'The Co-op is having a laugh at our expense with its budget range'

The Co-op has never really been somewhere you'd go for a big shop.

A few years back, when it still had some larger supermarkets maybe, but these days its focus is on convenience stores, mostly on people's doorsteps.

Attracted by recent adverts for its Honest Value range I decided to give it a try.

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Now I know supermarket budget ranges have become popular during the cost of living crisis, at one point Asda was having to ration its Just Essentials range because of demand.

But when I went my local Co-op store in Wigan there was very little available. I managed to pick up a tin of kidney beans, some carrots and a loaf of white bread.

None of it was particularly impressive on the price front. The 50p price tag on the beans wasn't too bad compared with usual prices, but still around 20p dearer than you can get them elsewhere.

And the quality of the bread wasn't up to much. Unlike some other budget ranges, it seemed the very cheapest of thin white bread for the 68p price and at 720g is smaller than your typical 800g loaf. It was hard within a couple of days too.

By comparison, when we looked at Marks and Spencer's Remarksable budget range, its 80p loaf was thick and soft - not too different from a Toastie Warburtons in fact.

Trips to two other Co-op stores - one attached to a petrol station in Wigan and another in Walkden, Salford - proved pretty fruitless too, the only additions being some coffee, tuna flakes, spaghetti and curry sauce.

Again the prices were OK, but not amazing. 55p is cheap for a tin of tuna, but it's the cheapest kind you can get, tuna flakes in brine.

The curry sauce was actually quite reasonable for 90p, but