Not really – the council has bent over backwards for years to give Somerfield all the green lights it needed to expand the store – and nothing happened.

The events earlier this year with extended planning permission were just farcical – Somerfield has never given any suggestion of trying to expand the store.

Co-op isn’t likely to push on any development any time soon – they have the ehadache of integrate Somerfield to deal with first, and secondly, with the credit crunch in play, it’s hard to imagine them pushing aggressively on store expansion.

Even if they did finally turn to the store in the centre of Nairn, it could only be by closing the high street outlet down.

Somerfield keeping the store in Nairn is hardly an achievement.

In the meantime, as Sainsburys is the only supermarket looking to develop a 21st century supermarket for Nairn, and to try and hold that back in order to push on a 10 year old pipe dream that came to nothing, would perhaps not be wise.

Morrisons is also far cheaper than the Nairn Somerfield for us, but it’s worth noting that supermarkets often adjust overall pricing according to the size of the outlet, with smaller ones sometimes charging more on certain ranges and items than others.

2c.

As response to your comment of Somerfield not doing much in Nairn, at least they kept the store (closed down in my town) giving you at least some value for money over the Co-Op. I read an article on supermarket prices and when comparing individual prices, yes Somerfield is quite a bit more expensive than say ASDA or Tesco however when it compared the overall shopping trip with all the offers etc. Somerfield was above all the other supermarket but still behind Aldi and Lidl (in order from most expensive to least, Waitrose, Sainsburys, Co-Operative Food, Tesco, Morrisons, ASDA, Somerfield, Aldi, Lidl). I would suggest doing your weekly shop in Somerfield then checking the receipt on ASDA.com or such like.

They been handed all the surrounding land for free, on a plate, and given every chance to develop.

They haven’t done a thing.

Sainsburys is the only supermarket that has come up with any kind of plan for development in Nairn, and that’s the only positive information we have.

Seems worth focusing on that, rather than invent hopes that have been relied on, and remain empty, after 10 years.

Somerfield have served you well for four years after acquiring the Safeway ‘compact’ store in Nairn. Somerfield is now however owned by the co-operative group and the store disposal list in published and The Nairn Somerfield is not on it. I hope Sainsbury’s gets turned down and the Coop the green light for the store demolition (as I will admit it is a dump) and rebuild.

“Grotty and Grim” was a note in a visitors book at a holiday cottage in Cawdor with reference to Nairn! Nice, that’ll bring em in!!

‘Insect politics
Indifferent universe
Bang your head against the wall
But apathy is worse’

from later in the same song, is a rather splendid combination of words that just about sums up modern life, for those of us that give a toss.

Don Henley gets it right a lot of the time:

“While you were sleeping
They came and took it all away
The lanes and meadows
The places where you used to play

It was an inside job
By the well-connected
Your little protest
Summarily rejected…”