The Somerfield Bus

There has been a free bus running from Silverton and the next door village of Thorverton to the Somerfield Supermarket at Broadclyst for a number of years. Despite the port being free the number of people who use the bus on its Tuesday afternoon run seems to have been in steady decline until recently when there seems to have been quite a turnaround. I wonder if this could have anything to do with the continuing resistence in some quarters to the expansion of the Haggett empire and lingering resentment over the closure of the Londis ?.

Personally, I dont find the Broadclyst Somerfield, or indeed Somerfield in general the best of the supermarkets. The last time I was in the Broadclyst supermarket, the shelves were decidedly understocked for two thirty in the afternoon. When I lived in Scotland we had a choice of most of the big supermarket chains and Somerfield lagged behind all the others on most aspects of shopping, most notably on prices.

I wonder how the coming opening of a branch of Tescos in Cullompton will affect the local balance of power amongst the supermarkets in Mid Devon. I would imagine that the Somerfield stores in Cullompton and Broadclyst will feel a very chill wind.

Whilst on Cullompton shopping I hear that the excellent town centre butchers, Veyseys may be closing soon due to the retirement of the owner. If this does happen it will be a sad loss to local shoppers in search of good quality meat.