The Co-Op Moneysaving Tips Thread

Dreamnine

terra_ferma wrote: »

it's taken me a while, but I've now been back to the co-op, this time I checked their prices with stuff I just bought from other supermarkets, and my local co-op is incredibly expensive, and I find quality is appalling,
we've even had to stop buying their bread because the changed quality and it tastes funny.

(these are not offers in particular but general prices for comparison)

Yorkshire Tea Decaf 80 bags £ 2.85 (S's is 2.68, Waitr. is 2.86)
KitKat 9x2 fingers £1.89 (Same as S and W, price fixing anyone...?)
Grapes 400g £2, half price, original price £4. (S £2.50 reduced to £2 but for 500g, Waitrose £2.87 for 500g)
Hovis 400g 78p (S 66p W 70p)
Seemed to have good offers for vegs though, but I don't buy them from there because I find quality much worse than other supermarkets.
But got a bag of parsnips at 55p for 500g, half price (£1 S, £1.05 on offer £1.50 for 2 at W).

So practically everything I looked at is v. expensive except fresh produce offers. Also saw lots of reduced stuff, only about 25% off mostly, but a few bargains like salads BBD today at 55p, large bag of pots 50p (original price £1).

It would be interesting to see if other branches have the same prices though.

I agree - they are about as expensive as Waitrose but with shockingly bad quality and service.

There are 2 near me but I never go there, I do a combination of Tesco, Lidl and Sainsbury.

Edwardia

I have used three Co-ops, one in a village and two in the small town I now live in. I can't fault the quality of the fresh fruit and veg, fish and chicken -like their tinned Co-op French Onion Soup mmm. Never had to complain about anything. Visiting a relie I went to a really big Co-op and it was great. So maybe it's the local co-operative societies which differ ?

NewCustomerOnly

One irritating thing about all co-ops is that when have 'reductions' it just brings the price down from over inflated to reasonable (not bargain) to the same price as other local supermarkets. One local co-op has even started to shave a couple of pence off items, call them a bargain and stick them in the reduced area. I never buy those, you lose freshness for no gain!

SlinkySelina

We have 2 near us and I do use them for the odd bits and bobs. In fact they are so local friendly they still let the kids buy the cigarettes for their parents like we used to when I was a kid!

My main peev is that the staff snap up all the reduced stuff before it gets put out on the shelf. Last week one staff member had a whole bag of the stuff mainly joints, steak, etc that had been kept out the back for her. I'm all for a bit of competitiveness but thats just not fair! :mad:

MysteryMe

Edwardia wrote: »

I have used three Co-ops, one in a village and two in the small town I now live in. I can't fault the quality of the fresh fruit and veg, fish and chicken -like their tinned Co-op French Onion Soup mmm. Never had to complain about anything. Visiting a relie I went to a really big Co-op and it was great. So maybe it's the local co-operative societies which differ ?

Must be because my experiences are not reflected in some of the critical posts on this thread. Quality is not an issue, service is not an issue and my local Waitrose is certainly not cheaper! :rotfl:

NewCustomerOnly

For me, Mr W is not a good comparison cos I can't afford to shop here either! Yes, I also have a problem with reduced stuff - in our case you have to grow elastic arms to reach to the very back where they have hidden the only good bits!

terra_ferma

MysteryMe wrote: »

Must be because my experiences are not reflected in some of the critical posts on this thread. Quality is not an issue, service is not an issue and my local Waitrose is certainly not cheaper! :rotfl:

They must have different prices in different stores, it's almost like people are talking about entirely different shops. If you have read previous posts then you saw my post where I compared prices, in some cases the Coop is actually more expensive than Waitrose. It would be interesting if someone checked the same prices in the local co-op, maybe yours is cheaper than the prices I wrote down?
I don't know about other people, but don't have any particular reason for disliking the Coop except having bad experiences there and comparing prices with Waitrose (I shop in many different places, I was really shocked when I realised that my local coop was more expensive than waitrose).

gailey_2

Hi guys

Havent worked for co-op but did work for somerfeild before takeover.
Even in same city different stores had different prices as price files get sent down from headoffice.

basically on long road had 3

a normal store
another one looked like normal store close to city centre and more conveiniance
garage with large shop

all different prices.

tesco are the same.
sometimes garages had best reductions as selling daft fresh stuff that does not sell well in a garage.

we have 2 co-op nearest high street has large one.

yes its pricey on everyday stuff even their value lines few p more than sainsburys and morrsions my next closes supermarket.

However if you strict

only shop whats essential
i read flyer every week and shop selected deals
buy loads reductions they so generous with reductions but must admit this store may be odd one as its huge and cant be seen from main road so very much local shop lots of elderly go there, they never can get their fresh forcasts right.

They saved us loads last few years a really good reductions
open banks hols, boxing day and new years.

only problem is as they so generous reducing time very competative.
they do 50%cut quite early so either pop in just before or after school rin in afternoon.

We have a smaller co-op nearby suberb tried popping in late evening and reductions are rubbish there so maybe is store specific.

things to look out for summer on way is

reduced fresh bbq always have tonnes as cant react quickly when weather changes.
fruit and veg generally go right down as does bread.
chilled reduced section ok.
usually stuff on offer goes into reduced as usually have too much.

they have reduced bric brac grocery section by warehouse doors in mine near frozen sometimes its crap but odd bargain.

even have odd reduced frozen got lots partyfayre for 49p..

couldent do main shop there but on whoopsie hunt and shoping offers estimate spend least £50 a month for £100+worth of shopping.

To be honest everyones getting pricey especially the big 4.

im doing a waitrose shop thsi week online.
i do aldis, lidls, morrsions, farmfoods which cant do online.
also do poundshops for increasing amount food deals.

steviedeal

All supermarkets operate tiered pricing.

For example, tesco express is more expensive than tesco extra, also stores in richer areas are more expensive than those in poorer areas.

It goes with range aswell, poorer areas have larger ranges of value, regular and large packs where richer areas have larger selections of premium and branded goods.

Co-op does have tiered pricing with band 1 stores being priced on par with tesco, asda etc... you have the smaller convinience stores that are priced acordingly, Remember that a small 3,000 sqft store in a village is more expensive to rent/buy, run, staff and get deliveries to than a massive 80,000 sqft store which sells in large quantities and is on cheap land usually close to motorways.

Someone posted above about the stores being more expensive when you look at the comparisions its literally pence. remembering that most people have to factor in fuel costs to the large supermarkets it can sometimes work out to be cheaper to go to the co-op or other local stores.

I shop a bit of everywhere, alot of talk about the co-op being "massivly overpriced" is a bit of a myth and lots of people compare the co-op selling heniz beans for 50p to tesco selling value beans for 5p (not real prices but just a example), compare like for like its not overly bad there, offers are good if not better than the big 4 (asda was doing 50p for ambrosia and napolina toms a few weeks ago whereas co-op was doing 2 tins of ambrisia for 85p or 2 tins of napolina toms for 85p) another example creme eggs 6 pack was £1.65 at tesco half price or £1.54 at co-op half price.

terra_ferma

I don't think my local store can be described as a convenience store, although it's not massive.
the main reason why it would be priced higher than other stores is that there are no other supermarkets within walking distance or easy reach by public transport (5mins), + it's closer to a station.
The car park is always empty, anyone who has a car stays well away from it. Those who can't afford a car, or a long walk to other supermarkets are stuck shopping somewhere more expensive than Waitrose, they may get good offers on some stuff, but the everyday shopping is more expensive, it all adds up.
And quality of own-brand appalling, why would anyone want to pay waitrose money and get crxp quality? I don't mind any own brand, lidl, aldi and even value brands have stuff that is as good as, or better than more expensive brands, so it's not about being a brand snob.

However if your local one is cheaper, and you are happy with their quality then I agree it could be a good place to shop, lots of yellow stickers etc.