8^th September 2021

If you live in a first-world country, there is a pretty good chance that at least once a week you venture into a shop to buy groceries.

If you live in Australia, your major chain stores Coles, Woolworths or Aldi.  If you have a social conscience, you might elect to snub the big chains and head over to your local independent Foodland or IGA store.

Over here in the England there are a number of different supermarkets, some of which I have visited previously on holidays to England. Locally here in Gorton, there is an Aldi store and it is just like the one in Noarlunga where I used to shop.  The range on offer is pretty much the same, their own branded items and the weekly Special Buys in the middle of the store.

Closer to us is a big Tesco Express.  It is an everything store – from clothing, homewares, toys, alcohol, a pharmacy, petrol station and food.  So although there are a number of small convenience shops around as well as a small market centre, a pharmacy, and some discount shops, I would guess most people in Gorton very likely head into Tesco to shop. 

There are also quite a few of the convenience stores that are also “Off-Licence”, meaning they sell booze for consumption away from the shop. I guess they replace the drive through bottle shops that you can find next to pubs in Australia.

My home guide, Nat, says there isn’t any need to shop anywhere else, as Tesco has everything and I think she is right.

I thought it would be interesting to share a quick comparison between the prices at Tesco of some everyday items and how their price converts to Aussie dollars.  At the moment, I am still doing the maths in my head to try and convert and see whether it is worth buying something I don’t really need.

So, when I took myself for a walk to Tesco, which is a pleasant 15 minute walk along Hyde Road. I thought it might be interesting to blog about it. Google Maps helped with picking the quickest route, although it is not difficult to find with out a map. I am leaving from Tannery Way, which is where I am living now. and Hyde Road is the major road I will be walking along.

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Along the way to Hyde Road I crossed over the Gore Brook, which runs from the reservoir behind the lovely open area of Debdale Park (more about the Park in another blog to come). Once on Hyde Road, I passed the Gorton Butterfly Garden, where plants are grown specifically to attract butterflies (although I didn’t see any visiting).

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I continued along Hyde Road, a busy road carrying traffic through the suburbs of Manchester, seeing the Wagon & Horses Pub and the historic Brookfield Church. In a brief lull in the traffic, I managed to get clear photos of the pub and church.

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Nat told me that the reason that pubs have unusual names and a picture for their logo, is that in times past, when not many could read, they could identify the pub by the picture. So the Wagon & Horses has a picture of a wagon cart being drawn by large horses.

On my side of Hyde Road are The Lord Nelson Pub and The Plough Pub. No one needs to go thirsty here in Gorton, as pubs seem to be everywhere and not always on main roads, and alcohol is available at the Off License shops and Tesco. I am not much of a drinker, so I am not sure how many of them I will go inside of. But they are interesting to look at and find out about.

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Past the drinking holes, is the Tesco petrol station. Here the price of petrol was £1.34 per litre. Currently the exchange rate from English Pounds to Australian Dollar is £1 = $1.87, so a litre of petrol would be $2.51 Australian – ouch!

The houses along this area of Hyde Road are called Terraced. They are a set of homes all connected. Most have little garden area out the front and some are above shops. Unlike Adelaide, there are very few single storey homes or bungalows. Most have at least two levels and these ones have three. They may also contain rooms or flats that people live in, rather than being a single family home.

In the carpark is the market building which has a variety shops in it. There is also a Subway cafe and a 2nd hand goods store. I thought I would have a look into the Gorton Market as Nat wasn’t sure what was in there. Outside small stalls of second hand clothes and goods were set up. They were attracting some interest.

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inside the market were a variety of stores, a couple of cafés and fresh produce stalls.

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At the butcher shop, the meat was priced per pound (lb) weight or per kilogram, which I found interesting. 1 pound weight is just under 500g or half a kilogram.

For a conversion – the diced chicken would be $12.34 per kilogram and the Best Back Bacon would be $18.68 per kilogram.

Apart from selling raw meat, they also sold hot food, like roasted chicken. I bought some nuggets and found a seat in their small eating area to eat them. I was opposite a shoe shop.

After my snack, I headed over to Tesco to look at some of the items and their costs. Here’s my list and what they would cost in Australian dollars.

I packed my shopping into my Tesco carrier bag using a cashier, rather than the self serve machines. I showed my receipt to the door security man, who was briefly checking whether the receipt matched the type of items bought. Nat said that it was due to people shop lifting expensive items and scanning and paying for an apple instead of their 60 inch tv.

Time now for my walk back to Tannery Way.