Does anyone think that the Co-op is any better than the other supermarkets or do they just have a clever little USP going?

(It's a serious question, I know what they claim, I just wonder if there is any real action by them to make the playing field any more fair for suppliers or is it all just for the PR).

mastiles_fanylion – Member

York (a pretty small town)

It has a Minster, it is a city.

Nah – originally from Glasgow mate. York only just makes it out of village status.

mastiles_fanylion – Member
Does anyone think that the Co-op is any better than the other supermarkets or do they just have a clever little USP going?

(It's a serious question, I know what they claim, I just wonder if there is any real action by them to make the playing field any more fair for suppliers or is it all just for the PR).

My wife works for one of the suppliers to a number of the big supermarkets and spent a number of months working out of Co-Op's HQ (the suppliers often have people based in the supermarket's operations). She's also done Tesco and Sainsbury's and she reckons Co-Op are at least trying to make a difference – don't always manage, but on balance they do.

Supermarkets Killing us with convenience. Haven't done a shop in one of those places for more than 4 years, they get in the way when you want good food. We spend very carefully on good food and save money over our friends who are adicted to convenience. These shops have you trained to buy what they want you to buy while pretending that they are customer led. They are very very clever at getting your money out of you. If you think I'm wrong then their work is done. We live in a country that throws away one third of all the fresh food purchased almost all of this comes from supermarkets. The time is comming when food will not be seen as a cheap, or do you want to continue to stuff your face with cheap food that is causing a people to starve in the third world. Cheap and easy are not the way forward, look around and whats happening in the world. Blimey! I feel strongly about some thing must get a glass of water (tap).

As a co-operative I'd have thought that they would have a vestiged interest in being equitable, certainly the co-op bank practices what they preach.

Re the Co-op – that is good then – I wasn't trying to belittle what they are trying to do, I was just posing the question as clever PR can be very persuasive.

MT – so how do you you save money? Is the produce you buy cheaper than supermarkets or is it done by simply not wasting as much of the more expensive food you buy from 'boutique' shops?

i think the mt is talking about ignoring the buy 1 get 1 free/ 50% extra free bollox that tricks you into buying whatever the big chains have overstocked on, even when you dont need it

supermarkets are allso rammed to the gills with fatty salty convenience meals that give you high blood pressure and bowel cancer

Can't be bothered reading the whole thread.
I totally agree with junkyard.
Luckily I'm a part time worker and am able to shop locally, where we have really top quality shops, a baker, butcher, 2 fruit/veg shops and a couple of deli's.

You can fight Tesco. In the nearby village of Poynton in Cheshire they successfully stopped a Tesco supermarket being built.

As I understand it, they have pockets of land all over the place, just waiting for the planning to go ahead and take over our country.

I save money by buying fresh produce at least every other day and not falling for all the hype of 'bogofs', also not walking out with stuff I don't really need at a supermarket. A bit of meal planning for the week and there is no waste.
Shop locally if you can and buy in season, the food is so much better.
Any strawberries I've ever bought in a supermarket bounce on the floor and have been inedible, the ones from the fruit shop are delicious.

Well I tend to eat whatever I can get on the special offers and stock up on them as much as I can. I do eat some convenience food (as in jars of sauces) but I also enjoy cooking from scratch. But, for me anyway, first and foremost I try to save money when I buy from these places. For example, if Lloyd Grossman sauces are on half price I will buy them. If Sharwoods are on, I will buy those instead.

I don't see how that is wasteful – jars of sauces last a long time.

We had one Supermarket up here for years, they opened a Sainsburys last year a few local traders expressed concern as it was out of town, out of town being 1/2 a mile and it effect busy.

A town few miles down the road has one supermarket is under massive regeneration in it's town centre and wants to build a supermarket out of town this time a 3/4 from the centre. Local traders, some of them who have a shop in town, expressed concern quoting the loss of trade that occurred here as an example.

They did a survey to be fair and used a third party and it came back despite the drop in economy trade in the town has gone up, trader who has shops in both towns seen sales increase by about 18%.

So all seems good to me.

the ones from the fruit shop are delicious.

And quite often from the same suppliers*. The power of suggestion is a mighty thing.

*I am not saying yours are, some grocers do buy locally and in season. Others just trot to the local wholesalers and buy stuff in a very similar, but smaller scale, to the supermarkets. Bananas and apples are perfect examples – go to your grocers and they often have the same little labels on that you see in Tesco – 'Royal Gala' this and 'Dole' that. But charge more for them and not have the same turnover, meaning more older produce on the shelves.

And buying from your local shop helps how? Do you think that paying 20% more for a jar of Dolmio sauce and some bog paper will somehow save our planet?

It won't, that's a fatuous suggestion, however, it's our attitude to consumption that the Supermarkets pander too that is most definately hurting.

On top of that we seem intent to have as little to do with each other as possible, everything is so impersonal, it might be more convenient but I'm convinced it's having a detrimental impact on our society.

I don't really blame Tesco, although some of the practices leave a lot to be desired, it's us wanting so much but not willing to pay for it in terms of time or money.

it's our attitude to consumption that the Supermarkets pander too that is most definately hurting.

But surely any retailer will want consumers to spend more to make them more profits? There are few shop owners who want us to spend less and save the planet through less waste. It is just that Tesco et al have the infrastructure in place to create spaces designed to sell. Most retailers would do exactly the same so they could make the extra profit if they knew how.

I'm convinced it's having a detrimental impact on our society.

This I do agree with – I do still remember vividly my childhood, going to the local shops with my mum to do the weekly shop, having it all boxed up and then delivered to us later in the day. But unless the smaller shopkeepers can compete financially, the vast majority (me included) will vote with their wallets and go to the supermarkets.

I know that Lampeter said no to Tesco's. Just wish there was an Asda nearer to Carmarthen.

I wish people would stop using cheapness as an excuse for shopping at supermarkets.

What happens in real life is that supermarkets win because they create a convincing illusion of good value. Certain key products are kept cheap as "loss leaders", and you can pick up cheap stuff you don't need, like alcohol or £5 jeans. You can also get a "bargain" if you buy way too much of something, e.g. buy one get one free on fruit that then gets thrown away in a few days.

The real factor that keeps people coming back is laziness – not having to walk around different shops, not having to deal with small fiddly amounts of change, and knowing that you can buy the same things week in, week out, regardless of problems that might affect smaller businesses or what time of year it is.

Supermarkets aren't evil, but they certainly aren't your mates. Bribing you with miserable 1% discount "loyalty" cards, vouchers that might get your kid's school a tennis ball if you spend £500 there, or participating in tedious national charity events doesn't make them any more ethically sound. They will still shaft their suppliers, build 500 car parking places to every 5 bike racks and wastefully package their goods while paying lip service to environmental concerns.

They're even trying to phase out their human staff in my local ones, and to be honest it rankles to spend 15 minutes of your life queueing, scanning your own shopping in, having to get the staff to override it because you want to buy some of their discount booze or it won't let you use your own shopping bags, and finally be told "Thank you for using the fast lane…" 🙄

I wish people would stop using cheapness as an excuse for shopping at supermarkets.

Why should we? It is the reason I shop at them. That and convenience.

Anyone else watch the series on where our cheap food comes from?

There is another thread on this forum about our troops in Afghanistan and the rise of Islamic extremism.

We have too much, others have too little. Unavoidable result = Conflict

Because we have too much and thus have too much to lose to willingly risk our lives, they ultimately will win. Basic rise and fall of Empire stuff. Pretty much inevitable due to the inherent selfishness of the human condition.

For some stuff, e.g. bread, they are cheap. But some things are more expensive (eggs are consistently about 50p less in my local greengrocer's, unless you buy battery eggs that look like they've been laid by a wren). When you factor in random impulse buys and having limited choice over the quantities that you purchase, it's a lot closer.

Re- strawberries, I tried to google the varieties grown in the U.K. couldn't find out, however our fruit shop sells 3 differnet varieties, they don't all look the same shape and size and they smell like strawberries. Most supermarkets apart from M&S sell El-santa which travel well. SO taste rubbish but will keep fresh in you fridge for longer.
Whoops gone on a bit too long there 🙂

Assuming they don't actually level every small convienience store, butcher, baker etc within say, a 5 mile radius (and I'm pretty sure they don't) it now becomes up to those indignant people who said "no" to now resist the temptation of lower prices, and continue supporting those small businesses that they were so keen on in the first place.

No one is gonna twist your arm to go to tesco, and there will always be small shops that survive initially, so how many of those "no" people would honsetly have the moral integrity to stick to their principals and support the small business's, against saving themselves money?

Exactly. The arrival of Tesco doesn't instantly shut down local businesses, it's the local people choosing to shop there that does that. Nobody's forcing the poeple of Mach to use Tesco and if they're so set against it I'm sure they'll vote with their wallets and continue to use the independents… won't they?

Supermarkets have done one thing; freed women from having to drag around 4-5-6-7 shops to buy things on a saturday while the auld fella sits in the bookies/pub/social club.

Or goes out on his bike.

I haven't read everything here, but from an employment point of view – ie jobs lost, does one tesco employ less staff than multiple one man band shops?

I haven't read everything here, but from an employment point of view – ie jobs lost, does one tesco employ less staff than multiple one man band shops?

i seem to recall reading somewhere that yeah this is true.
certainly in the case of that massive tesco in stockport that's actually 20% bigger than they had planning permission for, and when challenged one of the things tesco said was that if they were forced to resize then people would "lose jobs"; tescopoly looked into the net effect of the tesco store's existence on the local jobs market and i believe they determined that there was a negative overall balance. however, this is somewhat hypothetical and some would say an expected finding given who did the 'research'.

I haven't read everything here, but from an employment point of view – ie jobs lost, does one tesco employ less staff than multiple one man band shops?

well yes, it's all in the link I posted…

But the superstores’ own research shows that every large outlet causes the net loss of 276 jobs(8). That’s hardly surprising: independent shops employ five times as many people per unit of turnover (9).

The big problem seems to be that Tesco will keep reapplying and appealing when a council turns them down. Councils say that they cannot afford the legal costs.

I'd like a council to put their money on the table and threaten Tesco. Keep turning down the appeals and if the council runs out of money then Westminster or Cardiff would HAVE to step in to stop the bullying tactics.

We can't have one company hold our democratic processes to ransom.

Mfannylion

but I also enjoy cooking from scratch. But, for me anyway, first and foremost I try to save money when I buy from these places. For example, if Lloyd Grossman sauces are on half price I will buy them. If Sharwoods are on, I will buy those instead.[/Quote]
Cooking from scratch does not mean you opened all the jars and packets yourself.

I'm a big Tesco fan, from a customer's point of view they are fantastic. Good range, good prices, beats all the other supermarkets and much quicker than going round all the local shops to buy stuff in dribs and drabs.

Really looking forward to their 14th store in Cambridge, just round the corner from me and hoping it puts our local useless Coop store out of business (useless staff, obscene prices, crap opening hours and out of stock of most things).

My-ex GF moved to just outside Mach 5 years ago and she, like a lot of local residents, has been praying for a Tesco and an M&S for years. The one general complaint is lack of decent local shops in Aber and the surrounding region. Only tourists (and George) can afford the prices in all the local eco-friendly 100% organic shops.

GM is only representing one faction of the local community.

she, like a lot of local residents, has been praying for a Tesco and an M&S for years

Really when [ok if] I pray I ask for world peace and an end to poverty.
I feel so silly now 😳

" when I pray I ask for world peace and an end to poverty "

Junkyard

I've only skim read this whole thread but this quote stood out:

I would rather consider the eventual effect on my wallet.

I believe it is impossible to put a price on the damage Tesco does to communities. I wouldn't describe myself as an especially 'green' or holier-than-thou sort of person yet the overriding feeling I have after a few years of working around the world is that the death of local communities in Britain will be bitterly regretted for decades to come. I regard Tesco and everything the business stands for as the major part of the problem. It is the only British company I boycott.

If you want to fight the Tescos of this world, you need to change the political landscape.

1. No financial contributions to political parties except from registered voters in the respective electorate. This may stop our politicians being bought by large corporations, although I'm sure they would find a way 🙂
3. No one allowed to represent an electorate unless they have lived in it for a few years.
2. A requirement that legal battles be between equals. ie Tesco not be allowed to spend more on its case than the council.

Yup, I shop at Tesco.

This thread puzzles me. On the one hand you moan about all the 'tripe' that Tescos et al. shovel about improving choice, lowering prices etc, yet on the other hand, most of the same people on here are happily following the myths about food miles and 'organic' food.

Have a read of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_miles

And more specifically this paper: Edwards-Jones, G., Milà i Canals, L., Hounsome, N., Truninger, M., Koerber, G., Hounsome, B., et al. (2008). Testing the assertion that ‘local food is best’: the challenges of an evidence-based approach. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 19(5), 265-274. (I don't seem to be able to find a free online version of it, sadly, but will happily email you one from work tomorrow if you're interested enough)

Anyway, aside from policies and politics, I'm rarely out of work before 8 pm, leaving me with two shops within a logical distance between work and home in which to buy food – Londis in Bethesda (which only has the basics), and you guessed it, Tesco in Bangor. I'd love to shop at the local butchers, greengrocers etc, but they're not open when I can shop, so I don't. I suspect the convenience of Tescos being open at more useful times than traditional shops suits most of us who work and don't want to spend their Saturdays fighting their way through the high street. Perhaps if the highstreet opened later and closed later, more customers would be able to shop at their local stores. As it stands however, most are probably at work when the local shops are open, leaving only the supermarkets by the time they finish work.

It really isn't rocket science (or any science for that matter), simply common sense…

Really simple case of supply and demand

Tescos is a clever company, they know where the demand is and the supply will follow. If your community is really that opposed to it, they will will continue to support local shops. In reality, most of the outspoken petition signing nimby's will soon be shopping in Tescos becasuse it is cheaper, quicker and better than tramping around local shops.

Its just the way shopping and the high streets are changing. And we, the consumers are demanding it.

Tescos is a clever company

They are flipping geniuses. They're open at times when I can go shopping, unlike the greengrocers, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers who all shut at 5. Just need the bank and post office to get their act together now!

It's a marvelous legacy of Thatcher (sorry) that so many people seem to think allowing naked market forces to run wild is some kind of beautiful natural thing to be welcomed whatever the cost. The fact that Tesco can bully and threaten their way to such a huge market share isn't a good thing for anyone except their shareholders.

Will you all still be happy if there were no shops left except Tesco? 'But it's so convenient and cheap'

Cooking from scratch does not mean you opened all the jars and packets yourself.

No really, does it not? Excuse me.

Perhaps I was not clear enough in my post but I like to cook from scratch, using fresh ingredients and from my wide range of spices (I have approx 50 Indian and Thai spices). I generally do not cook from recipes either, just create what I feel will be nice dishes.

But when time does not allow, I use jars.

shopping in Tescos becasuse it is cheaper, quicker and better than tramping around local shops

Sorry, but I really don't relate any of those comments to The shop formerly owned by Dame Shirley Porter

The general public are a funny bunch. There will be concern expressed about local food/shops/organics/food miles/sustainability etc, but they'll mourn the loss of a chain like Woolworths!Most people don't genuinely care about the health of their high street, or they only care once it has all but gone. TBF, given the state of the economy it is unsurprising people shop where it is cheap and convenient.

Same as Scuttler, I'm in Holmfirth and don't want to see a Tesco built. I think that a lot of the local small shops stay in business because at the minute people can park in the town centre and there is one of most kind of shops within an easy walk. I suspect that a lot of people do "top up" shopping when going to the bank or hairdressers, but also as the carpark is at an existing (not very big and poorly stocked) coop, you can do whatever shopping you want in there and then pop to the greengrocers for your better priced and higher quality veggies. (Or the butchers, hardware shop etc).
Some of the small shops also supply the local eateries (meaning that they have a comparatively high turn over of stock, and the more random herbs or whatever that they may otherwise not stock) and this is where I think a Tesco is a bad thing.
As people start to use the Tesco rather than the Morrisons or Sainsburys some miles away, the top up shopping in the town will dwindle as people cannot just walk from there car, they now have to add a another leg to the trip – not much, but enough to put folk off. The little shops see trade dropping and it might be enough to force a couple into shutting up (I haven't seen their books, so this is speculation). I would assume that the coop couldn't survive and will close, leaving a large abandoned site in the middle of the town, which already has an oversupply of retail units. So a few less shops, an empty site in the middle of the town and suddenly Holmfirth is a much less nice place to be, not just for us residents, but crucially to all the visitors we get (Last of the summer wine and all). These visitors must pump a large amount of money into the local economy, making many of the pubs,restaurants, bakers and sandwich shops viable. Without this money some of them are bound to close, leaving more empty shops and pretty soon I'll be living in a ghost town and nobody wants to spend their saturday visiting one of them do they?. At the minute I have a choice of places to go on a saturday night to eat and drink, but I just can't see that this will continue to be the case.
I live where I do because my local town is still a small market town with a buzz and some life to it, a Tesco's (or any other supermarket built on the same site) will inevitably drain that out of the town and whoops, where did our community go?
No thanks.

For the record, I shop at sainsburys 7 miles away and when I get the chance (my working and their openening hours dependent) use greengrocers, bakers and butchers either near home or where i work.

We grow a lot of our own fruit & veg & keep chickens too, we use a local butcher that delivers for meat – other than that, pretty much everything else comes from a big supermarket [usually Asda]

Try nipping around local shops when you're shopping for 7
You usually can't get parked anywhere near them & the logistics of hauling that amount of stuff from various shops back home is too onerous

Long may the supermarkets reign – if nothing else, they certainly allow people to have a much more varied diet if they want or 2p sausages if they like eating crap [their choice]

Within 5 miles of where I live I can buy food from local stores which specialise in 4 or 5 different continents' food types. All without going to The shop formerly owned by Dame Shirley Porter.
But then I don't live an idyllic rural lifestyle – but if I did I'd probably start expecting weekly Red Cross parcels to be airdropped.