Proverbial London weather can change in the space of weekend shopping. The closest supermarket here is Asda. Its a few minutes away so we (me, bro and nephew) decided to walk. The pavements have a gradient, it dips close to driveways but the curve is such that it makes for smooth walking.
Londoners use trolleys to cary home the shopping (if they dont have a car, or not driving ..). The trolley may have two wheels and a bag vertically attached to it, looking like a twisted version of trolley suitcases we have in Delhi. Older people have bigger ones with four wheels, those are far easier to drag.
The greenery in suburbs is better than most areas in Delhi. There are few speeding cars so on the whole walking is safe and pleasureable. It somehow felt as if despite all the pollution, the air here is purer than back home. People are generally mannered. They follow teh traffic rules. Cars stopped on either side of the small driveway when my nephew almost ran to the road. We were scared and he got a scolding but I felt thankful for the traffic and human sense of Londoners.
The trolleys are chained to to each other in a row. You need to punch in a one pound coin to release it. There are families walking in and out for the weekend shopping. Many of them are Asians you can tell by the look, clothes and of course the language. The main area has a twisted lobby with food and electronics shops lining one side, a big display at the centre and the main supermarket to the right.
The layout is similar to the Spencers in Delhi with straight rows of display on the two sides and walking area in the middle. It is called Gondola, kind of U boats of Venice where both the straight legs of U have normal display and the curve has special display as it takes more area. It can have new items or as in the case of Asda discounted items.
As expected the range and variety of items is HUGE. The wonder is the number of miles many of the items have travelled to be on these shelves. The detailed labels note the country of origin from Brazil to Caribbean to of course China. Most of the workers around are of Asian origin.
The billing counters are positioned at the at the end of the rows, a format that Spencers also follows. The counters are long and rectangular with the billing clerk at the other end. You arrange your stuff at one end and the escalator takes it to the clerk. He hands out polythene bags to you to pack it the way you want. The card machine just out of the counter so you can swipe it youself while the clerk punches in the amount from the other side. The trolley can be returned to its row and the pound extracted back.