Tesco grocery deliveries - increasing numbers of out of stock lower cost items?

Doc_N

badmemory said:

I wondered if some suppliers were stamping their feet & saying pay us what it costs & allow us at least some profit & that is causing a shortage when they refuse to supply possibly at the end of a contract.

That sounds very feasible.

A._Badger

badmemory said:

I wondered if some suppliers were stamping their feet & saying pay us what it costs & allow us at least some profit & that is causing a shortage when they refuse to supply possibly at the end of a contract.

That sounds very likely, I must say.

A._Badger

Doc_N said:

I don’t know what’s going on with Tesco, but to add to the butter issue it’s been impossible for the last few days to order any grapes at apart from the cheapo Suntrail Aldi Price Match ones - and these, like most Aldi Price Match items are grossly inferior to the Aldi ones. Poor quality and very short 2 day shelf life. 

Are grapes now in short supply as well as butter? Or is this just Tesco?

I've had the same problem. No one else, as far s]as I'm aware seems short of grapes. Tesco needs to pull its socks up.

badmemory

Let us be honest here why would they need to.  They have quite a large captive market.  So many stuck in the if I spend all my time shopping in supermarkets I will never get to see my kids.& the many others who are stiuck either taxiing at way more than any delivery charge or just cannot even do ther taxi thing.  Too many stuck between the rock & a hard place.

Gemini.IDF

I am disabled and have to have my groceries delivered.  They have regularly been out of stock of grapes of every sort and colour for weeks now.  Yet I am told that they are available in store!  I have asked the delivery driver about this and he told me that Tesco are now using robots to pick and pack goods for deliveries direct from the warehouse!  A few weeks ago, it was blueberries continually out of stock; now it's grapes!  How do people like me manage with this state of affairs?  Apparently Tesco have spent millions on these robots, so they are not likely to change things any time soon!  Asda have fresh grapes, so why not Tesco?  They are only a mile away from each other!   I don't mind at all paying extra for my fresh fruit, as I eat a lot of it. 😯

mebu60

Blueberries are in a carton so automated pickers should not have a problem with those.

Why don't you email the Tesco CEO and ask him why you can't have grapes delivered?
ken.murphy@uk.tesco.com

Peter999_2

If Asda do deliver grapes, can't you dump Tesco and get it delivered by Asda instead.

Doc_N

mebu60 said:

Blueberries are in a carton so automated pickers should not have a problem with those.

Why don't you email the Tesco CEO and ask him why you can't have grapes delivered?
ken.murphy@uk.tesco.com

The strange thing is that emails to that address get the standard Executive Office holding response, but then they just go to sleep, ignored.

Chrysalis

Doc_N said:

It's been very noticeable over recent weeks that Tesco are restricting delivery of various lower cost items such as butter - and now grapes. What's happening is that the standard priced Tesco items (frequently the ones marked 'Aldi Price Match') are impossible to order, leaving much more expensive products as the only alternative for those shopping online.

Instore, the products are on the shelves in the normal way.  Online they show as out of stock and unavailable to order.

Anyone else shopping online noticed this?

Yeah about 10 years ago, they been doing for ages in my area.  Seems to be fairly common place on other stores as well.
Most of the bargain stuff isnt even listed on the website, and what is there is usually not available to order.

I kid you not I had occasions where I would receive something that is officially out of stock or not listed as a substitute.#

On one occasion I rang Iceland after my sister told me the store I ordered from had it in stock, I was surprised they didnt fob me off and were actually honest, they openly admitted they use online orders as a form of stock management, and will prioritise stock for indoor shoppers, so stock will only get delivered online if it was above a specific level.

If you order from somewhere that uses distribution centres, then things been out of stock is actually quite rare which goes to show its supermarket shenanigans.  As an example Ocado, or Morrisons in an Ocado area.  You also get much better dates as its from earlier in the supply chain.

Chrysalis

molerat said:

There have been threads on this before.  Home delivery is not really profitable, more a way to maintain market share at a cost, so boosting basket price is a way to sweeten the pill.

I dont know about it not being profitable, but what you say makes total sense, if I was managing a supermarket store, and I had excess stock of item A, and item B was flying off the shelves, then logically I make it so all orders that want item B are listed as out of stock (or even delisted totally from website) and then substituted with item A.  It is almost certainly what is happening.  Also consider now days the picker doesnt pick the substitute, the system tells them what to pick instead.