Tesco Uk Sales: Further Fall Blamed On Economy----------Merged Thread

[Starla]

On top of that why pay twice or three times the price for something that you can get so much cheaper in Aldi and with the exact same or even better quality?

As a Lidl convert I totally agree. I'm saving well into 4 figures on my food shopping bill every year now. I'm embarressed I spent so long shopping in Tesco, it's like setting fire to bundles of cash.

[The Masked Tulip]

their till operation seemingly attracting the tats and prams double couple in working hours dog tied up outside during working hours

What does this mean in English?

[Tankus]

Sorry ...typing on my pad is a bit hit and miss , hence edits

And randomly posting before I've finished .....composting

The auto spell correction is sometimes a bugger too !

Edited June 4, 2014 by Tankus

[wonderpup]

I shopped in Tesco for the first time in ages the other day buying something that was priced as 3 for 2. However, after I had left and looked at my receipt I noticed that they had charged me for 3, so they couldn't even get their labels right.

I suspect this kind of 'mistake' on their part is actually an SOP for Tesco- it happens far too often that their special deals are confusingly labeled to give the impression that you will be paying less or getting more- when in reality you wont.

[dances with sheeple]

I checked the label before I bought the items, they were definitely labelled as 3 for 2. Obviously the labels are not linked to the tills, so this kind of thing happens.I think Tesco rely on most people not being bothered to go back to customer service to get a refund for their mistake but this has happened a few times to me. That is one of the many reasons why I avoid Tesco - they lie about their prices (or are very incompetent).

Buying three comes up on the till as cheaper than the 3 for 2 deal, and the system cancels the deal, they just want you to pick up more stuff I think. The £1 delivery thing is a sign that they are struggling, they need to make it free delivery ASAP IMO.

[b w]

I suspect this kind of 'mistake' on their part is actually an SOP for Tesco- it happens far too often that their special deals are confusingly labeled to give the impression that you will be paying less or getting more- when in reality you wont.

This happens with wages, anything "complicated" like holiday or overtime can confuse them, of course i understand its an "honest" mistake and the wages people in India sometimes apply the data incorrectly, or so ive been told.

[stormymonday_2011]

Supermarkets are consistently more (often much more) expensive and of poorer quality than my local butcher, greengrocer and Asian grocer. My local fishmonger is a bit more, likewise the baker, but the quality is worth the difference. Cash and carry (Costco) gets a bit of business too, maybe not universally a great deal but pick your items carefully and you'll save a lot. Local off-license is generally competitive against supermarkets too.

Supermarkets are currently good for £1 milk and some of the instore bakery goods are excellent.

Generally though, emperors clothes imo.

As justthisbloke observed a while back too, add in the costs associated with visiting the shop with a car and it looks even worse.

Just add that apparently one of the things hitting Tescos is a change in British shopping habits.

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21576441-britains-biggest-retailer-tries-adapt-fast-changing-shopping-habits-end-space

Smaller households and less money means the days when eveyone got into the car for a weekly shop are gone.

Smaller shopping volumes per visit is favouring smaller stores which is making some of those Tesco superstores where it takes a weeks hike and two base camps just to buy a jar of coffee and some biscuits seem an anarchronism. Better to bulk buy the non perishables from a discounter or an online store and then buy those extra perishable items on a needs basis from a wider range of suppliers. In fact not so different from how thinghs were before Tescos took all the stores out of town

I think some of Tescos out of town land bank is going to end up as housing

Edited June 4, 2014 by stormymonday_2011

[Starla]

What stigma , ? The local(ish) lidl car park that I frequent is full of jags mercs ,4x4 ' and higher end city cars.

The stigma associated to cut price supermarkets is there, otherwise Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons would have gone bankrupt years ago. The same stigma I believed before I actually tried Lidl. Call it snobbery, but it's there. I had this convo with a couple of girls from work yesterday and when I mentioned Lidl they looked at me like I was suffering some terrible economic hardship and said they really wouldn't want to try going there. In reality, yes, the supermarket has the usual mix of shoppers you'd find anywhere else.

[Tankus]

Stigma seems to be one of tesco few successful growth areas....errrr

[The Masked Tulip]

I wonder if the Sainsburys SP is being propped up by the Qataris buying?

[richc]

Never found a butcher anywhere that was cheaper that any UK supermarket. Also never met a butcher who doesn't drive a nice car and live in a big house.

Many people in the UK will have to drive to the butcher AND pay for parking!

The butcher I go to is definitely cheaper than the supermarket, and much, much higher quality.

It does depend, though, on what exactly you're buying. The fillet steak at the butcher is very pricy, but because he's butchering an entire side of beef at a time, he offers other cheaper cuts that you can't find in the supermarket which lower the overall amount that you're spending on food. For instance, I buy beef shin for braising from the butcher for £6 a kilo. It's an excellent cut of meat that's exactly what you want for a stew or braise. Tesco's diced beef (or is it horse?), which is what they offer as a cut for stewing, is £10 a kilo.

[The Masked Tulip]

I checked the label before I bought the items, they were definitely labelled as 3 for 2. Obviously the labels are not linked to the tills, so this kind of thing happens.I think Tesco rely on most people not being bothered to go back to customer service to get a refund for their mistake but this has happened a few times to me. That is one of the many reasons why I avoid Tesco - they lie about their prices (or are very incompetent).

I can understand that - have checked the price of items on the shelves, got to checkout and the price has been different. I simply leave the items at the till then.

But the supermarkets must get away with millions each year by doing this.

[StainlessSteelCat]

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. Tesco have treated their staff and customers like crap for years - without realising that a lot of their staff are their customers and they can probably no longer afford to shop there. It's Fordism in reverse.

Tesco is consistently overpriced and poor quality. Having grown up poor I lost any stigma about shopping at the discounters many years ago. I really like the trade off discounters make of good prices and good quality. Personally, I love the lack of choice, but also their eccentric approach of stocking random things. One or two types of olives will do me nicely. I don't need 30 variations. Equally, I'm up for trying something new if they have it just for that week.

The staff are generally really friendly and the queues short (Lidl rather than Aldi). I also like Home Bargains and Iceland too. Iceland's large free range eggs are incredibly good value at a £1/half dozen.

Edited June 4, 2014 by StainlessSteelCat

[The Masked Tulip]

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. Tesco have treated their staff and customers like crap for years - without realising that a lot of their staff are their customers and they can probably no longer afford to shop there. It's Fordism in reverse.

Tesco is consistently overpriced and poor quality. Having grown up poor I lost any stigma about shopping at the discounters many years ago. I really like the trade off discounters make of good prices and good quality. Personally, I love the lack of choice, but also their eccentric approach of stocking random things. One or two types of olives will do me nicely. I don't need 30 variations. Equally, I'm up for trying something new if they have it just for that week.

The staff are generally really friendly and the queues short (Lidl rather than Aldi). I also like Home Bargains and Iceland too. Iceland's large free range eggs are incredibly good value at a £1/half dozen.

Eggs are frighteningly expensive in Tesco once you have seen the price that the likes of Iceland, Lidl, Aldi, Home Bargains, etc, sell free range eggs at.

[Sour Mash]

I checked the label before I bought the items, they were definitely labelled as 3 for 2. Obviously the labels are not linked to the tills, so this kind of thing happens.I think Tesco rely on most people not being bothered to go back to customer service to get a refund for their mistake but this has happened a few times to me. That is one of the many reasons why I avoid Tesco - they lie about their prices (or are very incompetent).

Yeah, I've had BOGOFs and 3 for 2s do the same on multiple occasions at Tesco too. I now always make a point to check the receipt for the discount at the till, before I walk away.

Although I have also fallen victim to (IMO deliberately) misleadingly labelled offers, where they have a large sign up proclaiming some sort of deal right next to some products which leads you to believe that the offer applies to them. However, when you take them to the till you don't get the deal, reason often being that it applied to a different size or maybe different flavour/variant. Case in point being baked beans - they had a good offer on 4 packs of Heinz beans - big signs with a mountain of them underneath. Bought a couple and didn't get the discount, upon taking them to customer services it transpired that the offer was for packs of tins of a larger size. However, there were no multipacks of that size available, only of the smaller size which sold for much more than the offer price on the packs of larger tins. So you got less than you thought you were getting but paid much more. Outright deception as far as I am concerned.

They also have a credit card with (again IMO) deliberately over-complex rules on repayment ... cost me quite a bit in 'late' charges plus no doubt blighted my credit record. The carrot for using it was Tesco points but when you actually go to use them, the system is really byzantine. Plus the online site (the only way to administer/pay the card) is a real pain to log in to and the make you jump through hoops on the telephone to set up a DD to cover minimum payments. I've just given up using that card for any purchases and keep it as an emergency only card.

I only really use Tesco for the convenience and lack of alternatives - they literally have stores everywhere and have completely crowded out any competition close to me.

[gf3]

Personally I haven't found Lidl's any cheaper than Morrison's. Can anyone come up with an example of things they buy at Lidl that they think is cheap so I can do a price comparison

[NuBrit]

I actually bought Tesco shares a few years ago when it plunged on bad results and got in at about £3.20. I actually wrote a letter to the CEO outlining where I thought the company was being hampered (incorrect pricing of products, poor incentive schemes for store managers, poor enticement schemes to bring in footfall, excessive product range, and other issues). Now don't get me wrong, I am not expecting Tesco to change their policies based on the thoughts of someone who owns a few thousand pounds of shares, but I did expect to see some kind of change. It's clear that problems exist at the storefront end that won't be fixed by costcutting alone. Instead Tesco announced they were making their own tablet computer and smartphone. At that stage, I just gave up and sold my shares, surprisingly enough I made decent money.

I think at this stage, the current CEO needs to be sacked. Someone needs to be brought in who can objectively look at the issues outstanding and address them.

[Patfig]

Went to Morrisons the other week ( Tavistock) and it was awful, expensive compared to Tesco ( Launceston)

[Democorruptcy]

Serves them right for becoming a bank and doing mortgages. Who wants to help filthy banking scum?

[richc]

The local co-op around here (Scotland) does offer cheaper cuts of meat, and fish (so you can get salmon trimmings, etc.) I don't think you've got a cheap butcher, just an expensive supermarket! I have actually seen (and bought) beef shin from Sainsburys, IIRC it was around £5-6 a kilo. A lot of the cheaper cuts get sold as "stewing steak" or "braising steak".

Never found a butcher that could touch a supermarket on price for things like chicken breast - you don't have to go for the factory farmed water-injected nasty stuff either.

I agree that it's going to be hard to find a butcher selling chicken breast or sirloin steak for less than a supermarket, but then the entire strategy of supermarkets is to set a low price on loss leaders and then gouge the customer on everything else. Overall, you end up paying more with a supermarket because they either offer only more expensive cuts or higher prices/lower quality (i.e. mechanically extracted mince) on the less expensive options.

(For the cost comparison, this butcher is outside Oxford (so not exactly low rent), and I was looking at the Tesco website.)

It really is worth it in the long run to find a good butcher and supporting them.

[gf3]

Meat is the thing that is really marked up in Sainsburys and Tesco's. In Aldi, chicken breasts are £6.99 per kilo. Sainsburys and Tesco are something like twice as much.

Aldi lamb mince is £2.49 for 400g, in Sainsburys it is £4.00 for 400g (or £3.50 if you buy 2 packets).

Thanks for posting I see morrisons do chicken breasts for £5 a KG and £5 for 2 X425g mince lamb

[billybong]

://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/

news/local-national/uk/queens-speech-2014-camerons-plans-to-combat-scottish-independence-tax-relief-on-childcare-pooled-pensions-and-fracking-made-easier-30329058.html

Experts from Cardiff University's Welsh School of Architecture, who led a study into the effects of the charge in Wales, backed the plans in the Queen's Speech to introduce a bag charge in England.

Dr Wouter Poortinga said: "Our own research has shown that a small charge on bags is popular and a very effective way of changing behaviour.

"We found the bag charge made people more aware of waste and littering. And we also found that people became even more supportive of the charge after it was introduced."

Clearly building on the house price mega bubble experience.

Soon it'll be so popular that people will be clamouring for even more expensive bags.

Interesting that Tesco's problems are announced on the same day. A bag bailout for Tesco and the other supermarkets although the they're supposed to be going to donate the bag money to good causes. Charity administrators' pay should come on leaps and bounds.

There doesn't seem to be much new on housing apart from fracking right under your home without permission.

Edited June 4, 2014 by billybong

[Riedquat]

The stigma associated to cut price supermarkets is there, otherwise Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons would have gone bankrupt years ago. The same stigma I believed before I actually tried Lidl. Call it snobbery, but it's there. I had this convo with a couple of girls from work yesterday and when I mentioned Lidl they looked at me like I was suffering some terrible economic hardship and said they really wouldn't want to try going there. In reality, yes, the supermarket has the usual mix of shoppers you'd find anywhere else.

The stigma is there but falling apart, now that more and more people are discovering that the produce in the cheap supermarkets is actually decent. The place might look a bit rough and ready but that's not the bit you're taking home, and you're going to a supermarket, not an art gallery.

Edited June 4, 2014 by Riedquat

[council dweller]

Well, I used to go to Tesco but not anymore.

I now got to aldi and spend an average of £10 a week. Yesterday I bought a loaf of posh bread, `Touchon` ham, pork, (1.49) chicken 2.49, a couple of tins of soup, cat food @20p and a bottle of Hobgoblin! My fast starts on Saturday evening and ends Monday morning (weekly)

I`m surviving...and now weigh 74kg (6ft).

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

If anyone wants a laugh, there is a 'Ghost Tesco' smack bank in the center of Ireland in Ballinasloe - a populating of 7.5k on a good day:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.324402,-8.223951,3a,75y,233.64h,78.35t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1syY_WU_WWV7WmkCF5_cPthw!2e0!6m1!1e1

ALDI have built right next to it.

It's a fully stocked megastore, most days of the week you can go in there and it's empty + all the fresh stock is reduced.

Must be Tesco's biggest money pit.