Supermarkets near Stansted, UK

I am going to drive from Stansted to Brighton soon and I would love to find some Supermarkets where I can buy vegemite, buiscuits, measuring cups, bakeware and maybe some books and magazines.
Any recommendations would be highly appreciated as well as hints on nicest route, and anything worth stopping for.

Before Katrina get's in here, it's a no brainer: Lakeside at Thurrock just before the river crossing.

not too far out of the way, just near to Stansted is the Tesco in Bishops Stortford. Ideal if you are on your way back, and want to leave it until the last minute to buy those perishable pork pies and bacon!

Ha ha ha ha ha but yeah. It's a pretty big store. Tesco/storelocator
GRAYS WEST THURROCK LAKESIDE EXTRA, WEST THURROCK, GRAYS, ESSEX RM20 1TX
Tel 0845 6779209
Open
Mon: 8:00 - midnight
Tue: 24 hours
Wed: 24 hours
Thu: 24 hours
Fri: 24 hours
Sat: open until 22:00
Sun: 10:00 - 16:00
If you want vegemite, might as well pick up tim-tams while you're at it. They sell them too. And housewares, mags, rather good workwear (I have Tesco Florence & Fred Collection fine wool trousers on today in fact)...

Bishop's Stortford is a normal Tesco, the Lakeside one is a super, massive Tesco Extra.

Wow, thanks a lot, that was quick!
Any nice ideas of where to have a picnic on the way?

How far off the motorway would you like to go? If you wanted to keep realtively close to your route and also go somewhere closer to Stansted, Saffron Walden might be worth a stop.
It's very pretty.

It's motorway just about all the way. If you wanted to stop for picnic I'd get off the main roads and look for a picturesque village in the Downs. Or maybe soewhere on the coast.

Katrina, thank you for your great advice, Saffron Walden looks just perfect !
And good to know about the tim-tams.

Just remember the Tesco in Bishops Strotford closes at 4pm on Sundays!!!
I followed my Nüvi there last week on my way back to the airport and was so upset it was closed as it was a Sunday!!!

Thanks again everyone. I hope I will also be able get a 20 x 30cm baking tin, they seem to be non-existent in Germany.

It's about time some enterprising person build a supermarket inside one of these airports.

It's about time Tesco and Marks and Spencer come to Germany, especially Hamburg!

Have just been to a Tesco extra 24hours in Scotland and I think I would have got a consume shock if I hadn't known Metro here in Germany which is also quite big.

Had to send bf off to play somewhere else and let me go shopping alone for an hour. Needless to say that one of our suitcases could not have been carried by one single person after my shopping was done... Good that we went by car.

There used to be a Marks and Spencer in Frankfurt, don't know why it had to close down
I really liked the package design of most of the (food) products, so basic and tasteful, and the way the food was displayed.