A question for motorhome travellers in the Highlands

Stock up at Glasgow Costco. Get a couple of portable coolers there, too.

I have a Sam's Club membership, not Costco. Bummer.

My wife is excited that there's a Whole Foods in Glasgow. I'm hoping we can find what we need at Tesco but at least we have Whole Foods as a backup.

I was only in Glasgow and not in other parts of Scotland, but I found a very high degree of allergy awareness in Glasgow. Restaurant menus were extensively annotated, and stores had large "free from" sections with various suitable products (free from gluten, from nuts, etc).

Tesco is a more basic supermarket; they still have a free-from section. If you need or want fancier foods, in addition to the Whole Foods, look at M&S or Waitrose; Sainsbury's is between these and Tesco in "fanciness." There is a branch of both Waitrose and M&S on Byres Road in Glasgow's West End.

You can see if these stores have branches where you will be outside of Glasgow, by using the store locators on their websites.

Tesco: https://www.tesco.com/store-locator/uk/
M&S (note that this is a department store; those branches labeled SF mean "Simply Food" and are only supermarkets): http://www.marksandspencer.com/s/store-listing
Waitrose: http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/bf_home/bf.html
Sainsbury's: https://stores.sainsburys.co.uk/

Are you taking the motorhome on the NorthLink ferry from Thurso/Scrabster to Orkney/Stromness, then driving on to Kirkwall? Just curious. I was a walk-on for that ferry last May, then took the bus that met it to Kirkwall.

You can join Costco here and go to any Costco there. I made a special trip to the Aberdeen one by bus and foot. There was a big Tesco almost across the street.

Walking around Costco and taking pictures of all the different products was a hoot. I didn't get the £1.50 hot dog and soda deal, but I did get a latte. I imagine going to any other grocery store that you regularly frequent back home will be equally as entertaining so long as you don't expect everything to be exactly the same.

most if not all supermarkets will have a "Free From" section so you can stock up when you can and the place mentioned should have decent sized supermarkets, also all places that provide food in any form must be able to produce a list of allergens in their food, talk to restaurants and shopkeepers about your requirements and you will find the majority of folk will be very helpful.
In some places if you time it right you might be able to buy off the boat but more likely from a small stand or shop nearby

Stock up at Ullapool futher up its corner stores till beyond Durness

The Whole Foods is not in the easiest place in Glasgow to get to, and the parking is not great. The regular supermarkets are the probably the best. There is a Morrisons at Fort William, Tesco in Oban and a lot in Inverness. Elsewhere there is the network of Co op stores.

I was going to also point out the Tesco in Ullapool. There is one in Thurso as well. Otherwise, it's the village store.

Pam

MC-Glasgow,

Yeah, I've been looking at the likely route around Glasgow on Google Street View and the parking at Whole Foods is my biggest concern of the whole first day but my wife is adamant that we stop there.

Is there another specialty shop that is similar in the Glasgow/Paisley area that might have better parking?

Our current plan is to stop at the Tesco at Silverburn (M77 and Barrhead) as there are some additional shops my wife wants to visit there as well.

Unclegus,

My apologies, "buy off the boat" is a figure of speech. I grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast and we use the term to mean either literally "off the boat" or buying within sight of them. In the mid-70s, we often bought shrimp this way. We would also catch our own crab and scallops.

My wife and I adore seafood and our mouths water at the idea of being able to buy fresh fish caught locally. I'm 300 miles from the coast now and I miss being able to get inexpensive fresh seafood

Not really, most of the big supermarkets have the best slots. Whole Foods is where it is because there was an available building and Giffnock is a well heeled area. However the shop is right on the old A77, still sign posted as such which although suburban is quite a wide road.

The other choice is Giffnock has a Waitrose just off of the M77 a few junctions south of the Silverburn centre.