Just to be fair I'll have a go at Somerfield now....

Just so you don't think that Tonbridge blog has got it in for Sainsbury's I'll show you that I'm even handed and can have a dig at the other super market chains equally well! My wife told me yesterday that during her brief whiz around Somerfield in Tonbridge she attempted to purchase a fresh basil plant. It was the last one but was actually really fresh looking and quite the perfect specimen. She popped it into her shopping basket only to be accosted by a shop assistant telling her, politely but firmly, that she couldn't take that one as it was past its sell by date. She replied that it seemed to be the only one left on the shelf and indeed it was. She said that she would like it anyway, despite it being one day older than it should have been, but he was having none of it and refused to be persauded. Can you imagine that happening in a small shop, or on a market stall. Surely if it looks and smells fresh, then they could sell it; it wasn't poultry, meat or fish but a basil plant for God's sake! and, after all, it was money in their till. Has the world of big business led us to this? I cannot believe that this is an isolated incident. We all know that this kind of attitude makes no sense to anyone, except that is to the hidden world behind the price tag which says you can't have that because we are more afraid of getting our arses sued than we are concerned for you and you culinery requirements! They won't tell you that to your faces but that's what it amounts to....