A visit to Market Street

This May Day Bank Holiday we turned explorers and headed out to discover what our county of Dorset had to offer.

We went Fossil hunting in Lyme Regis, Knob throwing in Cattistock and became Pirates at Blandford Festival.

I was also lucky enough to be chosen to be a #MorrisonsMum and was sent £80 to spend on my Bank Holiday Shop at Morrisons.

I have to admit we rarely visit Morrisons as our nearest store closed down a couple of years ago and the next nearest store is 30 minutes away.  I have always liked Morrisons for their meat and when hubby worked in Weymouth he would stop on the way home and stock up.

Our nearest Morrisons store is Verwood, however they are currently undergoing a substantial refit so we decided to visit their Weymouth branch on the way home from Lyme Regis on the Saturday of Bank Holiday weekend.  The first thing that caught my eye was the beautiful weather vane that was glinting in the sunlight.

Our visit didn’t start quite as well as expected as they have the coin operated trolley system, which I hate with a passion.  None of us had any change on us, so I had to queue up at the Customer Service Desk whilst Eliza had a meltdown because we had woken her up.

 

Morrisons announced the new “I’m Cheaper” range of price cuts just in time for the Bank Holiday, cutting the prices of over a thousand of their customers favourite products and the shop was filled with promotional signs and balloons.

Once we had sorted the trolley, we were off and the first thing that struck me was how well displayed and fresh the fruit and veg was.  I am so used to shopping where produce is shoved on the shelves in green trays that it made picking our salad and fruit a pleasure.

Our Bank Holiday meal was to be Steak with Chilli Chips and salad so we headed over the Meat Counter.  The steak looked delicious and fresh, with just the right amount of fat.

The general store layout was good and everything was clearly labelled, well stocked and easy to find.  I even bumped into Sonya from RocknRollMum.com and we stopped for a brief natter in the aisle, as you do.  My only disappointment with the shop was that despite promising they sell locally sourced items, they didn’t stock Dorset Tea.

The place Morrisons fell down on was their checkouts.  The checkouts themselves are too small and not family friendly, with a lot of products to tempt shoppers to pick up.  We lost in our race against Sonya as we had the “Slowest Checkout Operator in the West” manning our till.  He didn’t show any enthusiasm for his job and barely spoke to us other than to tell us the cost.

Our shopping bill came in at just over £121, which is a little more than we usually spend, but I picked up some sunscreen and the kids snuck in a DVD and a book when I wasn’t looking so it would have been equal to what we would spend at a competitor.  As we spent over £40 we also were given a 6p off per litre voucher for fuel which was an added bonus as I needed to fill the car up.

 

We loaded up the car with our spoils and headed to the Petrol Station.  I was impressed to see that you could pay at pump although I didn’t as I wanted to use our fuel voucher.  Sadly service in the Petrol Station was on a par with the checkouts and the young man who served us was more intent about moaning that he had to work Bank Holiday weekend than welcoming his customers.

Despite the poor service I would definitely use Morrisons again as their fresh produce is better than any competitor I have tried and I love their clothing range for kids.  I just hope the local store they keep promising to build gets planning permission to go ahead.