The Inconvenience of England

Any reader of our blog will know we are true anglophiles--we have loved our time in England immensely. However, there have been a very few not-so-favourite things. The obvious one is the cost of living, which is very high, especially when one is drawing salary in Canadian dollars but paying expenses in British pounds.

Other not-so-favourite things can mostly be summed up in the word "inconvenience." We have found that daily life just doesn't run as efficiently or as smoothly here as it does back in Canada. At least some of this inconvenience was due to our unique situation. If we had had our own car here, for example, some of the travel inconveniences would have been avoided (but other inconveniences added--like traffic and parking, which can be a nightmare here!). Most of this inconvenience we've experienced is in the realm of shopping, whether for groceries or for other items. Generally speaking, inefficiencies abound in all types of retail environments here, and customer service is not very good. There are always exceptions, of course, but we've consistently noted inefficiencies and poor service that would not be tolerated in most comparable North American retail environments. And lest one should think this is merely our own distorted view of things, we've had several British friends here who have noted the same things in comparing their life here with their experiences of North America.

Here's a sample of our favourite retail inconveniences:

• Wandering through Sainsbury's trying to figure out any rhyme or reason to the layout of the store. Finding ketchup ("tomato sauce") above the frozen vegetables, one type of oil on the other side of the store from the others, and the groceries separated by aisles of paper products or electronics. (To be fair, our local Sainsbury's has just done a major renovation and everything is changed to a logical arrangement--almost.)
• Standing in a checkout line ("queuing") about 7 or 8 people long, while there are empty checkouts nearby, and 2 or 3 idle cashiers stand within sight marking something on a clipboard.
• Packing our own groceries at a mid-level grocery store. Or worse, waiting in line while the person currently being served packs their own groceries and the cashier sits and watches them (yes, they often sit at the till here).
• Walking into a store a full 45 minutes before the stated closing time, and having the staff treat us as an intrusion because they are trying to close up the store early.

We smile when we think of these experiences, and we have been patient enough to have smiled to ourselves even while going through most of them. We were mostly struck by the fact that we only rarely experience these sorts of things in Canada, and certainly expect better, yet these were a constant companion during our time here. And of course these experiences pale in comparison to the many, many good memories we will carry with us of our time in England. If there's any doubt, just read the rest of our blog posts...