Poole Of Resources

When I got home from school at lunchtime on Tuesday, we got in Bob's car and I drove straight back to Poole again! Our first stop was Roger's Warehouse.
I'd heard about this store, and planned a visit in the New Year - other friends beat me to it and said it was worth checking out.
It calls itself "The south's Biggest gone past best before warehouse" I'm sure that title should be better punctuated - but you get the drift. It's like Approved Foods - only you go in person, and drift round with your trolley, rather than order on line.
This was a fact-finding trip, so we didn't plan on buying loads. We did come away with drinking chocolate, udon noodles, nut butter and Kelloggs Granola. Prices were good- and displayed sensibly [VAT included, unit prices clearly marked - and individual packets on display on the top of the sealed boxes] It is a bulk buy arrangement - so you do have to buy 6 jars of nut butter, or 8 packs of cereal etc.
Friendly staff and lots of things I would perhaps buy on a future visit. But does anybody, ever, buy Loyd Grosman Sauces at full price? They always seemed to be reduced or in the clearance bins...
Into Poole and after a quick and inexpensive [but nonetheless filling, and very tasty]lunch in the Dolphin Centre, we checked out some CS. I splashed out £1 on a brand new dress pattern for a summer frock.

Then into Robert Dyas. This chain seems confined to London and the South East. The Poole store has a 'clearance section' upstairs. Bob found me some Kilner jamjar tongs only £2 [£10 in Amazon and John Lewis] These will help make my chutney and marmalade-making activities much safer [far better than my current 'oven-glove-and-fish-slice' retrieval system]

I also got a spray-and-stretch kit. A couple of pairs of my shoes have been rubbing on my right foot. I hope this is not a sign of an incipient bunion. 
I shall try stretching the shoes a little to see if it eases things.  The spray is isopropyl alcohol [which we have already] but I really wanted the stretchers. Again this was less than half the price of Amazon.

I did not buy a toaster in their sale - but I just had to take a photo of the box. I love the idea of  a "patented climate-sensing toasting cycle" I feel that the brilliant Geraint Thomas should have one of these to prepare his snacks when he is cycling in the Tour De France.

My final acquisitions cost nothing. I exchanged the Grape Tree voucher I won last year for a large bag of dates and some malt extract. All in all a fun afternoon out, very little money spent, but lots to show for it.
Poole is a strange mixture- at one end, the exceedingly affluent folk of Sandbanks... and then there's the rather rundown high street full of CS, and poundshops - and all points in between. But the people are friendly and I find the shop assistants helpful. And parking is not exorbitant.
This town is, after all, the home of Ryvita, the Mathmos Lava Lamp and the Sunseeker Yacht Company. They certainly try to cater for everybody! I definitely like going to Poole.