Somerfield ARGH!!!

mclaren_2

I was in a local somerfield store today, and i was absolutly shocked at the prices of the items. I done a price comparason test between tesco and somerfield adn i was shocked to see such difference.

Item Tesco Somerfield
MACKIES CREAM OF SCOTTISH ICE CREAM 2LTR.........£2.77.....£4.85
WARBURTONS WHITE SLICED BREAD 800G.................£0.97.....£0.99
MULLER FRUIT CORNER 175G...................................£0.38......£0.40
OL WAFER THIN SMOKED HAM 400G..........................£1.79......£2.05

esp the ice cream. tesco £2.77 and somerfield £4.85

Why is somerfield more than £2.08 more expensive than tesco on this one item alone??

Voyager2002

Somerfield tend to have local shops where there is no Tesco. So most people are willing to pay the extra in order to avoid the time and expense required to get to Tesco.

elmer

As I am a sad person who can recall the price of almost anything I buy, and I live in rural Scotland with only 2 Somerfields nearby, I can catagorically state that on most things especially branded foods, Somerfield are between 10% and 30% higher in price than Tesco , Asda or Sainburys.
Sadly it is a £5.00 return trip to any of these for me so tesco delivery and careful planning to minimise Somerfield shopping are a must. I do however use the vouchers in the Somerfield magasine at Tescos etc to offset my extra Somerfield costs, and hopefully the monoploies people are looking at the supermarket situation here, and Somerfield are being forced to sell one of their stores, so roll on competition!

Elmer

cliffsgirl

why do people complain about prices in shops, if it is too expensive then vote with your feet and don't shop there anymore.Simple.

mclaren_2

cliffsgirl wrote:

why do people complain about prices in shops, if it is too expensive then vote with your feet and don't shop there anymore.Simple.

tell me, you have 1 shop in your area, other shops are miles away, you do not have transport to take you to other shops, how the heck do you get to these other shops? its not "people moaning" but people wanting to know why shops rip you off.

lynzpower

See, I think somerfield is pretty good value. Practically everything i ever go in for is on bogof, and their yellow labels reductions are muhc heftier than tesco. think the qualitys better too. Saying that there are variations round the country depending what other shops are availabe.

grex9101

I used to work for them, and yes, they ARE expensive. Almost every item is at least 10% more than the big four, but then, it's a different market.
Factor in the fact that they have less buying power than Asda etc, and you have the reason why they are so much more expensive.
Buy the bargains/reductions and be happy to have a more local store than your out of towners....

lamnicholas

Also Somerfield prices differ from branch to branch depending on the locality and competition. Compare the prices of the Fulham branch with the Earl's Court branch in London for instance - only a few mins walk away but more expensive!

IvanOpinion

mclaren wrote:

tell me, you have 1 shop in your area, other shops are miles away, you do not have transport to take you to other shops, how the heck do you get to these other shops? its not "people moaning" but people wanting to know why shops rip you off.

They are not ripping you off they are offering you a service that the other big supermarkets are not .. possibly because the big supermarkets do not find it economically advantageous to do so therefore a smaller chain steps in but has to have higher prices to make it feasible. Irrespective of all your excuses you have a choice. Would you be happy if Somerfield made a loss and decided to close down forcing you to travel miles to shop?

People used to do the same moaning about corner shops being rip off merchants. They weren't, they had to have higher prices just to survive ... in the end many formed into co-operatives to try to get better prices through bulk buying. However the same people are now moaning because many corner shops are being forced to close .. you can't have it every way.

Ivan

Gaelceltic

I used to work with Somerfield so know a wee bit about what am talking about here.
They are not in the market to compete with the likes of Tesco and Asda. They can't and don't aim to be. They are there to make a profit as they are a business, but they are in places which are convenient.
Best thing is to do when shopping there is to go for the bogoffs - and at least now they have dropped that stupid savers card which customers had to use to get the bogoffs. (I had to promote that card, and was cringing - was the worst idea ever.)
Have always found that their produce is of a pretty high quality in general, and they do provide a good choice. Would say that for anyone buying convenience foods, they are similar to M&S, but a bit cheaper - not that I am advising anyone to go down this route! Have tasted some of their stuff due to huge reductions, and all very good. (Make your own is always better).

If you live in a small town, and don't drive it is not so easy to vote with your feet as another poster suggested - and Tesco and Asda don't deliver everywhere for internet shopping. I have a gripe with Tesco, but think that is irrelevant to this post.

When I worked at Somerfield, would get customers moaning at prices - in the nicest possible way, told them to go there then, as I wouldn't be in the least offended, I had no say over pricing in the shop, and neither did management, so to complain directly to head office - which I don't think they ever did, they just liked to moan at the poorly paid checkout staff.

Another gripe is the treatment of checkout staff!
Never worked in a shop in my life, and took this on to get me out of the house due to illness....was amazed at how condescending some people are.

One example - I had plastic bag thrown at my face, which hit my face, with an order to "open that for me", after the customer blew at it a few times and failed to manage. I blew at it myself and didn't manage either surprisingly enough! So handed it back saying I couldn't manage with that method either. This didn't go down well with me, so was immediately awkward but always polite. Queue was building up nicely at the same time. Due to attitude of customer, I did not offer to pack bags, as it is self service store. She and her hubby said that this could take some time, and I could only agree, but I was in no hurry, as was there until 6, so they could take as long as they wanted.

I admit that my attitude was not the best, and probably should have reacted differently. Was just the assault on my face which took me aback.
If the customer was trying to blow into a bag to open it up, I would have demonstrated the way to take bags down which opens them up anyway. Well, I did this anyway for folk having problems with the silly carrier bags at Somerfield!

Meanwhile the queue was well entertained............those nearest had seen what had happened, then passed it on to those behind. (Kind of, see what she did to that poor girl, hit her in the face with a plastic bag) Think I had the longest queue ever - and they could have gone to another, but it was entertainment value! They were making that couple squirm so much, and were all talking about how nice I was normally, and how I shouldn't have to put up with such stuff. One started singing "why are we waiting" - then changed words to "we cant blow the bags up" - to what the customer was referring to is not for me to say!

Fortunately that attitude was quite rare - and I would always be as helpful as I could. I discouraged talk between myself and other shop staff/management when serving a customer - think it is very rude.
Although management tell you this, they are not so keen to follow through - and not a leg to stand on when you point it out.
Better stop now, ranting too much and hogging original thread.......sorry!

zappomatic

I'm not sure if it's even worth commenting on something costing 99p at Somerfield and 97p at Tesco! The ice cream difference is a bit of a shocker though.