Review: BBC Radio 4’s Food & Farming Best Local Retailer 2012 – Spar Dolgellau

This week during a Teams call, our Lord & Leader, Barney, perhaps mistakenly said we could write these blogs about whatever we fancied, not just expressing our world-leading marketing prowess and knowledge.

I recently visited the Eurospar in Dolgellau, which is a quiet and quaint town in North Wales.

The Spar itself is located just next to a Texaco petrol station and a closed-down car dealership. Ample parking is offered at the Spar. However, you should be warned that when you exit your car, there is an overwhelming stench of Sheep shit, as just next to the car park there seems to be some sort of Sheep related farming infrastructure.

As you approach the doors of the Spar, you’ll notice the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming Best Local Retailer 2012 award. This gives high hopes for what you’ll find inside.

The visual merchandisers of the store clearly know their market well – there were 5-litre bottles of pickling vinegar and shallots presented as a promotional offer. Pickling must be a favourite pastime of the locals. Oddly though, they also sold Itsu Bao Buns, a wide variety of hummus and vegan camemberts.

The hot foot counter had approximately seven chickens for sale and around five staff members working on it. This seemed overkill to me, but then again I’m no specialist award judge.

Further into the store was the alcohol corner, one of the main reasons for my visit. There was a strong selection of wines and chilled beers, including local options.

There were the usual untrustworthy corner shop-style sandwich options. Who buys an egg mayo sandwich from a rogue local sandwich producer?

I was, however, able to purchase some lovely picnic items, including an Italian meat selection, Leerdammer, dip, bread and lemon and herb olives. I was also surprised to see they sold Tory Fanta, so I picked up some San Pellegrino.

The store had four supermarket-style checkouts and a newsagent counter. They had blocked off the checkouts with large stacks of Coca-Cola on special offer, so I headed to the newsagent counter.

Service was friendly enough, and the prices seemed ok.

I’d recommend the store if you’re in the local area. However, my girlfriend refused to get out of the car when we went back a second time. Unsure if this was because of the strong smell of shit or if the low lighting in the store made it quite depressing.

FYI, the store appears to have three Google listings. I’ve highlighted the correct location below.