Morrison's quality going downhill

Malory

midget_gems wrote: »

And this thread, people, is why there will always be the need for chefs and food preparation experts.

As i have been getting older and slowly learning the lessons of life, as we all do, the biggest thing i have noticed is the difference between a 10p pack of noodles and a 10p pack of noodles that has beqen prepared by someone who can cook.

Recently, having started living in a house with 3 other residents, i started by buying the cheapest and nastiest ASDA brand food i could afford.... namely 10p noodles and whatever i could get my hands on for under 20p an item because "it will be fine, i did it as a student!".

Cut to 3 months into my tenancy, a good friend of mine and fellow resident kindly takes me to one side and says "Dude, not trying to be a pompous !!!!! but you clearly cannot cook". Admittedly being slightly offended by this comment, i demand he put his money where his mouth is and show me how its done. He then proceeds to ask me to go and buy myself a Marks & Spencer/Waitrose prepared meal of my choice, and then give him the same amount of money i spent on the M&S meal fo him to go to ASDA and buy the absolute cheapest ingredients he can that make up my meal, going smartprice where possible and the next cheapest wherever else. The only condition, is that he can use whatever herbs and spices he already owns and keeps in his cupboard.

The end result? I have never since tasted an amazing piece of food like that one he prepared on smartprice ingredients, and i have certainly tried. I graciously accepted defeat, praised his culinary genius and have since been taught how to prepare meals that are so good it will feel like your face is going to meating it.

I was referring to the quality of fresh meat, fruit and veg, not prepared/ready meals. Since I've been eating food from Sainsbury's the past few days, I've definitely noticed an improvement in taste over Morrison's, despite my preparing the food exactly the same way.

midget_gems

Malory wrote: »

I was referring to the quality of fresh meat, fruit and veg, not prepared/ready meals. Since I've been eating food from Sainsbury's the past few days, I've definitely noticed an improvement in taste over Morrison's, despite my preparing the food exactly the same way.

the point was, that even the worst ingredients combined in the right way are far superior to what passes for the more "luxurious" of choices now.

surely in your right mind you wouldnt have thought a ready-made lasagne under the marks & spencer brand was worse than one you make yourself out of ASDA smartprice beef and pasta sheets?

Gillyx

If that ever happens again phone up the day it happens, get your name logged in the communications book at Customer Services and you will more than likely get some sort of compensation sent to your from head office. You really need to speak up, 'cause if you don't then they'l never know they're doing anything wrong.

habitualangel

I won't buy fruit and veg from Mr M's - twice in the past I have had peppers from there only to slice open and find mould, the only good things from Mr M's are the offers on the branded goods, I check the offers and go and get them and them only. I have never been a fan of Mr M's branded goods but will happily buy all other supermarkets own brands.
On another note the queues in my local are terrible, you can spend longer queing to pay than you do doing the actual shopping yet they never open more tills - on a saturday morning over half of the tills are closed and the staff always seem to be arranging their night out rather than serving or telling me how hungover they are!

No1

Well…I may as well put the boot in too.

I have shopped at Morrisons for many a year and have always been an advocate of their decent quality stuff which has always been a notch above the others - but alas I too have noticed a real downturn - and an upturn - in prices, that do not relate to the VAT rise.

To compound this the service has also taken a nose dive. The service counters are like the Marie Celeste most of the time, standing there for anything upto 10 mins is not unusual, the Derby store is the current leader here out of the three stores that I regularly (used to) visit.

I've voted with my feet.

Edit: Forgot to mention the line of Window/Conservatory/Mobile Phone/Sky and charity beggars on the way out - no issue with the charities as such but no tin rattlers please, I do my bit.

savemoney

I been disappointed with them for a while now and am considering switching supermarkets

I am a bargain hunter arent we all now? I find quality has gone down but my main grip is offers or lack of them, I use to save £30 a week 4-5 years ago and slowly gone down each each that I am now lucky the past few months to save a few quid and my food bill has jumped up from £60-£70 to almost £80+ and I get much less, I know prices have jumped up and by have they in recent weeks masquerading as vat price rise

I do use Sainsburys as OH works there, on reason I use Morrisons is some things I cant get else where but I do find I am using Sainsburys more now quality is much better and what with lack of offers its making me increasing wanting to switch

paddedjohn

the morrisons local to my work closes at 8pm, i go in at 7.30 pm wednesday evenings and get cooked chickens/ribs for 50p, bread 5p, fruit and veg from 5p and cakes from15p.

Marjory

I don't just think it is the produce we have found that the service has also on downhill in our local Morrisons. Long queues and not enough staff.

Malory

I've noticed long queues recently, but I thought it was because they were getting lots of new customers - people who normally shop at other supermarkets trying Morrison's for the advertised "price crunch" deals.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, some of the former cashiers seem to have been replaced. Are they getting rid of staff, which would explain the long queues?

midget_gems wrote: »

the point was, that even the worst ingredients combined in the right way are far superior to what passes for the more "luxurious" of choices now.

surely in your right mind you wouldnt have thought a ready-made lasagne under the marks & spencer brand was worse than one you make yourself out of ASDA smartprice beef and pasta sheets?

It would depend on the quality of the beef, cheese and pasta.

Quality food should not need to have spices or sauces added to it, or be mixed with other foods, to make it taste good. Spices and sauces and combinations with other foods are meant to enhance flavor, not to make something that would taste bad on its own taste edible.

I don't like it when someone tries to hide poor quality food or food that has not been properly cooked by covering it up with sauce.

Azari

Malory wrote: »

I've noticed long queues recently, but I thought it was because they were getting lots of new customers - people who normally shop at other supermarkets trying Morrison's for the advertised "price crunch" deals.

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, some of the former cashiers seem to have been replaced. Are they getting rid of staff, which would explain the long queues?

Supermarkets as a group seem to have an abject and irrational horror of having an empty checkout manned.

At any supermarket I ever use, no matter how many or how few customers are present there are virtually always just too few for anyone to ever be able to walk up and get served immediately.

I'm not saying they should have rows of manned, empty, checkouts waiting for customers but given the complexities of queuing theory, a couple more operating would often dramatically reduce waiting time.