My Mysterious Spar Experience (Spar)

Member Name: Zmugzy

Product:	Spar
Date:	19/08/09 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: After nearly two years I still can't think of any

Disadvantages: Read the review

I've been to Spar once in the last five years. It was to do a Mystery shopping task. The Spar outlet was located on a garage forecourt quite close to where I lived but I had never been to this place before. It was a cold blustery day as I recall. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I think I still have the receipt , let me check...

...yes, the event took place on the 22nd November 2007. I had to find £5 worth of items for which I was to be reimbursed. This was not an easy task. There was little to choose from and even less that was appetizing along the untidy neglected aisles. The food looked not fresh and unhealthy, I really didn't want to buy anything at all. There was little that was not covered in a fine layer of dust. The tins of beans looked dirty and sad. In fact the whole place was rather grim.

I looked for a 'staff member'. The only shop assistant available was a small chubby boy - a friendly looking cherub but obviously an under age employee who was no doubt sagging off school. The school bag and texts books scattered on the filthy floor buy the entrance must have belonged to him. I asked him if there were any trolleys and he pointed helplessly towards the only one in the shop - unavailable because it was full to the brim with discarded packaging. So I was left to juggle my purchases around the store like an incompetent shoplifter.

After taking notes ("...this is the worst mystery shopping experience in my life..."), I eventually bought two bags of way overpriced pale scabby looking pasta; one litre of extortionately priced milk in a dusty white bottle, a bag of non-organic bananas no doubt containing the residues of all the very latest Monsanto fungicides and pesticides, and some anchor butter. I never buy anchor butter but there was nothing else that looked safe to eat. With my arms full I made my way to the till.

Lining up at the checkout in a line of impatient motorists waiting to pay their petrol purchases there was a delay as I arrived at the front of the queue. The counter was cramped with no space to place my purchases so I had to keep juggling them about in both hands as I fumbled for change. The man at the till looked like he'd just gotten out of bed. He was wearing the uniform: a green jumper worn over what looked like his pyjamas. His tatty attire did not look clean and was full of white bits, hairs and horrible stains. If that wasn't enough this grubby individual also sported an unkempt moustache and spoke to a colleague in some foreign tongue whilst completely ignoring me at the counter as I waited for my change and the necessary receipt for this grotesque mystery shopping experience. I offered to use my own bag but the scruffy sod still failed to recognize my existence and proceeded to place my pitiful purchases into a plastic bag without my consent. Furthermore, the b***ard overcharged me for one item - something I realised only when I got home.

I'm sure I saw one of the managers entering as I left the store. I resisted the urge to strangle him. The only mystery about Spar is how it manages to stay in business.



My customer order number: 476766
Date: Thursday 22 November 2007
Time: 10:49

Summary: Spare me the Spar experience