Website for Wine Bargains

stroudpete

LesD wrote:

Tesco (48) and Asda (41) seem to be vastly under-represented and it still leads me to question the validity of the site when many postings identify the best wine offers around to be in Tesco and Asda stores.

Les, excuse my outburst on the previous page. I'm Mel's husband, and certainly not a wine expert, merely an IT guy and responsible for putting the site together. I know how much effort Mel puts into this, and we do not make one penny from the site, so although I recognise it's not useful to everybody, to see the suggestion that it wasn't even handed in the detailing of bargains and then rubbished as you did rubbed me up the wrong way.

There's only 3 ways of garnering prices, unless you have the resources of Price Runner. One is to write software that will scrape the info off retailers' sites. Another is to go retail outlets and write them down. The third is to get the retail companies to send the information to you.

The first is very time consuming, sometimes not possible, and at the mercy of the retailer keeping the site format the same- so not viable. Also, Quaffers' Offers is intended to give instore offer details, and since these often differ from online offers, screen scraping would be inaccurate.

The second is a ridiculous option. Apart from the time required to gather prices by visiting stores, not every branch of a store stocks all wines - nor do they always display all the offers, believe it or not!

So, the third option is the only viable way. This means Mel is at the mercy of the relevant admin part of each retail organisation. Until a couple of months ago, Asda didn't want their details on the site (they said they didn't have offers, just constantly low prices), but then they changed and actually asked to be included - it seems they do have offers, but as you observed, not that many. Anyway, that means you get to see the information that Tesco, Asda, Waitrose et al send to her. From time to time this involves her chasing them for details, but you can't force people to send the information. Whilst the publicity dept may be keen, the admin don't always see it as important.

btw, the site came about because the supermarkets (etc) sent Mel advance notice of offers because she writes a wine column for a regional newspaper. After a while she thought there should be a way she could share this useful information with other people, and that led to her site.

Anyway, if people have found the site useful in the past, I'd recommend they forgive the blip and keep checking back, as the retailers do "get with it" eventually (as you've seen from the changes over a couple of days).

alanrp123

It is painfully obvious that the likes of NETTO, ALDI and LIDL do not appear on this site, even though their wine prices are on many occasions cheaper than the mainstream supermarkets, so the prices shown do not represent what is generally available.

stroudpete

alanrp123 wrote:

It is painfully obvious that the likes of NETTO, ALDI and LIDL do not appear on this site, even though their wine prices are on many occasions cheaper than the mainstream supermarkets, so the prices shown do not represent what is generally available.

You may be missing the point of the site. The site is called Quaffers' OFFERS and details the SPECIAL OFFERS of (some!!) retailers. We don't list the whole of a retailers stock, nor do we try to find the cheapest price of a wine. Nor have we ever claimed to do so. It may be that the site doesn't do what most other sites recommended by MSE do, ie. find the cheapest source for an item, but it obviously provides information which many find useful.

If the retailers you mentioned do have special offers, they don't send the details to Mel, so we don't list them.

clu

Thank you Pete and Mel for me its great, as I pass tesco, asda, marks and spencers, morrisons and sainsburys on the way home (all in a 10 minute drive!) Now on a Friday night I can preplan which shop I will visit and get a wee bargain to start the weekend off.

max.well99

Surely this website goes completely against the normal activities of MSE.

Unlike most MSE’ers who pound the streets looking for bargains and glitches that in most cases the Suppliers would hate the general public to know,
… meljones and stroudpete receive their information from the suppliers, which they then post on their website.
The suppliers could give them any price information they choose …
Why are meljones and stroudpete running a website to give free advertising to any supplier who wants to drop them an advertising mailshot?
I don’t get it.

stroudpete

max.well99 wrote:

Surely this website goes completely against the normal activities of MSE.

Unlike most MSE’ers who pound the streets looking for bargains and glitches that in most cases the Suppliers would hate the general public to know,
… meljones and stroudpete receive their information from the suppliers, which they then post on their website.
The suppliers could give them any price information they choose …
Why are meljones and stroudpete running a website to give free advertising to any supplier who wants to drop them an advertising mailshot?
I don’t get it.

I'm not normally rude to people who offer opinions - whatever subject it might be or however different that opinion may be from my own. Everyone has their own viewpoint and is entitled to express it. I don't expect everyone to like our site - that would be ridiculous - indeed there are things we would love to add or change, but this site is a hobby and we have spend most of our time earning a living. I've not been trying to argue that anyone should like or use the site, merely explain why information might be "missing", how it is obtained, and that it is completely unbiased in it's content (unless you count opinions on quality in the weekly columns and the tasting notes).

However, I'll make an exception in your case. I'd like to congratulate you on one of the most fatuous postings I've read on any notice board in a long time. Don't you understand English, or do you not read the whole of the postings? The primary reason they send Mel the prices, as I previously stated is in the hope that they'll get a mention in her weekly wine columns in various local papers. It's highly likely that Tesco or Waitrose or Sainsbury will send Mel false prices, isn't it? They'd look pretty silly if they lied to Mel and got incorrect prices printed, plus they'd be creating problems for their instore customer services posts. Mel puts this information online so that others can benefit from information which is sent to the press and is not sent to memebers of the public. No information comes from mailshots, indeed Mel has to work at getting the prices from some retailers. Some people might see that as an equivalent to pounding the streets!

You're perfectly entitled to cricise the site, the content, it's validity on here because we don't garner this information on foot (do price runner, kelkoo, etc, who are also recommended - I rather doubt it!!), the format, the colours - anything you like, as they are your opinions. It might be more beneficial to MSE'ers if your criticism was a little more informed, or at least vaguely intelligent.

alanshave

I'm not someone who buys wine very often at all, however after reading this thread I feel that I have to say something. Mel and Pete clearly run this site in thier spare time to let people know what offers are happening in the major supermarkets, surely this helps the majority of people to know where to go for the best deal!? Either way this site is helpful to some and does not deserve insults from people who are questioning the 'normal activities of an MSE'r'. Especially as I can't help but to notice that it is your first post on the forums, which makes comments like this so more unnecessary.