Scotmid

Fabby wee place. Pretty much has everything you could expect from a store this size. Mega helpful staff, always very polite and friendly and considering some of their clientele it must be hard to keep a smile on your face xxx

I’m in two minds about this place.
Scotmids in general have decent stock, including plenty of GF and lactose free items and they give discount vouchers every now and then which often give £2 off if you spend over £10 (not too shabby!). There’s a decent range of cheeses, often including some which are locally made. I also like their own brand stuff, which is decent quality.
This particular Scotmid has recently had a revamp and now includes an area with fresh baked bread, a vegetable rack with your ‘not your usuals’ next to all the ‘normal’ vegetables, a pastry/​pie counter next to the tills and a self-​service check out area. All these things make me think that Scotmid wants to be more ‘Waitrose’ than ‘Tesco Express’.
However, they are pricier than Tesco, likely because most of what they sell is sourced locally. It sometimes surprises me how quickly the price goes from a few quid to the average £13−17 I spend here.
I can live with the price, I don’t have to shop here after all, but one thing that kind of makes me lose patience is the staff. On the tills that staff are wonderful, they ask you about your day and are always lovely, fostering a sense of community in the local shop. In the aisles however the staff have a habit of having personal conversations (not ‘guess what I found my husband doing last night?’ but more ‘I was watching Breaking Bad and I couldn’t believe the bit where the thing happened!’) and you occasionally feel you are intruding if you need to reach between them to grab your milk. This is probably a consequence of the friendly atmosphere and general friendliness about the place but it has tried my patience more than once!
Overall though I like this Scotmid and I’m glad it’s my local!

An amazing grocery store, especially for one with such limited space. In a nutshell, it has basically everything you’d want. Fresh fruit, veg and baked goods up front and tons of prepared meals and desserts on the side. Plenty of juice and yogurt options, and a fair amount of dried goods as well.
What’s better, they have tuna in SUNFLOWER OIL. For those who don’t know, this is the Holy Grail of canned tuna. It’s so amazing it can’t be put into words. And Scotmid has it, in 4-​packs no less, for a measly 3.79 pounds.

Woah woah woah! Scotmid had a refurb! This alarmed me enough to tweet about, which either proves how often I go to this Scotmid or how sad I am, feel free to make your mind up (both).
Gone is the cheery blue, and in is a Co-​op esque black and green colour scheme. In too, however, is a faux-​country shop style interior with handwritten suggestions on blackboards and signs designed to look like handwritten suggestions on blackboards. The shelves and units have been replaced by wire ones too, more basketty looking.
The food of course is still the same, as are the prices, and I’m having to get used to things being in slightly different areas (why have the crisps moved from besides the juice to next to the household items?), but I’m sure in time it’ll become second nature.
There’s also a new fresh bakery counter from ‘Stuart’s’ with lots of cakes and pies to choose from (although these aren’t particularly cheap).
Honestly I’d rather give Scotmid a 3.5 than 4, but 3 felt too mean. Refurb aside it’s still a good local supermarket, and for as long as I live in the area I’ll be in here all the time.

Bit confused — the map seems to indicate that this is the slightly larger branch by Pilrig Street, but then someone mentioned it being 24hours, which is the small branch slightly further down Leith Walk. Anyway, none of this matters since both of them are ace. I adore all the staff in the Pilrig Street branch (the one next to Cash Converters) as they are all, without exception incredibly helpful and totally lovely. They’re the best shop in this part of town for bits and bobs for dinner on the way home from work. I despise Tesco and everything they stand for, and whilst they seem to be trying to take over Leith, I, for one, will be standing my ground and sticking with ScotMid, the fact that they’re a co-​operative, and the fact that they’re not capitalist b*ards. And they’re also lovely. Hurrah for them.

This place drives me up the wall sometimes but it really is convenient. Some days there will inexplicably be no fresh fruit or vegetables, often there is no sliced bread and more frequently than you would ever imagine necessary there seem to be renovations going on in store. However, for those of us who walk past every day on the way home from work it really is handy and it is refreshing to visit a supermarket that still pretty much just sells food, fags and booze rather than the televisions, bikes and washing machines on offer in some of Scotmid’s out of town counterparts.