I have my supermarket trips down to once every 3 weeks or so for mainly unperishables plus a few fresh items they are good for (fish, wine, cheese) which are not otherwise readily available close by.

My regular weekly shop is local – greengrocers, bakers, butchers. I get much better quality that way, often at similar or even lower prices than a supermarket, plus much better banter.

I just find Tesco’s boring. Going to the store is a chore. It’s crowded, hard to find a parent and child space, your senses are assaulted at the entrance….. in fact it always reminds me of being in a motorway service station on a bank holiday Monday

Product-wise everything’s focus grouped to within an inch of its life. It’s all what you’d get had communism worked a little bit better and the whole ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ is everything which is wrong with post-modern life.

plus much better banter.

I hate Tesco mainly as you get assaulted by the “special offers” on the way in which are usually obesity educing snack foods. They have slowly but surely eroded their “core” market of foodsuffs to sell just about everything which means they are now jack of all trades master of none.

…and the whole ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ is everything which is wrong with post-modern life.

What does that even mean?

What does that even mean?

Nothing.

Nothing.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWH_9VRWn8Y[/video]

zilog6128 – Member

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.

Sure, but then Aldi/Lidl don’t compete with them on choice and Waitrose/M&S don’t compete on price so it’s not one way traffic.

Big supermarkets may very well be evil but I shop there from choice tbh, they’ve got the stuff I want usually, at the price I want, when I want it. I use Tesco because they seem much the same as Morrisons, the shops tend to be better designed than Sainsburys, and I like the petrol discount. If you’re investing a lot of yourself in your supermarket choice there’s probably something wrong with you.

matt_outandabout – Member

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’d argue the opposite. If I’m shopping in a huge hangar of a building I’d expect plenty of choice of all normal items. I may not like the same type (or quality) of marmalade as you!

And if they only have one type of marmalade I may as well use the local corner shop. (But I can’t because they closed down when Tesco opened…. 😕 )

Tesco’s has been the biggest loser to the discounters (Aldi, Lidl etc), it was never a quality/premium option so price was always a major draw for them and they have been undercut. I personally think the whole Tesco’s Basics backfired on them, it just took them further down market. Also in prior years it has expanded into all sorts of other business lines (financial services, electricals) which its easy to see have been a distraction from their core business.

i avoid unless no other alternative – mainly because their clientele in my local are just rude – generally those that think they are important and shout at you to move out of their way while they are on the phone.

their fruit and veg tastes very unlike what it looks like it should taste like – ie a tescos carrot doesnt taste close to what the carrots i had growing up were – tescos carrots taste of nothing but water – same goes for other fruit and veg. – and before you say hindsight is wonder ful – how come aldis carrots and other fruit and veg taste “right” – not garden fresh true enough but they at least taste.

their meat and fish are far from close to fresh – growing up in a fishing village i know what fish is supposed to taste like – that is not it.

they keep moving their goddam shops around so every time i go in it takes for ever to find what i want – luckily its only a couple of items(tabasco and spices mainly) that you cant get at aldi once a month or so – before heading to the tillybutcher and the fish monger at mannofield – takes a bit longer than tesco but worth it as it tastes like food rather than just looking like it.

coupled with the fact that their biodiesel riddled fuel consistently scores lowest mpg in my cars.

Ive also noticed a significant increase in the number of expensive cars in aldi over the last year or so – talking nearly new full size range rovers , Lexus, big audis and beemers. where as a few years ago it was mostly cars that were an MOT bill away from the scrap heap ,a reasonable amount of cheap family wagons and old people.

I’d agree on the Aldi bit certainly; clientele is much more eclectic in our town now than it was – no-one really turns up their noses at shopping at Aldi..

Our town has Tesco (where weshop; wife won’t switch to Aldi/Lidl as smaller range and harder to find everything); Asda (not shopping there thanks!), Aldi, Lidl, and M&S food. No Morrisons (Inverness for that); Sainsburys (Nairn) or Waitrose (that’d be Edinburgh / Glasgow so 170 miles away..)

Quite how there’s not a Waitrose in Aberdeen always puzzles me trail_rat..

History repeating itself. Others (Aldi and LIDL) doing to Tescos what Tescos did to Sainsbury’s. They are now squeezed at both ends which is a classic marketing dilemma. Will be an MBA case study for years to come.

Tesco branded food is usually rank

lunch – sandwiches, pasta etc are awful

everything else is full of sugar

I did buy a quiche a while ago, I think it was the worst thing I have ever tasted, supposed to be cheese and tomato, the tomato turned out to be tomato sauce spread on the pastry before the questionable topping was added. It was thrown in the bin. Grim

My dream scenario would be Tesco’s being closed in Long Eaton (next to the Aldi I go to) and Booths opening up a branch there instead.

I love how economists think!

Tescos is going to make less Profit this year than last, but it is still expected to make around £2.5B !! Hardly destitute now are they. Yes, they made £3.8B in 2011, so they are not making quite as much cash as they did previously, but they are still ENORMOUSLY profitable!

Only the greedy “fat cats” get in a mood over things like this!

(btw, has any large “bulk retail” company in history ever made continuously higher profit year on year since their inception?)

My dream scenario would be Tesco’s being closed in Long Eaton (next to the Aldi I go to) and Booths opening up a branch there instead.

teamhurtmore – Member
History repeating itself. Others (Aldi and LIDL) doing to Tescos what Tescos did to Sainsbury’s. They are now squeezed at both ends which is a classic marketing dilemma. Will be an MBA case study for years to come

This.

Aldi doesn’t just save you small amounts of money over Tesco, it is quite dramatic and they have blokey gizmo deals now and again, Air Compressors, stuff like that, I got this jumper had it been a snowboard brand it would have cost me seventy quid, it was £9.99.

Ignore my previous pro-ish Tesco posts.

Just noticed they have put Staropramen 12X330ml up to £12 from £9. So they can **** right off.

Used to go to Tesco but got fed up with their manipulative marketing. You’d go for the weekly shop but detour via the non-food section and inevitably leave with a foot spa/ toastie maker/ fondue set that you had absolutely no need for but they cunningly fooled you into buying. Plus their food’s shit.

maxtorque – Member
I love how economists think!

Tescos is going to make less Profit this year than last, but it is still expected to make around £2.5B !! Hardly destitute now are they. Yes, they made £3.8B in 2011, so they are not making quite as much cash as they did previously, but they are still ENORMOUSLY profitable!

I love how layman think!

Profits are not the same as profitability. Tesco made a return on equity of 0.72% in FY12 and 6.2% last year. This is well below their cost of capital, so Tescos are only very slightly profitable and their profitability is below their cost of capital. Hence trading at historically low valuations.

Tescos is in the mire…

I love how layman think!

Ooooooooh err !

Will be an MBA case study for years to come.

Probably some mba chancer who dropped them in the shitt in the first place !

@tmh – if there was a decent search function on stw I could go back and find out where @maxtorque has upset you !

I try to go to other supermarkets now for a few reasons:

– their fruit and veg looks fine, but seems to have a strange ability to go off within about 20 mins of leaving the store.
– they are good at sticking stuff on the shelf that is out of date within a day or two. Yes, all the others probably do it and I should check every use by date with ruthless efficiency, but I didn’t say my reasons are rational.
– they seem to be good at putting offers on the shelves, but the actual product is smaller/larger/slightly different and isn’t actually included in the offer, so you get home and realise that bargain purchase wasn’t actually a bargain as the item you picked up was very close to, but not the actual item on offer.
– other stuff.

Still spend loads in there though, as it’s the largest local supermarket and is very convenient.

Don’t worry Jamabalaya, I always smile when banks or BPs profit come out and their is this faux outrage over the profits!!! The fact that banks are have absurdly low levels of profitability and rely on leverage to appease the shareholders just goes over peoples heads.

“Cheeky” headlines sell more papers though!!!

But under no circumstance can Tesco be describe as being enormously profitable at the moment! ROA of <2% and lowest margins in a decade.

Ive also noticed a significant increase in the number of expensive cars in aldi over the last year or so – talking nearly new full size range rovers , Lexus, big audis and beemers.

I’ve seen those. They’re loading up with 40 gallons of whole milk and 200 value bog rolls, to resell at their corner shops.

if there was a decent search function on stw

Add site:singletrackworld.com to your Google search term.

My dream scenario would be Tesco’s being closed in Long Eaton (next to the Aldi I go to) and Booths opening up a branch there instead

Aaaah, Booths. Another good reason to move to Kirkby Lonsdale.

Booth – The classic holiday romance supermarket with their fancy cheese and beer with twigs in. Very exotic!

But, if you spending your money in there 52 weeks a year you’d be begging for a Tesco (and be broke).

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.

This. If I go to Tesco (very very rarely) I’m constantly disappointed by the price of everything. It’s really not that cheap IMO and the quality isn’t amazing either. Tesco ‘finest’ wines are often pretty good though.

I either shop at Lidl or local shops/market etc. Lidl is now pretty good for stuff like bread and fresh fruit and veg etc where it used to be poor.

It’s simple for me. Their shops ming. Unpleasant places to be in.

I have a Tesco, Aldi and Waitrose in my (rather small) town. Aldi is where I spend most, the choice is limited but what there is is good quality, it is also very cheap. For the bits I can’t get a Aldi I go to Waitrose which costs a little more but the quality I can live with it.

Tesco is neither. The quality is no more than OK and the cost is close to Waitrose. They do have a huge choice but oddly, most of the choice is bland, no interesting brands or products. I go to the one close to my office as I have no other choice but there is no way I would do the weekly shop there.

The other thing they do (and I certainly don’t think they are alone in doing so but they do seem more blatant) is manipulate price. An example, 165g bags of chocolate buttons have been around £1.50 for months, 3 weeks ago they went up to £2, 2 weeks ago they dropped to £1 (half price!!!!). Today they were still £1…but on closer inspection, the bag was now 105g, yet it was in the same place, at the same price in the same sized bag. Clearly meant to deceive and clearly a dirty tactic.

Their shops ming. Unpleasant places to be in.

True and Sainsbury’s fell into that trap too.

True and Sainsbury’s fell into that trap too.

Though in fairness their newer stores are actually quite nicely designed.

Morrisons is surely the nadir of supermarket aesthetics though? they always seem to have turned the lights down one notch too far for a place which seems to be predominantly brown, beige and dark green.

You get better punch ups in Byker Morrisons/Merion Market than any Tesco I’ve ever been to – I’ll give them that.

Morrisons is surely the nadir of supermarket aesthetics though? they always seem to have turned the lights down one notch too far for a place which seems to be predominantly brown, beige and dark green.

I cannot see the attraction of a supermarket where you need a head torch to find anything. So I am sure the food is lovely, but they seem to be trapped in decor mode 1980s.

…plus they have THE WORST self checkout machines. Don’t even take £2 coins FFS.

Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…Please put the item int he bag…

AAAARGGHGHHHH!

*explodes*

No jamie by far the worst self service machines is bnq they are hateful. Thankfully i get to deal with the nice happy people at the tradepoint counter 🙂

They would be up there if I used them more. Self service checkouts have a place, but at a hardware store is not one of them.

Only use Tesco for a wee.

Really lucky where I live that the local independent shops are thriving. The food in them is good quality and although a bit more expensive than Tesco, stuff lasts longer and tastes like it should. As I work part time I have chance to shop more than once a week.

I grow a lot of veg and salad stuff so hardly use a supermarket.
The nearest one to us is a Co-op which is closing down this week and turning into a dreaded Aldi.

We use an Aldi for the necessary stuff and an Iceland but rarely.

Favourite supermarkets are Booths and if feeling flush M&S.

I do care about the ethics of Tesco and their treatment of suppliers and land grabbing.

Huuuge Tesco in Burnley, size of a hill village.
Food is unpleasant.
Genuinely nasty.
Ok for emergencies, impulse DVD’s, whisky bargains and lightbulbs.

Aldi by choice,
but the Asda in Rawtenstall is a surprisingly painless alternative.
Natural light, better layout, tolerable cafe, decent food.

Sainsbury’s are ok, but there’s nothing you can’t get cheaper elsewhere with no drop in quality.

My local Tesco petrol station has pay at the pump for convenience, they don’t bother to put gloves on the pump.. just a sign that says gloves available at the till…
Bastards!!!

Whoops meant to say our co-op is turning into a dreaded Asda,^^ not Aldi.

Tescos not doing well in Scarborough. They have a fairly small store which is built on a hill with the car park in the basement. Not easy to get to and not easy to park. Always seems quiet on the rare occasions I visit and never has what I want.

They found a big site to the North of the town centre which had formerly been a hospital. They put in several somewhat grandiose planning schemes for a megastore which would involve closing and redesigning local roads and possibly blocking access to the central coach park and a number of local businesses for a length of time during the build. This led to a prolonged planning process.

While this was happening Sainsbury’s rebuilt their store to double it’s size, Morrison’s revamped. Aldi opened, Lidl set up nearby and Asda and Waitrose started doing home deliveries from York. Possibly as a result, Tescos have announced that they have abandoned plans to build.