Tesco paying the price for greed?

sukysue

I wunt mind them suffering for a bit though, they seem to have become too used to being no 1 and no longer give a little bit back.

thor

Nobody would want to see such a major player like Tesco go under but I tell you there are lots of people who would like to see them taken down a peg or two. All supermarkets have been putting up prices but it is the sneaky way that tesco does it that has grated. Originally I used to shop exclusively at Sainsbury but then Tesco began to offer better value and I used them when I found their prices were superior. Over the last few years I occasionally also went to Asda, Morrisons and latterly Lidl. I find that tesco has now fallen down the pecking order based purely on their increases. It is no longer the best place to find the cheapest prices. I agree with all those who say that if you don't like then go elsewhere and can see 2009 being a much worse year for Tesco than for other supermarkets as they have the most to lose.
TESCO we are not going to fall for it!

Schamansky

History repeating. Someone told me today that Aldi and Lidl had both grown around 25% in sales in spite of the crunch.

"Not in spite of the crunch", I replied. "Because of."

It is exactly the same thing that Germany and continental Europe have repeatedly seen over the last 30-40 years. After every recession the discounters emerged stronger than before. This is precisely what is happening in the UK now. Customers feeling the pinch are looking for cheaper alternatives, and there is a self-accelerating exodus of customers from the Big Four to the German discounters. But that's neither going to sink Tesco, nor is it going to push them from their #1 position.

What bewilders me is that Tesco is obviously fully aware of this. But why they counter this development with their half-hearted and half-baked "Britain's biggest discounter" campaign instead of a full-on price counter strike against Aldi and Lidl, that is completely beyond me. They have the means, capital and liquidity means to wipe both Aldi or Lidl off the UK map.

Instead they are raising prices left, right and centre (not that Aldi or Lidl or anybody else for that matter haven't done the same recently) and thus drive an increasing number of disgruntled customers out of their stores. So what is it? Have their management been intoxicated by some sense of infallibility and invincibility during the last 15 years and are now finally losing the plot completely, or am I just being blind as a bat and without a clue, and they know precisely what they're doing?

Someone enlighten me, since I'm at the end of my tether here.

wembley78_2

spaceman5 wrote: »

sainsburys not much more expensive, that is a joke aint it

Sainsbury's were the cheapest supermarket in the Grocer magazine this week on there shopping basket check

spaceman5

wembley78 wrote: »

Sainsbury's were the cheapest supermarket in the Grocer magazine this week on there shopping basket check

i suppose there is always a first time for everything

spaceboy

TotallyBroke wrote: »

In my personal opinion the only reason that Sainsbury has seen a profit is because Waitrose and Marks and Spencer shoppers have started to shop there. Considering both of these companies have announced bad profits.
If Tesco started advertising their "Finest" range more then I would say that the Waitrose/M&S shoppers would go there and it would be more evenly split.

So you're saying Tesco advertising is rubbish? That's not a very good way to run a business! But then neither is shifting your prices up and down like a w.hore's drawers...

spaceboy

wembley78 wrote: »

Sainsbury's were the cheapest supermarket in the Grocer magazine this week on there shopping basket check

They've timed it just right to make a maximum impact on their competitors though.

spaceboy

taxiphil wrote: »

That's not the full story. The Guardian simply made a mistake (which it conceded and apologised for early on) - the offshore tax fiddling scheme it exposed was actually designed to evade stamp duty, not corporation tax as it mistakenly stated.

It was actually Tesco who were pressured into settling when the High Court ruled that the Guardian could introduce fresh evidence proving that Tesco does use offshore trusts to avoid corporation tax. This raised the prospect that Tesco would be forced to disclose other "schemes" and a whole new can of worms would be opened.

Tesco suddenly got extremely anxious and abandoned their demands for a half page apology on the front page of the Guardian, and settled for a derisory sum of less than £10k in damages to a charity of their choice - a far cry from the substantial 8 figure sum they originally wanted. Interesting.

And the High Court threw out Tesco's action for "malicious falsehood" (I presume this is the alleged "lie" to which you refer) against the Guardian's editor and awarded costs to the Guardian.

Very interesting, thanks.

TotallyBroke

spaceboy wrote: »

So you're saying Tesco advertising is rubbish? That's not a very good way to run a business! But then neither is shifting your prices up and down like a w.hore's drawers...

No that is not what I am saying.
What I am saying is that Sainsbury have always advertised their TTD range before advertising their Basics range. So when the Waitrose and M&S shoppers had to tighten their belts they bought TTD.
It's only in the last few months that we have seen a sainsbury advert showing their basic range.
Tesco on the other hand have always advertised their Value range before their "Finest" range so people will think of them as a discounter first.

As for the price shifting. All companies do it and all outlets do it.
Not every branch of Tesco/Sainsbury will sell every product at the same price at the same time. Some branches even stock different foods to others depending on the areas culture and purchasing habits.

lynzpower

spaceman5 wrote: »

i suppose there is always a first time for everything

Sains ius OFTEN the cheapest basket compared in sun NOTW.

As waitrose & markys ahve got cheaper I shop there as well as sains now and hardly ever go in to tescos.
tescos should have thought of rthis when they rebranded a lot of value to market value and put the prices up. Shocking

HOw can you expect your customer to stay on side?