Inner city shopping

How different it is here in "The Great Wen" compared to our local Waitrose in Ringwood.

Firstly the very obvious (multiple) security guards at the door which says something about the level of shop-lifting that goes on. Oh the charms of inner city demographics!

Secondly the pattern of shopping. Not the weekly household trolley shop but the lunchtime basket shop for a sandwich and tonight's tea. That and the density of daytime population means queues of 60-70 in the Covent Garden M&S!

At first I thought "S*d this for a game of soldiers" and was about to return my selections to the shelves but then realised they have the single-queue / multiple-server arrangement. With 16 tills that queue rattled through in under 5 minutes and I was back out into the street clutching dinner for two.