The Supermarket League(thankyou for your votes yesterday, all 40 of them)
1 Waitrose(two thirds of you put this top, though one person wanted them bottom) 2 Marks and Spencer(only four of you placed this outside the top two) 3 Sainsburys(two thirds of you placed this third, so it's convincingly 3rd) 4 Tesco(over half of you placed this fourth, so it's convincingly 4th) 5 Safeway(clearly ahead of the following four which were bunched very close together) 6 Somerfield(ranked just ahead of the following three, but only just) 7 Asda(middle of the table, by George - slaps back pocket) 8 Morrisons(you were more variable in placing this than any other supermarket) 9 Co-op(their collective bargaining didn't pay dividends with most of you) 10 Kwik Save(three quarters of you placed this tenth, so it's very convincingly 10th) 11 Aldi(rated by the BWs, but right down the list for everyone else) 12 Lidl(very definitely bottom of the pile and ripe for relegation)
Observations: Most people had very similar perceptions, especially of the top four and bottom three. My own order agreed pretty much with the final list, except I swapped the Co-op (working class class) with Asda (working class hell). Where people diverged from the norm this was often because of nostalgia ("Sainsbury's used to be a sewer..."), practicality ("if you pick your brands carefully Aldi is cheap but of excellent quality...") or local experience ("my nearest Safeway is rather nice..."). A lot of you weren't familiar with some of the supermarkets on the list (I'm going to have to leave Aldi, Kwik Save and Lidl out because I've never heard of them...) so some of you must have guessed by image alone. And blimey, wasn't that fascinating. Do go and read the comments box again...
