets, chocolate bars, crisps, nuts and Indian snacks such as bombay mix. Nothing else to say about this section (I think my chocolate ops speak for themselves! lol) except they stock every chocolate bar and every variety of crisps that you could possibly want.

oOoOo ALCOHOL oOoOo

Finally, this is the last aisle in Londis. Right next to the tills for security, you'll find a pathetic range of cans of lager, bottles of wine, alcopops and mixers. When I say a range, I find it ridiculous. Honestly. If you want lager you've got a choice of Carling or Stella Artois and the only alcopops they seem to have heard of is WKD (the blue one) and Hooch, and this is if the Hooch is in stock! The prices are hugely inflated when compared to the off licence next door. Typically, you can expect to pay £3.39 for a 4 pack of Carling, £4.99 for a not so decent bottle of white wine and a whopping £4.29 for a 3 litre bottle of cider. Add to this the fact that Londis don't put their beers in the fridge and you can see why I don't buy ANY alcohol from them.

Right, that's the tour over. Now this is what I think of the store in general.

~~~ Staff ~~~
As I said in an earlier op, the average age of the staff in Londis is 12. Well, perhaps a slight exaggeration there but not one assistant appears to be above 20 and it really shows in their attitude and level of knowledge. A quick example, the other day I went into Londis and the Nescafe coffee wasn't priced up so the girl on the till had to shout for a price. Another girl shouted for her to scan it and the price would come up, but it was a promotional jar and the bar code wasn't on display so I ended up not being able to buy my coffee because not one member of staff knew the price! Laughable if I hadn't had to then walk for 10 minutes to my next local shop for a jar of coffee. Compared to the high level of knowledge displayed in major supermarkets, this is very poor. Also, the staff don't seem capable of organising their time. At times there's an assistant on each of the 4 tills but then at the time all the kids are coming out of school and the shop's packed, you find a queue snaking half way up the shop because they've decided to only put one till on. On the plus side, staff have to wear the standard Londis uniform of a green t-shirt and black trousers so they always look really smart - is this a plus side? Personally, i don't really care what shop assistants wear so long as they know what they're doing!

~~~ Special Offers ~~~
Londis don't do standard BOGOF or half price offers. What they tend to do instead is over order on certain items and then put them in a huge pile by the till drastically reduced. My favourite offer they've done like this was a few weeks ago when they were selling 6 bags of Cadburys Mini's (chocolate biscuits) for £1 and just yesterday they had the large bottles of blue WKD for 75p. None of this stock is out of date or even close to it's sell by date. They DO sell short date food and drink, but this is clearly marked with the best before date and reduced even further to what Mark calls 'silly prices' - 10p for a short date bottle of Coca Cola for example.

~~~Other Stuff~~~
You can get your Lotto ticket in Londis, although they don't sell any scratchcards, and if you pay by credit card you can ask for up to £50 cash back. There's also an cash machine inside Londis whch accepts any LINK card but charges you £1.75 for the privelege of taking YOUR money out of YOUR bank account.

In general, Londis is fine if you forget to buy a pint of milk or you need a block of cheese because you don't really mind paying over the odds for a couple of things. They've got quite a large range of products and they're usually pretty good quality although, as I said earlier, the products they stock are usually all of the same brand. If, however, you want to shop in Londis for quite a few different things then prepare yourself for a shock when you get to the till! A quick example, I went into Londis a week or two ago and ended up with a shopping basket full of bits and pieces - when I got to the till, it all packed into one carrier bag (which they charge 5p for, by the way) and cost me £22.73 - fuming wasn't the word! lol

The store needs a good scrub because although it isn't dirty, it always seems grubby to me. The fruit and veg aisle in particular needs to be thoroughly cleaned as the floor and racks for the food are filthy and often when you're looking at the fruit there's rotten items in the box with the fresher stuff. One of the overhead flourescent lights above the sweetie counter is FULL of dead flies and a couple of the overhead lights are so grimey that they don't seem to throw out as much light as the other two. Another thing which really put a bee in my bonnet (and stopped me going into Londis for a couple of weeks) was when one of the fridges broke down just after Christmas. All they did was put a roll of tape across the front of the fridge and took all the stuff out but after a couple of days, the whole chilled area started to stink like there was a blocked drain somewhere. I mentioned it to one of the older assistants (god, he must have been 22! lol) and he said it was because some water was trapped under the fridge. OMG, get the thing out then! There was fresh food in the chiller next door and the smell must have tainted it in some way. The fridge was left like this for over a week before the smell got too much for them and they chucked it out the front of the shop - where it sat stinking for another 2 weeks! Hello? Londis? Ever heard of the Health and Safety Executive or Environmental Health?

Another problem I have with Londis is they seem to run a second business from the premises as a youth baby sitting service. By this I mean whatever time of the day or night I go to Londis there are always TONNES of teenage lads congregated both inside and out. This really gets on my nerves because to get to Londis from my house you have to walk down an alley way and it can be frightening anyway at night and the thought of some of these lads following me is enough to put me off going there at night. I'm not saying they're all going to mug me before anyone gets on their high horse about tarring all young lads with the same brush but some of them are known rogues. I think the emphasis here is on Londis to make sure they move away from the front of the shop, especially as there's the cash machine inside and anyone waiting at the till can see who's getting money out.

So......... I'll leave you to make up your own minds either based on my op or your own experience in a Londis store. I've been as fair as I can but can't honestly give them more than 2 stars as an overall rating and to be honest, based on my dealings with Londis I can't recommend them to you except as a last resort when everywhere else is closed and you're desperate for milk or bread or... erm, condoms. ;oP

Thanks for reading :o)