Are you one of the new Morrisons' shoppers? (Morrisons)

Member Name: azana

Product:	Morrisons
Date:	11/06/09 (86 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some things are cheaper

Disadvantages: Less choice

I recently read that Morrisons had gained half a million new customers per week in the first quarter of this year. I wasn't one of the new customers, having started shopping at Morrisons in December 2006 when I moved to my new town, but I shop at Morrisons regularly and if you haven't tried it yet would say that it is worth a try.

The particular store I use is a smaller store, but I do occasionally go to a larger store, which has a wider range of goods. I can't say I have ever seen any celebrity customers, as featured in the Christmas campaigns, but as a shopping experience it is on a par with any of the supermarkets like Tesco or Sainsbury's, though Waitrose it is not. Overall prices for some things are cheaper but some things can be strangely more expensive than rival stores so it is best if you have some idea of prices.

What's good:

Bread is excellent in my opinion, the freshly baked bread, such as sour dough is particularly nice and well priced.

The meat is keenly priced, and best still it is UK sourced. In my particular store the butcher is always very helpful and will cut you a joint of meat to your requirements and everything is very fresh.

Fruit and vegetables are also well priced - for example blueberries are often £1.00 where they are £1.99 elsewhere and bananas are cheaper too.

For staples such as pasta, tinned produce and the like I would say Morrisons is very good and prices are similar or cheaper than elsewhere.

Morrisons has introduced the idea of the "price crunch" this year, and much as I hate the idea of the credit crunch being a marketing tool it has clearly brought them more customers and there have been some good deals, with sales being up 7.3%. This year they had a Wii game promotion with some great games for £15 including some games that were double or more elsewhere, and DVD's are often good value too. I have also had great buys like 12V halogen bulbs 3 for £1.99 which are triple price elsewhere.

What's not so good:

In my store rather a lot of the store has products that I wouldn't actually buy. If you are a fan of ready made apple pies or meat pies then you might not mind this, I do find also the store can be cluttered with strange bargain buys such as large plant pots that I have never actually seen anyone buy. There is also a lot of not very good quality frozen food that doesn't interest me personally, but then somebody must eat this stuff, just not me.
If you are looking for anything slightly unusual such as roasted peppers or anything "posh" for want of a better word you may be disappointed.

Overall:

I find Morrisons staff to be lovely and I quite like shopping at Morrisons as a top up shop solution, I would struggle to do my weekly there probably but do pop in there at least once or twice a week. I like the fact that Morrisons are also involved in the community and support local clauses. In an ideal world I probably would shop in local shops, but my town isn't like that and Morrisons is my nearest store, and as it goes shopping there whilst not a pleasurable experience (when is it ever) suits me just fine.

Summary: Morrisons, overall not a bad place to shop