A Bleak Christmas for Tesco ?

Doc_N

I see Tesco are now blaming their customers for the food it wastes. Nice one, Tesco - as always with Tesco, it's the customer that's wrong.

Just one of the reasons that Tesco's on the downhill slide. It's out of touch with reality and happy to blame anyone but itself for all its problems. Such arrogance!

geordie_joe

Doc_N wrote: »

I see Tesco are now blaming their customers for the food it wastes. Nice one, Tesco - as always with Tesco, it's the customer that's wrong.

Just one of the reasons that Tesco's on the downhill slide. It's out of touch with reality and happy to blame anyone but itself for all its problems. Such arrogance!

Well I think you are completely wrong there. For years we had people in the old style and green boards complaining that farmers were ploughing crops back into the ground because they were not a perfect shape. Blaming the supermarkets for refusing to stock mis-shapen fruit and veg.

But it was eu regulations that was stopping them. Then in 2009 the eu relaxed the regulations so supermarkets could sell mis-shapen fruit and veg.

Now the supermarkets have found all those who were complaining they didn't sell mis-shapen F&V are now not buying it. They cherry pick the best ones and just leave the odd shaped ones, which then go to waste.

It's the same with dated food, people reach to the back to get stuff with the longest date because it is fresher. This leaves some at the front that "runs out of time" and goes to waste.

Unfortunately some people think they somehow appear better if they knock tescos, and other supermarkets, but the fact is people complained food was going to waste because supermarkets didn't sell it because it was the wrong shape. Now they do sell it, but people don't buy it and it goes to waste and people still blame the supermarkets!

Doc_N

geordie_joe wrote: »

Unfortunately some people think they somehow appear better if they knock tescos, and other supermarkets, but the fact is people complained food was going to waste because supermarkets didn't sell it because it was the wrong shape. Now they do sell it, but people don't buy it and it goes to waste and people still blame the supermarkets!

Isn't the real reason, though, that Tesco don't lower the price enough to make it attractive to buy?

God knows they pay farmers little enough for it, but they still expect premium prices when they sell it - so understandably customers push it aside for what looks superficially like better quality.

Waitrose mark all their food down substantially to avoid waste - Tesco don't do that. They're too afraid it would reduce full-price sales (and fat profits), so they just throw it out. And then blame customers!

KxMx

Doc_N wrote: »

I see Tesco are now blaming their customers for the food it wastes. Nice one, Tesco - as always with Tesco, it's the customer that's wrong.

Just one of the reasons that Tesco's on the downhill slide. It's out of touch with reality and happy to blame anyone but itself for all its problems. Such arrogance!

Some food waste is down to poor household management on the part of the customer though, and not the big bad supermarkets.

ReginaII

An Aldi & Lidl virgin here I'm afraid! Do they stock British products? It's a bit of a bugbear of mine, supporting foreign farmers/industry at the expense of our own and a chicken which will eventually come home to roost imo, excuse the pun!

Smidster

Doc_N wrote: »

Isn't the real reason, though, that Tesco don't lower the price enough to make it attractive to buy?

Exactly - if the "Misshapen" produce is the same price then of course the typical customer will go for the stuff that looks premium.

Of course we all know that if Tesco were to do anything it would be to keep the Mishapen stuff at the current, already stupidly high, price and charge a further premium for the "pretty" stuff.

ALIBOBSY

I live in a semi rural area and know quite alot of farmers and Tesco are far worse than any of the other big stores to deal with. They aren't just hardnosed, they are downright immoral in the way they deal with their suppliers.

Ended up with a load of free celery as a local farmer had theirs turned down from Mr t as having too few "sticks" per bunch despite being within weight tolerances and they aren't allowed to sell off the rejects, so alot of us around here got bagfuls to chop and freeze and the rest was ploughed back in.

The Aldi/Lidl debate has been done to death I think, but my two pennies are as follows. We do our main shop at Aldi and go to Lidl (next door to a poundstretcher and b and m bargains so handy to check out all 3 at the same time) say once every few weeks-I watch for the weekend half price offers and if its something we fancy we stock up.

The quality of Aldi and Lidl is I find in 99% of the products a million times better than the smart price/value products and often compares to top of the ranges/branded goods. It is especially good I find if, like us, you are shopping to make and bake stuff yourself. So for basic ingredients/items they knock the big stores flat out. With 4 children I also like a store with easy choices that I can whip around and get out quickly. The secret with the checkouts is you DON'T pack at the checkout, you simply pt everything back into the trolley, pay and go to the bag packing area at the front of the store to pack. TBH I just push the trolley to the car and load up the boot-often we have bags or a box in there and I pack into the boot or get the kids to help me empty the car when we get home. I guess we just got used to doing it like that, but can see it would be a bit of a culture shock at first and not good for older people.

The staff at our stores are really nice and its clean and well set out in both, but then again the nearest Mr M has a lovely manager and has nice staff as well. Mr T is ok but can be a bit scruffy, however go to in laws 20 miles away in a city and all the stores big and small seem to be scruffy and filled with ignorant teenagers and grumpy older staff bossed around by bad tempered nasty managers. So I can see where people are coming from on that.

We shopped in A/L from when both opened and have seen the numbers shopping go up and up, and the cars on the car park look better and better lol. But both my mother and MIL tend to use the same supermarket they always have done.

We couldn't afford as we used to, to shop in one place and just fill the trolley, so I use the discount stores, plus 2 local farm shops-one for meat, one for veggies/farm butter/cream/cheeses. We end up with high quality ingredients for miles less than I cold get in the main supermarkets. But as I bake and cook most of the meals we eat it works best for us. As a family of 6 ready meals become crazy expensive, but I can see if you live alone or are a couple it might work out cheaper week to week to use the big stores and use ready meals. I would probably still cook larger amounts and freeze portions for future meals if it was just the two of us adults now, but when we both worked full time a distance away from home I simply didn't have the time.

I do occasionally bob in the local Asda which opened last year in the old quicksave. As its small it often has knock down items and we bob in and pick up any really good offers. I will even spot offers online at Mr T or Mr M and bob in for them. Even get the odd bit of stuff from Iceland who seem to have got a low brow reputation for no real reason.

If I didn't have time to both shop around and cook/bake and had to pick one big supermarket to do it all in I would plump for Asda on price if no Aldi or a quick combo of the two.

So end the end of the day you weigh up what works best for you and your style of shopping/cooking/eating. For us Aldi and to a lesser degree Lidl have saved us a fortune.
So I can absolutely see where the original article is coming from. Basically if pushed for cash alot will plump for the discounters or perhaps Asda with the odd extra treat from the fancier stores, BUT Tesco is stuck in the middle, they don't compete on price enough with Asda and the discounters and aren't nice enough or good enough quality to hit the fancier stores. They have tried to be everything to everyone and have over reached themselves.

BTW to the poster who said the 1 kg bag of carrots was too much for the week, wouldn't you just do what I do if I have extra of bought or homegrown veggies, just peel chop and freeze for really easy stew and sauce bases for future meals?

Ali x

PS I have to point out we are really lucky where we live, we are in a sort of village, semi rural, on the edge of a small town. In the last 5-10 years we have had a Tesco big store and several little ones, a morrisons, Aldi, lidl et al and an Asda open up in town. So in one direction we can drive/bus into town to various stores within 5-10 mins and in the other can drive/walk to the farmshops-about 1 mins drive to each in opposite directions. Some people are stuck with one store and thats it, tbh 10 years ago the nearest SM was Asda 30 mins away and when I was little in the 70's/80's there was a really old style Tesco in town and most of the store was the butchers counter, that a coop and the market was your lot lol.

Doc_N

ReginaII wrote: »

An Aldi & Lidl virgin here I'm afraid! Do they stock British products? It's a bit of a bugbear of mine, supporting foreign farmers/industry at the expense of our own and a chicken which will eventually come home to roost imo, excuse the pun!

In short, yes. Both sell a wide range of British products - much the same sort of mix as the other supermarkets, and usually from the same suppliers.

The big exceptions are the ranges of continental meats and cheeses, which are on a par with many Waitrose products. But then, you wouldn't expect them to be British, would you?

flubberyzing

I do nearly all of my grocery shopping at Tescos, just because it happens to be my nearest big supermarket.
About 2 weeks ago, a Waitrose opened a 5 minute walk from my house. Which is great for little top-ups, or if I fancy a treat, but I can't afford to make it my main shop.
There is a big Sainsburys on the other side of town, which I go a couple of times a year if I fancy a change of scenery (plus my best friend lives nearby).
I drive past a smallish Asda fairly regularly, which opened just over a year ago. I've been twice.
There is also an Aldi and a Lidl in town. I think I've been to both of them once each, and neither time was I terribly impressed. Not much to choose from, prices were very much nothing special, and the clientele was... Interesting looking.

geordie_joe

Doc_N wrote: »

Isn't the real reason, though, that Tesco don't lower the price enough to make it attractive to buy?

Ah! So now you want it reduced just because it is not the right shape.

Doc_N wrote: »

God knows they pay farmers little enough for it, but they still expect premium prices when they sell it - so understandably customers push it aside for what looks superficially like better quality.

Of course customers will push it aside to get the better stuff. But what will happen if they reduce it? Will the customers buy the "good" ones they went if for then buy another lot of of the cheaper ones. Or will they just buy the amount they went in for but get the cheaper ones and leave the good ones to go to waste.

Doc_N wrote: »

Waitrose mark all their food down substantially to avoid waste

Yet they boast about the amount of food they send to "anaerobic digestion to generate energy" and to charities. They call it "unavoidable waste", but if they can donate it to charity they could sell it.

Doc_N wrote: »

- Tesco don't do that.

Yes they do, my local Tesco sells loads of reduced food. I have also seen many people posting about they great reduced bargains they got from Tesco in here.

Doc_N wrote: »

They're too afraid it would reduce full-price sales (and fat profits), so they just throw it out.

Every supermarket throws out perfectly good food, or donates it to charities. They may do it for many reasons, but they are all well aware that selling reduced food mostly results in the loss of a full price sale either then or at some point in the future. Plus it may result in food currently on the shelf at full price being reduced in the near future.

They have to walk a fine line between getting some money back from food at it's end date and not selling so much that people don't buy the full price stuff so it has to be reduced.

Doc_N wrote: »

And then blame customers!

Actually they didn't, they said said fussy customers are also a major cause of food waste. This was said after admitting that confusing dates on packaging and there offers were causing waste.

Unfortunately the media, ever eager to make a story out of nothing came out with headlines like

"Tesco blast at 'fussy' shoppers" and "Supermarket boss blames customers for food waste"

Of course, some people only read the headlines.

Personally, I believe the real reason there is so much food waste is because there is too much of it.

Producers are producing too much
Supermarkets are trying to sell too much
and Customers are buying too much.

We are all guilty, all three groups that is. Farmers plough crops back into the ground because they can't sell it, supermarkets throw food away because they can't sell it, customers throw food away because they can't eat it.

You can only do that if there is too much food, you don't do it if there is not enough food.