Spar too expensive (Spar)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	Spar
Date:	10/12/08 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fresh bread and fruit.

Disadvantages: too expensive

We have a Spar about a two minutes walk from our house but Ivery rarely use because they tend to charge you about ten times more than anywhere else. Even the average chocolate bar is a few pence more expensive than my local supermarket. There have been times that I have been in desperate need for something (like chocolate or sweets mostly!) and I've had to use them.

Our Spar is particularly small and there is no way I would beable to get my single buggy down the aisles without knocking just about everything off the shelf, let alone my very small double buggy! I think it's ram-packed with the same amount of stock that our local Sainsburys carry but the Spar is a hundred times smaller!

Quite often I will be in my frontroom and I will hear a little 'beep, beep beep'. After checking the phone, the oven and just about every appliance in my house that has an alarm I realise my electricity meter is on it's last pence so I have to quickly top it up before everything goes dead. Our local Spar have the facilities to do both my gas and electricity so thats very handy.

They also have a cash machine on site which is also great because I can't use my card to top up my gas and electric, it has to be cash. The only trouble is you get charged to use it. It's great for emergencies but I try to either have the cash on me or if I have time I walk 15 minutes up the road to our local Plymco as they have a cash machine that is free to use.

I was surprised that they had a nice selection of fresh fruit and vegetables and bread. This was very handy a little while a go because I was absolutely dying for an apple(that doesn't happen very often!) and I'd remembered that they did fruit in there so I was able to pick one up.

They often have offers on but again the offers are expensive because like I said ealier there prices are higher than the average. They also have really good reduced items.

If you are into the lottery then you will find that you can get your numbers here and be in with a chance of winning.

One thing I really hat about our local Spar is the fact that the young teenagers see it as a 'hang out' area at night. The other day it was dark and I needed gas so I ran all the way. I was a wreck by the time I got to the corner practically dying (I'm not a runner! lol!). When I saw the crowd I was nervous and almost walked baack to my house and got my hubby to go. When I got closer they all looked at me and I felt like I was on stage doing a rubbish performance of Macbeth or something. Thankfully they didn't taunt me and throw tomatoes at me but I have to say I was nervous that they were going to spit on me or something vulgar like that.

Overall I'd say Spar was too overpriced and would only recommend using them if you are desparate.

Summary: I wouldn't use these on a regular basis.