Haldanes Supermarkets

DCFC79

There was news of trouble last year, link, maybe its finally hit the fan

Sadler2011

Just been into the Kelso Shop and Haldanes are closing down next Tuesday, staff were informed this morning. Very little stock left, hope staff get a new employer soon.

z1985m

Yeah they've made us redundant. arthur harris still has his ugo stores though! (conveniently under his sons name!) most of the stores will be closed by tuesday. Most stores are trading 8 till 8 but don't be suprised if they close the doors earlier. I don't think anyone will be taking us over. We're not even getting our pay next friday.

job hunting for me then!

Sadler2011

Sorry to hear your news, I have been made redundant in the past, I know what you are going through.

I will be very surprised if Kelso Shop remains open till Tuesday. I was wondering about the Ugo Stores, Think everyone knew it was going to happen because of the dwindling shoppers. Its hard on the people who cannot access internet shopping and rely on the Home Delivery Service which Haldanes took over. If his Netto Stores are run like Haldanes , well only time will tell.
Fingers crossed one of the Big Boys take the group over.
Good Luck for the future

loopy136

This is a very sad time for those who have lost their jobs. This company have done nothing to help employees through this, and let them and their customers down at very turn, and couldnt even tell the workers face to face, just sent an email to be given out. If i were them i wouldnt be so pleasent and polite when serving customers for these last few days, i cant imagine how they are coping with this. It is the workers that have kept this business going for so long, with no help from head office. I know my local store now has daily phone calls from suppliers asking for bills to be paid, and the threat of balifts at any moment, all this and MR ARTHUR HALDANE HARRIS can just carry on with no worries, only need to look at his business history to know the workers left in the ugo store need to get out as soon as possible. Good luck to all job hunters, hope you fall on your feet before too long.

Sadler2011

Yes , good luck to all the employees looking for work. I wonder which four stores they are hoping to sell. I bet the Co op are licking their wounds over the rent issues, from what I can understand they let them have the buildings rent free during the first year, then they guaranteed the rent for the second year . Well Mr Harris turned our Sommerfields / Co op into a Spar Shop, not a supermarket. People were going out with baskets of shopping , not trolley fulls like previous. When customers were used to quality goods and then were presented with a Spar shop they shopped elsewhere, it is as simple as that.

HaldanesEpicFail

As an employee of Haldanes for the past year and three months I can honestly say that they are the worst company I have ever worked for. At first I thought it might have been general teething problems, which are to be expected from new business ventures. But, as time went on I realised that there was something not quite right with this fledgling company. My worst fears were realised but hours ago when I was told (unofficially) that I would be losing my job within five days.

Imagine my horror when after six months of minimal orders and inept managerial commands I find that Haldanes, refreshingly local, refreshingly unfair, refreshingly unable to listen to any word of sense that is put forward to them, decides to turn its back on the staff who have bothered staying with the company to try and make it the success that the directors claimed it would be.

What really gets me mad (and its not the fact that I have been given 5 days notice to find new work by the way) is that I and every other employee of Haldanes has been told that we will not be given our full wage which we are due on the 17th June 2011. We are to be given 1 weeks pay next Friday. We have also not been promised any form of redundancy package.

From the second the doors opened at Haldanes, refreshingly mediocre, refreshingly empty, refreshingly corrupt, I knew something was wrong. There was the (un)expected voluntary redundancies which came about 3 months into their short career in retail. There were suspicious anonymous notes that were posted to stores claiming that Sir/Lord/!!!! Arthur Haldane had made a career of destroying businesses for his own personal gain. There’s the fact that no stock take has ever been carried out in store. As I recall stock takes were carried out by an independent party about twice a year when it was Somerfield stores and the like. Proper Companies.

Hear me out people. Haldanes deserves to rot because all that has happened from the minute they opened the first door is that people have suffered. Employees have left previously good jobs because they have become tedious, worthless, soul destroying jobs that have no other motive than making Haldanes (!!!! You) a success. I myself am I young, single man with little commitments in this world. But I really feel sorry for the people who have families and mortgages to pay for. Their steady income has been cut and I hope Mr Arthur and Mister !!!!!! Collins feel happy with themselves for destroying so many people’s livelihoods.


Yours Faithfully

(Former) Haldanes Employee

Sadler2011

I agree totally with your views, I hope for your sake this is rock bottom and it can only get better. Hopefully someone will takeover the stores as a group and make a success of them once again.
Haldanes became a top up Spar Shop instead of a supermarket like previous.In my opinion Mr Harris got it totally wrong from beginning, people wemt elsewhere, back to the Co op or other retailers because he did not provide a decent range, price, quality. If it was not for the faithful customers Haldanes would have shut ages ago. Everyone including the staff thought wrongly it would get better, give them a chance, well it did not .I sincerely hope whoever takes it over makes a huge success and then everyone can point the finger who was at fault,
.Good luck for the future

DCFC79

HaldanesEpicFail wrote: »

What really gets me mad (and its not the fact that I have been given 5 days notice to find new work by the way) is that I and every other employee of Haldanes has been told that we will not be given our full wage which we are due on the 17th June 2011. We are to be given 1 weeks pay next Friday. We have also not been promised any form of redundancy package.

the directors should take a cut in they're nice wages and divide that between the staff,

i think you might be able to claim some redundancy from the government but you will have to investigate that on your own

Sadler2011

There are articles on this site about redundancy, also on Directgov website, who is entitled to what and how to claim if that helps.A lot on companies have jobs on their own websites , look at Sainburys for example ,go to Careers, its rather soul destroying looking through them all but I know quite a few people who have found jobs this way.