Day in Supermarket - Wrottesley Street - 28th March 2015

It's the weekend, and it's time to head to another supermarket. My parents provided me with company this time and we decided to head to Chinatown to buy lots of stuff!

We decided to head to the Day in Supermarket situated at Wrottesley Street in Birmingham. This is situated opposite the "Big Wok" Chinese buffet.

I did a review on this supermarket around this time last year and gave it a 7 out of 10. How will it fare this time? 

The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - Clean, with items stocked well.
2. Friendly staff - Yes, friendly. They are trilingual (English, Cantonese and Mandarin) and gave good greetings. My parents and I spoke to them in Cantonese. There were some customers who spoke to them in English and staff were very friendly to them and gave good advice on what items to buy. Staff also packed bags for us which was very kind of them!
3. Aisle width - unfortunately due to size, it's narrow and it meant that two small trolleys was a struggle. The supermarket size is also smaller than the busier Arcadian branch. You need to be very patient and often need to be saying "Excuse me" all the time to get through the aisles.
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Mostly - great for specialist Oriental stock, not so good on products such as dairy products.
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - Nothing extra - just specialist food available.
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Variable (basically the same as the Day in Supermarket at the Arcadian). Stocks not on special offer have long sell-by dates. However,  if they are on special offer, be wary that products are close to their sell-by dates. These include noodles and sauces. In addition, they have an "Out of Date" stock section. Not very appealing to me....
7. Opening Hours - 9am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays. 10am to 6pm Sunday. Long opening hours on a Sunday as it's not a big supermarket, more of the size of a convenience store. Quite restrictive opening hours in my opinion.
8. Speed of till-processing - two manned tills available. Fast, efficient, friendly and they pack bags for you. What more can you ask for?
9. Self-service tills available - no, why need them?
10. Parking facilities - unfortunately due to its location, based right at the city centre, there's no free parking. The nearest is the Chinatown car park opposite which offers reasonable parking prices.
11. Value for money - Generally okay, they do provide reasonable prices and around a third to a half of the products price match or are cheaper than Wing Yip in Nechells. However, if you want to compare like for like prices for specialist Oriental products compared to the Big Four Supermarkets, then Day in Supermarket wins hands down. Especially on products such as the Chinese vegetables (pak choi, choi sum, ung choi etc.), tofu, soy sauce and noodles.
12. Organic produce - not as far as I am aware of.
13. Cash machine or cash back - No cash machine available. You need to go to the other end of the Arcadian to find cash machines. That is a five minute walk away and crossing roads! You could pay by card, but it requires a £5 minimum purchase!
14. Pedestrian access - Requires improvement - one side with steps and one side with a ramp, allowing disabled access. The only let down at the end of the ramp - there is a step, so that could be improved. One to avoid for disabled customers - better go to the Arcadian instead.

Overall, the Day in Supermarket at Wrottesley Street has a more chilled out but friendlier atmosphere than the Arcadian. We generally go to this branch than the Arcadian purely for its customer service as the products they stock are the same! Well, obviously they should be as it's the same branch. I still find it a little puzzling how these two supermarkets are only five minutes walk away from each other. They are better off opening some branches around Birmingham. Maybe offer a rivalry to Korea Foods in Selly Oak?

Photo courtesy of The Local Data Company

Rating: 7 out of 10 (-0.5 for lack of some essential stock (dairy products as an example), -0.5 for parking facilities, -1 for special offers and out of stock section (not offering long sell by dates), -0.5 for opening hours, -0.5 for minimum purchase for use of credit/debit cards

At least the Day in Supermarket has retained its rating of 7 out of 10 for me

Day in Supermarket - Arcadian Centre - 23rd March 2015

After going out on a training course at the Radisson Blu Hotel, I decided to head to a Chinese supermarket at the city centre of Birmingham.

Day in Supermarket is a local Chinese supermarket in Birmingham that serves to the Birmingham community and beyond. It's one of the well known supermarkets in Birmingham with Wing Yip as its main rival.

There are two branches and I headed to the busier one at the Arcadian.

So, what is the supermarket like? The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - Generally clean with items stocked well.
2. Friendly staff - Generally yes and are trilingual - they can speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin. I spoke to them in Cantonese. Could do a bit better with greeting customers but they do pack bags for you without asking!
3. Aisle width - narrow I'm afraid. The trolleys are a lot smaller than ones find in the more traditional British supermarkets. Two small trolleys side by side are a struggle! It definitely reminds me of Hong Kong supermarkets.
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Mostly. It's great to find Oriental products and what you want to find is pretty much in stock. If you're looking for dairy products as an example, best head to a British supermarket.
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - Apart from specialist Oriental products, there's no extra perks.
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Variable. Stocks not on special offer have long sell-by dates. However,  if they are on special offer, be wary that products are close to their sell-by dates. These include noodles and sauces. In addition, they have an "Out of Date" stock section. Not very appealing to me....
7. Opening Hours - Reasonable but could do better. 9am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays and 10am to 6pm Sundays. Very good opening hours on Sunday as it's more the size of a convenience store.
8. Speed of till-processing - four manned tills available. Fast, efficient and they pack bags for you without asking. Could be more friendly.
9. Self-service tills available - No, why need them?
10. Parking facilities - sorry, no parking available. Best bet is to go for one of the car parks in the city centre.
11. Value for money - Generally okay, they do provide reasonable prices and around a third to a half of the products price match or are cheaper than Wing Yip in Nechells. However, if you want to compare like for like prices for specialist Oriental products compared to the Big Four Supermarkets, then Day in Supermarket wins hands down.
12. Organic produce - er... they don't specifically state so... I'm guessing no.
13. Cash machine or cash back - No cash machine available. You need to go to the other end of the Arcadian to find cash machines. You could pay by card, but it requires a £5 minimum purchase!
14. Pedestrian access - yes and step free.

Overall, the Day in Supermarket in the Arcadian Centre is a good medium sized supermarket with many products available. It's very compact for its size and they offer free calendars towards the end of the year.

Photo courtesy of The Local Data Company

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 (-0.5 for lack of some essential stock (dairy products as an example), -0.5 for greeting, -0.5 for parking facilities, -1 for special offers and out of stock section (not offering long sell by dates), -0.5 for opening hours, -0.5 for minimum purchase for use of credit/debit cards

Tesco Extra, Cradley Heath - 21st March 2015

A lovely day outside in Birmingham and decided that it's a good time to go shopping. My housemate Alice and I decided that we would go to the Black Country and review another Tesco Extra, but this time in Cradley Heath. This is a place that is familiar to me as I began my first teaching placemat in that part of the area.

So, what is the supermarket like? The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - A supermarket built in 2007 and recently refurbished with two floors. It certainly looks clean with new signs and the supermarket looks bright, especially with the sunshine!
2. Friendly staff - yes, they had a welcome greeting and were treated to having my shopping being packed by the Scouts from Halesowen.
3. Aisle width - quite wide and can fit at least two trolleys side by side. The clothes section could be a little wider but as that's not as busy, that might justify the narrower aisles.
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Mostly. I was concerned about the lack of world foods, but that might be because of the area. A bigger area of concern is the lack of variety of eggs!
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - A large petrol station is available offering unleaded petrol at 109.9p per litre which compares favourably to nearby supermarkets in Birmingham and the Black Country. A pharmacy is also available but no opticians. There's a large clothing section and electricals too. However, it lacks a big enough section for world foods - just two aisles, and the specialist stock just consisted of East Asian and Polish foods. There's also a section which offers Community Space and a Costa cafe is available. If you were looking to dine there for lunch, you will need to go elsewhere. Finally, there's a good fishmongers, butcher, deli and hot foods section.
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Yes. There is a section of reduced goods which offers good reduction of around 40% off. I didn't need to buy any reduced goods. All the goods I bought offered good sell by dates.
7. Opening Hours - Very good. Opens from 6am on Monday to midnight on Saturday and maintaining a 24 hour store. Sundays are open 10am to 4pm.
8. Speed of till-processing - all manned tills in service and a lot of self-service tills and scan as you shop tills. Didn't have to wait to long on a manned till - around three minutes.
9. Self-service tills available - yes, but decided to go for the manned tills.
10. Parking facilities - yes with a large car park with two floors. The first section is the overhead parking and you can go down one level for the covered car park. Despite peak time shopping (Saturday at 12:30pm), there was a good number of parking spaces available. What's more, it's free parking with a three hour restriction. However, the entry and exit to the supermarket could be better. It can accumulate quite a bit of traffic - would traffic lights or a roundabout solve this? It might do, but could potentially cause more traffic as there is another roundabout quite close by.
11. Value for money - part of the big four supermarkets, they do have quite a lot of special offers. Obviously, some items are more expensive in Tesco than in other supermarkets so you need to shop around!
12. Organic produce - available if you want them.
13. Cash machine or cash back - Tesco Bank cash machines are available outside. Tesco also offers cash back when you shop.
14. Pedestrian access - yes and are step free. Lots of zebra crossings too which makes it safe.

Overall, Alice and I came to an agreement that the supermarket has a good atmosphere and the layout looks good. It's bright as well but the EBI's will be to have a bigger world foods section and a better variety of eggs.


Also, this supermarket reminds me a lot of the Tesco from my hometown with most features being very similar.

Photo courtesy of The Local Data Company

Rating: 7.5 out of 10 (-1 for lack of world foods, -0.5 for entry and exit to the store, -0.5 for lack of variety of eggs, -0.5 for a lack of facilities to have lunch / dinner at the supermarket)

Tesco Extra, West Bromwich - 14th March 2015

This time, I decided to go into the Black Country to do my weekly shop and head to a supermarket that was recommended by one of my housemates. Tesco Extra in West Bromwich is a new supermarket (built 2 years ago) and is situated at the town centre. It is part of the New Square which also consisted of various other shops such as Primark, JD Sports, Next, Bank, etc.

So, is the supermarket as good as it sounds? The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - yes and the layout looks new and modern with an atmosphere!
2. Friendly staff - customer services were amazing as they helped me with a free parking slip. Checkout staff - hmmmm... no. No "Hello" or "Good afternoon" greeting or a goodbye. This member just scanned the items and was just solely on concentrating on getting the receipt and wanted to me to get out of the checkout. Not impressed. More concentrated on talking to the ones behind me who turned out to have more of a cultural custom than me. So, a major minus point.
3. Aisle width - wide and you can fit at least two trolleys in each aisle. I shopped there at around 2:30pm and it was pretty busy!
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Well stocked goods and am impressed with the variety of goods available.
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - There is a petrol station (big) which offers unleaded petrol at 107.9p per litre which matches the price at Sainsbury's Northfield so it's pretty cheap. It boasts a cafe which looks new and modern. Other additions include an opticians, a Tesco direct (catalogue) order point, a mobile phone / technical help desk, clothing (for men, women and kids), but lacks a pharmacy. There are four aisles dedicated to world foods ranging from Irish, American, Filipino, Afro-Caribbean, Asian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese goods available. I was impressed by this and bought some specialist goods at reasonable prices. And want to buy some cream teas? - yes, clotted cream is available!
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Mostly. There is a section of reduced items with some reduced by half. However, I didn't need to buy any reduced goods. Tesco are playing a game to fool people by putting the goods that have shorter sell-by dates on easy reach, but with long sell-by dates right at the bottom, which meant I needed to kneel down to get bread with a long sell by date. There's an impressive range of oriental fresh produce - ung choi (Chinese spinach), pak choi and mooli!
7. Opening Hours- Truly exceptional. Opens from midnight on Monday to midnight on Saturday and maintaining a 24 hour store. Sundays are open 10am to 4pm.
8. Speed of till-processing - all manned tills in service (18) and a lot of self-service tills. Didn't have to wait to long on a manned till - around three minutes.
9. Self-service tills available - yes, but decided to go for the manned tills.
10. Parking facilities - yes with a large car park divided into clear zones. You do need to be careful when shopping there as you need a free parking voucher, something that the checkout staff didn't offer, which was not polite, which meant I needed to head to customer services, who were friendly! 2 hours free parking available as long as you spend £5 or more. Another thing which lets down is that you do need to drive around the car park and literally HUNT for parking space as not a lot is available, but it is peak time on Saturday. Also, redeeming a free parking voucher is naff. Wait for 10 minutes, and the process itself takes like three minutes to get the right car and redeem the voucher. They NEED MORE parking meters so that the process is faster!
11. Value for money - part of the big four supermarkets, they do have quite a lot of special offers. Obviously, some items are more expensive in Tesco than in other supermarkets so you need to shop around!
12. Organic produce - available if you want them.
13. Cash machine or cash back - Tesco Bank cash machines are available outside. Tesco also offers cash back when you shop.
14. Pedestrian access - yes and are step free.

Overall, I was generally impressed with the layout of the store and the huge variety of goods available. Staff are friendly (minus the checkout staff). And you have the chance to meet one of your lovely tutees despite being 15 miles away! And yes, it was a little awkward.

The supermarket does face stiff competition with Morrisons and the market stalls not being far away (around half a mile away) but it seems to be very busy with a good atmosphere.

Photo courtesy of www.expressandstar.com

Rating: 7 out of 10 (-1 for checkout, -1 for their unwise strategy of putting long sell-by fresh produce at the bottom, notably bread, -1 for parking facilities)

Wing Yip, Nechells - 1st March 2015

Today, I went to the biggest Chinese supermarket in Birmingham, which was Wing Yip. It is based in Nechells, in North East Birmingham. Last year, I gave it a 6.5 out of 10. Will it improve this time?

The criteria is as follows.

1. Clean - yes, and the supermarket looks a lot brighter than last year.
2. Friendly staff - Friendly in general. The Chinese staff are trilingual - able to speak English, Cantonese and Mandarin. There is also noticceably a big increase in the number of non-Chinese staff as it starts to offer more equal opportunities for all. After paying for my items, it was pouring outside and the staff were quick to say that it is okay for us to stay indoors and provided us with lovely Chinese New Year sweets!
3. Aisle width - wide enough for two big trolleys to pass through. And big, I do mean big - just like the big trolleys you can get from Homebase or B&Q.
4. Everything I was looking for was in stock - Oriental specialist food is generally very well stocked. The down side though is that you can't buy dairy products such as milk or clotted cream. You are also unlikely to be able to buy normal potatoes - chips is the nearest options. Tomatoes and grapes are also items you can't buy. There is also half an aisle full of vegetarian meat / fish stuff. I was also on the hunt for Ma Po sauce - unfortunately that wasn't available. However, if you're working for the catering business, there's lots of bulk buying items available in the form of cases.
5. Extras: pharmacy/opticians/specialist food/petrol station - A fishmonger and a butcher is available. There is also live seafood such as crabs and lobsters. Eels and carp are not available though. There is though ready roasted duck (with the head!), Chinese roast pork (Char Siu) and roast belly pork which looks nice. There's also a cooking demonstration stall and today, they were promoting Malaysian curry sauce. The stuff was okay, but it's definitely good self-promotion. Free calendars are also available. Finally, you can watch Chinese TV (Hong Kong's TVB) on the big screen.It does lack a petrol station but that is not really required here.
6. Fresh produce with long sell-by dates - Yes, in general. The level of reduced goods has gone down significantly which shows that they are starting to get more serious on fresh produce!
7. Opening Hours - 9:30am to 7pm Monday to Saturday, 11:30am to 5:30pm Sunday. I do think that the opening hours for Monday to Saturday could be improved - maybe opening at 8am? Or it could be that the workers want a lie in!
8. Speed of till-processing - 11 manned tills - an increase compared to around 7 or 8 last year. And it's fast. There's normally three members of staff per till. One to put your items on the conveyor belt, one doing the till processing, and one packing items for you. Service is great!
9. Self-service tills available - None.
10. Parking facilities - Yes and quite a lot of spaces available, even on a Sunday afternoon - the peak time for trading! The downside is that parking restrictions are strict and only allow you 1.5 hours. However, as there is an increase in manned tills, that will give you enough time!
11. Value for money - One of the biggest Chinese supermarkets in the UK, most items are cheaper than the Day in Supermarket at the city centre and Korea Foods in Selly Oak.
12. Organic produce - not available as far as I'm aware of.
13. Cash machine or cash back - Nearest cash machine is the Bank of East Asia which is a five minute walk away. A let down if you are paying by card is that you need to purchase a minimum of £10. Not sure if cash back is available.
14. Pedestrian access - yes and are step free.

Overall, the Wing Yip in Nechells looks better than it was last year. Both the interior and exterior of the supermarkets has been refurbished and staff are friendlier than they were last year. However, if you're looking for non-food items or English food, look towards the Big Four supermarkets.

Rating: 7.5out of 10