Tesco - whats going on?!

[Ileach B]

I used to do all my shopping in Tesco, and now I seem to go more to the co-op for things.

Tesco freezers are useless, how you can see the name of some things is impossible. Things discontinued! But then they do have a suggestion box!

I do shop the majority in Tesco, as they have a better selection of wines, fresh fruit and veg.

Campbeltown is that small, that Tesco doesn't have any competition, unlike maybe Oban, more clothes shops, petrol stations, food shops!

Only grieveance I have is -- why do I always get the wonky trolley when going round with grumpy kids!

[Hels]

Wow, and there was me thinking it was only me, but we're on page 2 already!!

Totally agree with a lot of this. Whether its a metro, an express, a local, a cornershop or whatever the heck they want to call it - its change and not for the better! How can they have sqeezed in more aisles, but somehow have less choice?! How come there are huge freezers that always seem to be half empty? How come the aisles have got narrower, but the "cages" the staff use for stocking up are still huge & therefore block the way?

Wonder if the Co-op has noticed a difference in trade since the re-fit? I've always swapped beteween the 2 and have to say I totally agree with General Jack about the differnce in service - the Co needs to be thinking about the cost of a smile, is it costing them business?

[Sheik Yir Erse]

You often see offers in the newspaper but we never seem to get them, and the prices have risen dramatically.

Amron - Tesco's does not operate a national price book (like all supermarkets, with the exception of Morrison's - I think). Essentially this means is you pay the price they believe they can get away with, and it varies depending upon the size of the store, proximity of competition, size of competition, etc.

I'm aware alot of Co-op's in the cities are now being re-fitted and re-branded, I read recently that their Fair Trade policy was starting to pay dividends (no pun intended!) and that their sales figures had really started to improve.

[amron]

I know the cost of food is soaring and you expect prices to rise but some of the items have jumped by 20p or so.
It fair adds an increase to your shopping.
I have found the manger to be very helpful and he will try to get discontinued items back into stock or you have an option to bulk buy and he will order them for you.
I think that they are as frustrated as shoppers about the number of items being discontinued it seems to be outwith their control.

[Ileach B]

Probably find that the stock control is centralised, therefore the stock probably isn't controlled at all by Campbeltown. It will be a computer generated order that comes, by what has sold quickly and what isn't selling at all comes off the shelves.

Maybe thats when we should support smaller local shops who would possibly have the item already or can stock it.

[king of kilcousland]

You often see offers in the newspaper but we never seem to get them, and the prices have risen dramatically.

Amron - Tesco's does not operate a national price book (like all supermarkets, with the exception of Morrison's - I think). Essentially this means is you pay the price they believe they can get away with, and it varies depending upon the size of the store, proximity of competition, size of competition, etc.

I'm aware alot of Co-op's in the cities are now being re-fitted and re-branded, I read recently that their Fair Trade policy was starting to pay dividends (no pun intended!) and that their sales figures had really started to improve.

Morrisons does operate a national price book.

[EileenH]

I was in Tescos last week for prawns. I had bought 2 packs the week before and put one in the freezer as it said on the pack that they were suitable for home freezing. When I defrosted them and opened the packet the smell would have knocked you down!!! I binned them and went over to Tescos for another pack. When I got to the checkout I realised that these 'fresh' prawns were in fact frozen!! Probably the same the week before and I had them in my fridge for a day before freezing them. I complained but the member of staff couldn't see what the problem was. Is this not illegal? I thought fresh meant not previously frozen etc. They were from their chilled counter but it must be turned up too high.

[Sheik Yir Erse]

Morrisons does operate a national price book.

Thanks for confirming, I thought they were the only ones.

[general jack o'niell]

did you get the original prawns from over beside the cold meats and fresh juices? if so they wouldn't be frozen

[EMDEE]

I notice that Tescos are selling frozen scampi etc. produced by the company that used to operate at Snipefield, but buggered off, under the brand name of "Kintyre".

Are these prawns actually sourced in Kintyre? Even if they are, and the scampi is produced elsewhere, is it right that a company that has forsaken an area should be allowed to use the name of that area to market their products?

(EU-Cornish pasties etc.)

[general jack o'niell]

noticed that myself, even if they were caught locally they would have been sent to the far east to be proccessed and then shipped back again, yes as ridiculous as that might sound, thats what is happening.

better than that, theres a company trading as Campbeltown shipyard, from what i hear, they advertise in the fishing news giving just a mobile phone number.

[EMDEE]

Saw an article on the news recently about this shipping of seafood to the Far East to process it. I think it was Young's Seafoods spokesman who claimed that doing this actually lessened the carbon footprint of the products.

If I remember rightly, the justification for this claim was that cheaper labour costs meant that they could process the product manually rather than by using electricity etc. for machinery, which meant that the cost to the environment of transporting the goods to the processing plant were negated by the energy saving in the processing. I suppose that's one way of salving your conscience for exploiting workers in other countries and contributing to the destruction of the UK economy.

[general jack o'niell]

complete nonsense of course, doesn't matter how they try to justify it, it still has to get there and back and unless its rowed there in a punt theres no way a factory like the one in annan thats suffered uses as much energy as a cargo ship or plane. i boycott all youngs products now, they never paid well when i sold prawns to them, i'm bloody sure i'm not paying a mark up of 500% for the pleasure of putting the likes of kenny hastie out of a job. (assuming he still works there, its been a good few years)

[spangles]

which meant that the cost to the environment of transporting the goods to the processing plant were negated by the energy saving in the processing

What about the cost to the environment regards more lorries on the road to transport it?

S

[Hello]

surprised to hear about Youngs i never knew that I imagined that they processed all their fish at Grimbsy I must admit their prawns salmon etc I always find to be excellent although the salmon comes from a farm in norway I presume