How does Huntly do it?

A gurnite returns to town with dire news of having to get buses instead of trains again when heading for Aberdeen. It seems every time there is a bit of heavy rain the railway goes haywire these days. But anyway thanks to the pleasures of a four and a half hour trip to Aberdeen from Nairn this morning, our correspondent had a guided tour of Huntly thrown in, buses were running from Forres to Huntly it seemed to connect with another train there, only that train didn't bother to wait for the bus that was bringing its passengers. It then took lots of phone calls to supreme command at Scotrail in Glasgow to allow the bus driver to do the decent thing and take his passengers onwards to the Silver City, but that is another story.

Anyway our correspondent points out that visible through the bus windows were a Somerfield/Co-op, a Tesco and an ASDA. Now Huntly, according to the Census figures has a population of 4,412. Now Nairn at 8,418 could obviously support 2 Tescos and 2 ASDAs (we've already got about a dozen Co-ops). The point here is that there is plenty of room for a new Co-op in Nairn and a Sainsbury's. Proof indeed that, on population figures alone, the Co-op are taking the piss - they will probably walk away anyway even if the Scottish Government doesn't give us a decent supermarket for Christmas. 'The caring sharing Co-op'.