Lot of stuff in the papers lately about Tescos making less profit.

I am really surprised most of the commentary on it seems only to focus on pricing of goods and there is so little speculation on the behaviour of the company causing it to sabotage itself with the public. I am thinking of such things as:

– In Bristol a new Tesco convienicnce store was stoned by the public in Stokes Croft, as they feared it would force other shops to close.

– A friend in Sheffield tells me the local community as spent something like 8 years trying to stop Tesco building a local convenience store. Tescos has still not given up appealing.

– In my area, all of the local ‘corner’ shops have been owned by Tesco for some years, meaning a car trip of 10 mins one way (or longer by other means), just to not shop in Tesco as they own the whole area.

– Tesco buying a rank of shops, getting the traders and locals on side by promising massive revamps of the area, then not bothering to do anything when the purchase went through.

– Using WorkFare people at no wage. Zero hours contracts.

– Bradley Stoke, the biggest housing development in Europe at the time, not having a Town Centre for over 8 years as Tescos owned the land for the ‘town centre’ and allegedly refused to let anything build unless they got the mega store they wanted for themselves first – so they waited it out, for years. The Tesco centre is now built and consists entirely of a huge Tesco and some much smaller chain units with no ‘local independents’ at all having space there at all that I can see.

– A Co-op local finally opening in my area, which is more expensive to buy from than the Tesco yards down the road. When I first went in I said to the chap at the till, I am so pleased I don’t have to use Tesco now and him saying (having worked for Tescos himself at one time) he was staggered at the number of people who had come in and said the same thing. He also said Co-Op were the best employer in retail he had worked for, out of many.

So I can see Tesco pricing must be an issue for many of us especially as wages/spare money are effectively dropping for huge numbers of us, but I cant help but wonder how much of the attitude towards Tescos are the unmentioned ‘social issues’ of communities and individuals feeling Tesco is hostile to local communities and shopping areas and this is being under rated.

So, am I right or wrong? Whats it like in your area?

I think it’s more down to Aldi and Lidl getting their game on.
Tesco also dealt with the horseburger thing badly.

Local shops and Waitrose here.

Unless I have absolutely no alternative (which means about 5 times since 2002) I haven’t bought anything from The shop formerly owned by Dame Shirley Porter for about 12 years.

My local Tesco Superstore is a relatively recent opener but it’s always dead. I think their current problems are because people are skint rather than ethics – lots of people going to Lidl and Aldi to save £££.

Sadly I don’t think their business ethics permeate through to that many of their customers, people chose their supermarket on how easily it fits in with their daily routine more than anything else… (and self-image)

I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if one of the biggest factors at play was loss of custom to Aldi / Lidl.

You can debate ethics all you like, but the cold hard fact is that most people value “cheap” and “looks nice” when making purchases. If the majority of people gave a toss about overseas near-slave labour, they’d all be shopping at local markets and farm shops.

I like Tesco. It’s convenient, and they got the online grocery/click+collect thing nailed before many others.

Ocado do seem to have surpassed them a bit on the logistics side of late, but I imagine it’s easier to control your stock from a centralised warehouse, rather than a live store.

Tesco chicken isn’t great, tho, so I get that frozen from Ocado once a month or so.

They can’t compete with Aldi/Lidl on price or with Waitrose/M&S (& even Sainsburys IMO) in quality which is why I don’t normally bother with them.

Hah, there wasn’t any replies here when I started writing that. Great minds, or something.

I don’t like the quality fresh food and meat they sell.

But I do like their beer offers and selection. just stocked up on some Ginger Tosser, Butcome and Bath ales on their 4 for £6 offer.

Bloody love tescos – the power they have to get the right stock in the right shops is perfect.

Basically my local petrol station (tesco) stocks the majority of the stuff I buy as I fit perfectly into my local demographic. Love it.

I think Aldi/Lidl have stolen some share but I also think people are a bit cynical about Tesco in general. I think some of their pricing strategies have been a but questionable (to say the least) and people are more wary than before.

I have a Co-op and a Lidl as my ‘local’ shop. The opening of the Co-op killed off the local paper shop, but it was crap anyway so i wasn’t bothered. We do have an independent butchers next to the Co-op but i won’t use it cos the guys a toss piece!

We do most of our shopping at Lidl and then just go to which ever supermarket is convenient at the time for anything else we need.

Tesco are deff struggling because of the rise of Aldi and Lidl though.

People in general only GAS about ethics until it impacts them personally. Then they are all about price, price, price and then maybe convienience.

The clubcard vouchers have be a god send in the school holidays. With the multiplier for the voucher value, we’ve been to 3 zoo/play parks, we also had 3 x 3 course meals on our weekend away and only had to pay for the drinks each time.

Tesco stuff is grim. There’s one opposite the office. All the sandwiches, pasta meals and “sushi” are disgusting. I’ve completely given up on them.

To be fair to the OP, aside from the other, genuine price and quality shortcomings cited by other posters, yes I do think at some level Tesco have shot themselves in the foot from a PR perspective.

They’ve been very aggressively acquisitive with land, grabbing the best sites – often, it would seem, just to sit on them and block competitors. They bought the focus on to price – a battle it is hard to win at on all fronts, all of the time – but were fairly cynical at times with their claims and with the way offers were structured and got called out on them.

and they got the online grocery/click+collect thing nailed before many others

Ocado do seem to have surpassed them a bit on the logistics side of late, but I imagine it’s easier to control your stock from a centralised warehouse, rather than a live store.

And Morrisons too. Ocado and Morrisons delivery services are far better than anyone else’s, in lots of ways.

Ocado always was better, just more expensive.

But now Morrisons are doing it, with a superior service, and competitive prices, the others are losing a massive amount of business in the online sector.

clubcard adds about 7% to their prices.

We managed to block getting a new Tescoes in St Albans a few years back, the site would have been a traffic nightmare and we’re already perfectly well serviced by a Sainsburys, Morrisons and a Waitrose so the last thing we needed was another super market.

So, the application was thrown out and now we’re getting a nice new Cinema and a badly needed primary school instead, brilliant!

Tesco are deff struggling because of the rise of Aldi and Lidl though.

I really don’t think this is the case. Aldi market share rose 1% last year. Impressive, but not sure it’s going to dent Tesco too much. Don’t forget all the other big supermarkets, and Morrisons (hoho), will be fuelling Aldi/Lidls market growth.

They’ve land banked in our nearest town. But at least we’ve got a nice new roundabout to enjoy.

A bit of both for me.

Tesco’s desire to take over the UK market driving any small shops out of business and killing high street shopping, trying to determine what I can buy & when, coupled with loss leaders and ripping people off for other goods stratergy.

Thankfully I have a Aldi and Lidl near me, supplemented with a Waitrose and independent shops

Happy days

Replies are interesting. Thanks. I partly asked as I know quite a few people who back away from Tescos for their behaviour rather than prices.

Like the chap in the shop, I was surprised lots of people were keen to dump Tescos totally as soon as opportunity arose – I do not live in an area that is particularly well off. Its not poverty street, but certainly belts are tightening quite a bit and its working class.

I must say I hope Tescos gets driven into selling off shops as I don’t like to see such a monopoly as they had round here.

Tesco got its market dominance by being the biggest, most aggressive, swinging dick in town, and pushing everyone else around. Not because it particularly did stuff better than anyone else.

We have 3 supermarkets virtually next to each other. Aldi, Morrisons and Tesco. The Tesco is always virtually empty. The other 2 are always packed. This is because the others sell better, fresher, higher quality stuff cheaper.

It aint rocket science

I think they misread the market when Sainsbury’s and even Morrisons (unsuccessfully) started pushing aspirational food whilst the budget supermarkets undercut them on price. That meant that the middleclass handwringers like me shop at Sainsbury’s and Waitrose whist the budget conscious shoppers are starting to move to Lidl and Aldi. Those less price conscious shoppers are the ones buying the high margin goods and generally spending more.

They never upped the quality of their fresh stuff to match Sainsbury’s (or even Morrisons) and they never updated their marketing and store stock/layout* to make it an appealing place to shop so really what do they offer that can’t be had elsewhere – other than where they win on convenience?

*I find Tescos feel a bit like Spar/Londis but on an enormous scale.

Our online delivery shop is with Waitrose/Occado as the others have been rubbish when we have used them. Top ups tend to be Aldi as it’s cheaper.

I have no real ethical axe to grind with Tesco. They are a big successful business. They act unethically sometimes. But I won’t drive 15 minutes further to shop somewhere else, that seems equally ethically flawed.

Tesco bought one of the village stores where we live about 10 years ago, amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth. The other shop, run by a very elderly couple, closed down and became a much needed barbers. The other vacant shops in the precinct suddenly had tenants due to the higher footfall Tesco created. Plus we had more choice of goods, at a better price, with better opening hours, and more local jobs created.

I fail to understand why experts think Tesco et al would continue to be able to grow profits and/or revenue at 10% a year forever. Clearly common sense is not required to be a talking head on the news.

*I find Tescos feel a bit like Spar/Londis but on an enormous scale.

Now there is a description that the head of Tesco’s marketing department wouldn’t like to read 😆

Spot on tho 😀

I shop at Tesco because I drive past it on the way home. It is a soul destroying experience, but so is any other supermarket.

Most supermarkets within a 5-8 mile range from me are Tesco.

The closest is undergoing a massive re-vamp and will soon feature a garden centre, coffee shop etc, so it seems to me like a large percentage of the profits are going into re-developing the stores.

There aren’t any ethical super markets so I have no idea why anyone would select a store based on ethics. I’d assume they are all as bas as one another just at different levels of exposure.

My wife has a bee in her bonnet about Tesco at the moment too so we went to Morissons last week, personally it wasn’t the same for me, the store felt small and squat and nothing was of any difference in quality to Tesco, inferior if anything.

All headlines get you press though, right.

I suspect that click and collect and home delivery has had a negative effect on their profit margins, as people are less likely to buy on extra stuff on impulse (eg. go in for food shopping, come out with that plus a couple of magazines and a set of headphones) and more likely to shop around the offers – ie. stock up when its cheap and then not buy again

For me Lidl is better quality when it comes to fruit n veg, bakery and meat, better for cheap beer and wine and generally cheaper for the everyday stuff. Only time I go to Tesco is for branded stuff like good bottled beer and fizzy drinks. The big Morrisons branches seem a good balance of quality, price and huge selection so I much prefer them to Tesco nowadays.

Backtracking slightly on my earlier post, I remember a farmer friend of mine saying he got a better deal from McDonald’s than he did with Tesco. At the time we shopped at Tesco and I was very sniffy about McDonald’s as it was back when they were trying to move away from the McLibel case. It made me think a bit, to be fair, but supermarket shopping is about convenience and price rather than ethics, as others have said.

I personally am fed up of the ’16 types of marmalade’ approach, that many supermarkets seem to feel the need to offer.
Tesco does offer a good ‘one stop shop’.
I do buy fair trade and ethical where possible – and Tesco is marginally worse than the others IMO. I don’t buy the view that other supermarkets are much better in this – I have a father in law who sold to supermarkets all his working life, so know how some they behave.
I do think people are fed up of Tesco for everything, and seeing them decimate high streets, local businesses and opportunities. I wish more people knew what businesses are Tesco behind them as well.

Having said all that, they just handed colleagues £1m, so I am not complaining…

We used to do our family shop in Tesco’s every week, now most of our shopping is done in Lidl or Aldi.

I got fed up with the ‘buy two, get one free’ offers in Tesco (which weren’t good deals, they just encourage you to buy more), I just want one item at a reasonable price!
I also get fed up with the way Tesco put display stands at the end of the aisles to slow you down so you buy more off the shelves, I want to be in and out of the shop like a commando raid, not bottlenecked and coralled so they think I’ll buy more.

Our local shop (Lakeside) went downhill when they shipped staff to the home delivery stuff and left the tills under-manned. Now we use the german shops I realise how expensive Tesco’s are.

PS; Lidl and Aldi also sell tools as well as cheap Henry Westons cider, bonus!

Tesco also dealt with the horseburger thing badly.

Very few people will even consider that before shopping as it’s more than a week ago.

For cheap and chearfull? We have an Aldi for quality and luxury we have a waitrose for ready meals I want to ear m and s and for debatable ethics and alcahol bargains a coop . For proximity we have a tescos which I regularly walk cycle or drive past to get to one of the others .
I sort of boycott tescos as an ethical decision but am helped by my perception that it is poor value for money .

It would be interesting to compare Tesco’s number of transactions and their average transaction value over time.

Annecdotally I would suspect their number of customers has risen (or at least remained flat) but the ATV has dropped.

We ceratinly still shop at Tesco, primarily because its convienient due to click & collect and shop & scan. However we probably spend less due to being more cost concious, shopping to a strict list and doing more smaller shops with top ups locally.

Very few people will even consider that before shopping as it’s more than a week ago.

However if it altered their shopping habits when it happened it could have a very significant long term effect.

I suspect the proportion of people who decide where to buy their groceries based on ethical concerns like how companies do business or pay tax is pretty small. At least in a sort of sustained/committed way.

More likely IMO is that the competition is just a step ahead at the moment.
I think there might be something in what lemonysam said too:

the middleclass handwringers like me shop at Sainsbury’s and Waitrose whist the budget conscious shoppers are starting to move to Lidl and Aldi.