Skint

To be fair to them all, as a whole you probably haven't been.

For their suppliers however it's a different story. The average contract goes something like this..............
"We (Nasty S/market) agree to buy xyz units per week at xyz% of what you (small scale supplier/farmer) really need to make this viable. If the delivery is short or late we will then only pay you xyz% of the price that we told you we would pay.
We reserve the right to change our minds about quantities (obviously we will give you fair notice, eight hours before delivery is fair) and take less if we choose. That seems like a fair period of notice if we decide that we can't be bothered any more and cancel the contract as well, so we reserve that right too.
For the privilege of selling your product you will give us ninety day terms, unless we decide we want 120 days. "

 

They're just gangsters in suits!

 

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Use that information to get the most out of any spend and save Tesco vouchers from Price Promise, or from Asda with their Price Guarantee .

Definitely telephone their Customer Services. Sometimes Tesco online codes don't work but a call to CS will get them to credit you with the voucher code value.

We're normally laughing about how much money we've saved as we leave Tescos, if we're not laughing it means we've only bought a couple of essential items (or nothing), having found (after using the price checkers) that it's not one of the stores where the list of stuff we've compiled from looking online isn't going through the tills at 75% off, only 1p, or conversely for much more than shown on the labels (not mentioned in this thread yet) where you deliberately buy stuff they're overcharging on, then go to CS to complain and get 'Double The Difference' (DTD) back. For example, if something that's shown as being BOGOF comes through without the saving then the DTD will be all that you've paid and so you get full refund and walk away with a trolley of free shopping. Then you go the next nearest Tescos and repeat.

Sometimes Tescos pull BOGOFs before the expiry date on the shelf edge labels (SEL). Very often these promotions are in more than one place in the store and they forget to change all the BOGOF offer SELs, so you fill your trolley, adding a few other bits and pieces see footnote [1], go through the tills (they can get awkward about DTD if you use the self scans), then go to CS for your DTD, making sure you take them to the aisle where the BOGOF labels are still in place. Then you go the next nearest Tescos and repeat.

We made an absolute killing doing this when they finished a pre-Xmas Cava promotion early, left one of the promotion labels on display (it was on display in 3 places) and we put 6 cases in our trolley. It only worked out at a few pounds a case because they gave us the DTD before wine discount (25% at the time). Unfortunately the next store we rushed to only had it displayed in 2 locations and had changed both labels.

If you

P.S. If you use Spend and Save vouchers when buying overcharged stuff to get a DTD they don't take those into account when calculating the refund, so if you're overcharged by 100% you get all your money back, get the purchases for free, plus make on the value of the voucher!

P.P.S. Asda CS will just honour the correct price and give you a £2 gift card. They used to give one £2 gift card per overcharged item, so when we bought say 6 cucumbers going through the tills at 10p more than on the SEL (we'd bought one, noticed their error and gone back in for another shop) we got a refund plus 6x £2 gift cards. Then another customer (Mrs Scrungee) went to CS for the single refund + £2 gift card (we can't do stuff like that at our local with both of us getting refunds at our local Tesco because our faces are well know at the CS desk as we're always there claiming refunds) . That makeup for all the times we've been overcharged and not noticed. Nowadays however Asda in store CS resist giving one gift card per item.

[1] Always add enough additional items to qualify for Tesco's Price Promise as that will not be taken off the refund when they do the DTD calculation.

 

Use MySupermarket.co.uk instead - it does all that for you. You might even find that Waitrose is cheaper (and I'm sure you don't want to go to the trouble having that open in another window just on the off chance!!)

Just contact them, they'll put the voucher back on there for you - and probably give you a customer service voucher too. If you are after saving, rather than just soap box (sorry ) then better to stick with it.

For your high ground I have a suggestion. Buy from them regularly, online, (where it makes price-wise sense to do so) and then stop and shop somewhere else. After a bit Tescos will send you a "hurry back" voucher. Use it or wait a bit longer before their computer realises that they haven't yet met your price-point and sends you a bigger voucher Shop with them again for 6 months then Rinse & Repeat. Last time I did that I think the voucher they send me was £25 - might have been more.

Use MySupermarket.co.uk - I've saved that much on a single shop before now with alternative product substitutions, let alone alternative supermarket suggestions!

I'd love to better understand why people say / feel that.

How have you been shafted? Price was high? Presumably you can vote with your feet on that one (or use MySupermarket.co.uk natch!). Several folk on here have said that they hate Tescos and I would really appreciate an explanation, as I just don't get what it is that they do that annoys people. I don't shop there often now, but when online shopping first started (and they were the first to serve our area) I shopped with them exclusively for probably 5 years.

 

I'm not sure I agree with this. What you say about the contracts is of course true. OTOH supermarkets have driven the price of food etc. down such that nowadays the proportion of income, for Average Wage folk, that is Food is dramatically less than it used to be - so those folk now have washing machines etc. and convenience foods et. which in turn means spouse has the option to go out to work, whereas before they were tied to house for washing and cooking, thereby further increasing household income and enabling them to afford other White goods, consumable stuff, holidays and so on.

The supermarkets can't drive their suppliers' price so low as to drive them all out of business, so its a fine line, but to get the price down to the consumer, and then sell MORE, they had to drive the suppliers price down (Old business adage: "Halve the price, sell 20x as much"). Tough for farmers? I don't see it that way, I think its a good think. It caused farmers to become more efficient - time was when they weren't that bothered, they were making a living. Now around here we have farms of, say, 5,000 acres with only a handful of people employed full time. Far more efficient, far better price-point for the, eventual, consumer. Tesco makes a huge profit, but has delivered a significant service. The price the charge is cheap, from consumer's PoV (yeah, we can argue that Asda is cheaper etc., but not comparing with 50 years ago). We can also argue that farmer's are shafted, and indeed some are - an old friend of mine used to supply supermarkets with 5,000 pigs a week! they no longer farm pigs at all, and that is directly because of the supermarkets' policy/attitude towards suppliers. Clearly other farmers are still raising pigs in this country, and have not gone bust, so they have found a way to make a living. Sure - they moan like fury about their treatment by supermarkets, but they've all got big Range Rovers - I've never seen one on a bike!

Me? Online shopping has revolutionised our lives. We used to one-stop-shop at a supermarket on a Friday night for "the week". Now we online-shop for bog rolls and bottled stuff etc., and buy Meat etc. from butcher and delicatessen - i.e. using our "shopping time" for more selective purchases. Until that point I had forgotten how good proper meat, from my childhood, tasted and it was a great revelation when we got back the time to be selective where how and where we shopped.

 

Gangster doesn't give you a choice, surely? Don't like it - then vote with your feet; try that with a gangster and they'll break you legs

In France small town markets thrive. French folk are very selective about their choice of raw materials for cooking, and fiercely protective of their local brands. In the UK the majority just want the cheapest possible ...

 

I don't get that either. I can only assume that it is because their obscene levels of profit make lead news stories?

Not just Tesco, but all the major s/market chains. For me it is a matter of their business ethics (or lack of them). Not only do they treat their suppliers appallingly, they will dictate what they pay in business rates (out of town superstores should be paying twice the effective rate per sq.metre, not a small percentage of it), knowingly hide behind jargon on their labels, use a third party agent to knowingly source from third world sweat shops and so on.
Sad fact is that they are now a necessary evil in our lives.

Another problem. Online shopping should have a sliding tax rate. At the level of turnover they are at it should be 100%. Harsh, but this is a huge amount of money to disappear into "The City" never to be seen again. It's time that the High Street (especially family businesses) was supported by the powers that be - they should not be colluding in its death.

 

Farmers are always complaining about something or other. My father in law retired from farming absolutely ages ago, but he still hasn't stopped complaining.

 

Totally without prejudice and in the spirit of open debate....................

You cannot deny though that they have colluded to drive them down to subsistence levels of income.

See above.

That's a good thing? Is this at the expense of;
1] Rural communities?
2] Animal welfare standards?
3] Environmental standards?

On an industrial scale.

Nope - I have one Rangie to sell against an unpaid bill. The farmers solution I might add.

Hallelujah! And it works out cheaper by the time that it is cooked and the water that you buy from the supermarket hasn't evaporated!
I do agree though, supermarkets are for tins 'n things. Sadly our town of 26000 people is now reduced to just one baker, no greengrocers or fishmongers and just two butchers.

 

Tell me about it! They even complain about the weather!

 

For me personally, I think its because of the science of selling. It is a science too. Immense amounts of studying has gone on to work out how the human mind works, and how to exploit that understanding for maximum profit.

The simplest example I can think of is the Big Special Offer. A massive banner than screams "Come in here and you can have this bargain, nay, 2 of this bargain for the bargain price of one... in fact, lets go the whole hog, you can have 2 of this bargain for nowt when you spend a million quid ". Ok, that's a massive exaggeration to illustrate my point. People come in to take advantage of said offer, and now they're through the door. That's when the science of the layout comes into full swing. None of it is an accident, or organised like that for convenience. The clever people that plan the layout know that from walking into the shop to walking back out, the mind of the shopper goes through several thought processes in sequence. So you organise the shop to take advantage of that. The classic example is the location of the fresh fruit, and the sweets. You walk into the shop so full of good intentions, and you are confronted by a vision of healthy food. Immediately the hunter/gather is in the mindset that they've found a great bounty to be exploited. Then as you progress round to the end, you've done your work, you deserve a treat. Oh look, there's the sweets right next to the checkout. How convenient.

Other tricks include slightly changing the layout every other week or so. The supermarket planners know that as much as we like to think we are spontaneous, we are actually a very predictable and boring species. We tend to find something that works for us, and just repeat it ad infinitum until something forces us to change. That applies in the shop too. Having worked out where the stuff we want is kept, we will simply bypass the other aisles. So you change it around. This forces you to notice things that you hadn't noticed before (probably because you didn't want it until you saw it) as you search for where they've put the stuff you do want.

Even the closing of the deal has clever science in it. You get your til receipt and ooh look, if I come back and spend another £40 another day, I'll get £5 off my bill. Doesn't matter if the same shopping comes to £30 elsewhere, because at the cheaper place I don't get a free fiver. There's even a bit in the human brain that is designed to make you repeat things if you get a reward. Its not strong, so you can easily counter it with logic, if you're not too distracted by other things once the shopping is done.

I can't knock them. Business is business, but it is easy to see how they are just very efficient machines for liberating your cash from you.

 

My assumption too, but why "Obscene?" That's the way capitalism works surely? - if you have a good idea, work hard, implement it well you make a fortune - you are incentivised. In Communism where, lets say, every gets the same why would anyone do more than their fair share or take a risk?

If their price is high then people will go elsewhere. If they drive all their suppliers out of business they won't have any. If they aren't doing that, and making stonking profits then they must be doing a good job??

British spend far too much time "wanting" or being jealous of someone else's share rather than saying "What can I do to make a pile like XXX"

I think that is casting what they do in a light that you want to see them in. Not saying I agree / approve, but they (along with most people) are doing what they either think is reasonable, or can reasonably get away with. Councils don't have to agree to them building a supermarket at minimal rates (yeah, I know, there will be lobbying and Big Clout does come into play), but councillors are no more guilty in my book than shoppers who choose NOT to vote with their feet

Interesting thought. Tescos [unless they have changed] fulfil orders from local stores, so buying online is no different to going into the local store in terms of rates and "preserving" the local community (yeah, they are probably out of town, but so are all the White Goods stores, and DIY sheds, and garden centres). Occado [again, from memory] ship from a central warehouse, more like Amazon, so no support for local community - but: their systems "know" what they have in stock so they shouldn't ever have to substitute anything. Dunno about the others.

Hmm ... our local High Street has doubled in size - council built a massive shopping arcade on what was the original cattle market, in the centre of town. I thought it was a dire move, badly timed, and more capacity than we needed. I was wrong, although all the big shops moved into the new area (modern buildings probably far better suiting to being a Shop than a High Street Building ) and that has left some gaps in the old town (which has lovely architecture) the town is thriving. It has increased the foot-fall hugely.

I build eCommerce systems for a living. "Click and Collect" has become far more common. The one moan everyone has about online is the cost of Carriage (its probably moot because it probably costs most people more than a fiver to get into town to shop, but driving 10 miles and parking is not a cost that is itemised in people's wallets ) and if you buy online from 10 suppliers that's 10 x £5 carriage, rather than "one trip into town" of course.

So I don't think high street is at risk, it just needs to refactor itself - as, it turns out and against my expectation, my local high street has

 

If you planned your £40 shop correctly before using that £5 off £40 voucher, you would get the £5 off plus a £10 'Price Promise' voucher so you're £5 better off than shopping where the same stuff is cheaper. All you need to do is make it up to the required number of items and this can be achieved by adding the likes of different single vegetables - haven't you seen anybody doing this in Tescos? And you can still use Tescos coupons and other vouchers to
get money off your shop and these are not taken into account in the Price Promise calculation.

P.S. And you'd get 40 Clubcard Points from that shop that you wouldn't get from Asda. Nectar Points from Sainsburys are only worth half of what Clubcard Points are worth and can't be used at 2x or 3x face value for 'Deals'.

 

Farmers do seem to complain a lot, but in fairness to them, sometimes I think they have a good excuse to whinge.

For example, my dad used to work for a dairy farmer. He said he'd tied into a 10 year contract to supply milk exclusively to one big chain. The deal was the farmer would get 9p per litre for the milk. The deal was signed when milk was retailing at 50-60p per litre, so it seemed fair enough. During the course of the contract, and remember the farmer couldn't just walk away, he was tied into a contract with financial penalties attached etc, the cost of things like fuel and animal feed doubled, but the farmer was still only getting his 9p per litre. He told my dad, if it hadn't been for subsidies and grants and things, he would actually have gone bust.