Tesco in crisis

I have become a bit of a food snob. Cooking with higher quality food makes a massive difference, and ultimately, when it comes down to price, you are arguing over pennies.

Love my local butcher. Always get my meat from their (or costco if I need to fill the freezer up). Both a vastly superior to anyhting Tesco sell, with Costco even beating it in price (bulk buy) and because I have suported the local butcher since he opened he always gives me discounts now. e.g. last shop, just over a kilo of fillet steak £27.

I think people are clocking on that local butchers/ grocers > supermarkets.
 
Judgeneo said:
Tesco is my preferred supermarket, but I don't see them going bust any time soon.

I loathe their small shops though, they're always understocked, and have terrible selections compared to morisons/sainsburys small shops.
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I must admit mine too. In Horsham we have Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose.

Sainsbury is old dark and dingy with empty shelves most of the time, expensive too. Being in the town the car park is full most of the time as people park there to avoid the greedy councils parking charges.

Waitrose is like a rich OAP meet. Over priced, poor selection and not in the most convenient location.

Tesco is out of town, although not cheap it has a reasonable selection and above all convenient.

However the snobbish district council have set down plans for the bottom of the town to be taken over by Waitrose. In the redevelopment several independent shops will be closed, housing knocked down and I suspect a few listed buildings levelled.

Horsham has been turned into a ghost town for shops in my opinion due to high rates, ridiculous parking charges. Not too long ago we lost a butcher that had been in town over 100 years.

I don't blame supermarkets for the closure of the town but other factors. The only new things we get in the town are coffee shops and more eating places. One street called East Street is now entirely the above and is well known by all as Eat Street.
 
Store in Purley is always packed, I try and stay away at weekends as its a nightmare!

They recently had a refurb of the fruit and veg section (steaming tables for some veg?!?) and its busier than ever.

This is a Tesco extra though so pretty much has everything, is right across the street from me so very convenient, and its the closet store to the center of Purley so not really any competition.
 
Freefaller said:
People in the UK have become so lazy with respect to food - choosing convenience and supermarkets over good quality products.
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i wouldnt say lazy, like you say its more convenience.

none of my local independent stores are open to 7-8pm which is typically the only chance i get to go shopping.
 
Yeah that is the real crime of the supermarket chains. As someone else said, getting their fingers into all the pies.

You can go to ASDA or Tesco and literally buy everything you need to outfit a house, banking, mobile contract, gardening and even feed yourself :p . They sell EVERYTHING. Yeah its not the best of everything, Chinese tat, but it is very well priced

They have single handed destroyed the high street and competition over the past 20 years.
 
Unless independent shops change their opening times, they will always be screwed. I know it sucks their social life opening into the evening. But that's what they need to do.

Its like my local fishmonger. Not only are their opening times short. They close and lunch and fairly often **** off and put a sign saying back in 30mins. Which means I hardly ever use them.
And also why Tesco expresses are so good, open 6-11 7 days a week.

I've also always thought that independents should get together and open a single shop in a housing estate. So the butchers, bakers, green grocers, fishmonger etc open up a single shop several miles away and sell all their produce.
 
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Efour said:
yeah there are plenty of young well off Professional men and women that have the time and income to look for a 'perceived better quality' product, but then there are the vast majority of ordinary people that simply need food as energy in a very cost effective manner. Hence why Aldi and other cheap supermarkets are thriving.

Its not a happy situation but the reality of it is money.

If they raise their quality and keep their low prices then that is a great win, but i dont think the 2 can come mutually.

My London local Lidl and Aldi are complete filthy holes but id shop there because i liked their range of continental stuff and ofc the rock bottom prices.

TBH id shop in the closest supermarket there was regardless of their chain. Not much loyalty here :O
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Aldi / Liddle quality isn't that bad - well it doesn't have to be, but as you say it depends on the commune within which they are based. Also bearing in mind that they are popular shops on the continent and they are quite picky about quality - however I guess it is pitched at the level of the community/expectation. I too enjoy their continental offerings :)

I agree that quality vs price is always going to be tough - but also people who struggle won't see the benefits in buying the ingredients and buy a £1 ready meal instead. With a bit of education and effort you can make a large meal that can last you a couple of days if you buy carefully and prepare in bulk and keep things healthy. I think you touched on a salient point, people see food as "fuel" rather than seeing it as something to enjoy - I think on the continent (I may be wrong) there are more people that want to enjoy their food despite it being fuel.
 
neil_g said:
i wouldnt say lazy, like you say its more convenience.

none of my local independent stores are open to 7-8pm which is typically the only chance i get to go shopping.
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And that is a fair point - I think if the local markets wanted to thrive they should change their ethos/hours to cater for the general population who do work 9-5.
 
Agreed about opening hours. Like most people, I leave the house before independant shops open and get back after they close. Which is a real shame as I like the local butcher, but can only get there on a Saturday, and I'm normally doing other things on that day anyway.
 
And there's always a massive queue on the weekend. This is why I buy from online butchers - it's pretty good to be fair, and it means I don't buy meat from the supermarket, but I used to have a good relationship with my local butcher in the past. I actually had one at uni and always got decent discounts buy buying the bits of meats that people didn't want (but also because the owner was Greek Cypriot and used that connection to befriend him ;)). I guess once you're used to decent quality it's hard to accept a step back.

I know it sounds snobbish, and I'm honestly not trying to be or mean to be - food is just something that is quite a big aspect of my life (I also eat a lot of it! :p).
 
There is a large commercial baker not far from me, they supply all of the supermarkets with garlic bread, foccacia etc etc

The difference in price between what Tesco flog them at compared to some of the other supermarkets is :eek:

Like lots of big businesses Tesco has lost sight of its customers and spent to much time focusing on numbers on a spreadsheet.
 
Third Opinion said:
I must admit mine too. In Horsham we have Tesco, Sainsburys and Waitrose.

Sainsbury is old dark and dingy with empty shelves most of the time, expensive too. Being in the town the car park is full most of the time as people park there to avoid the greedy councils parking charges.

Waitrose is like a rich OAP meet. Over priced, poor selection and not in the most convenient location.

Tesco is out of town, although not cheap it has a reasonable selection and above all convenient.

However the snobbish district council have set down plans for the bottom of the town to be taken over by Waitrose. In the redevelopment several independent shops will be closed, housing knocked down and I suspect a few listed buildings levelled.

Horsham has been turned into a ghost town for shops in my opinion due to high rates, ridiculous parking charges. Not too long ago we lost a butcher that had been in town over 100 years.

I don't blame supermarkets for the closure of the town but other factors. The only new things we get in the town are coffee shops and more eating places. One street called East Street is now entirely the above and is well known by all as Eat Street.
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Hah I'm from Horsham too. That Tesco Extra at Broadbridge Heath is my idea of hell though so I don't go there. Never been to the Sainsbury's in Horsham but quite like the Waitrose as it's within walking distance of my house so handy to pop in and get a few things. Won't be like that when the new one opens :(

I normally use Tesco home delivery service, which comes from Tesco Crawley rather than Horsham. It also has an "interesting" search facility that rewards perseverence.
 
OldCoals said:
Do they know how to roast a chicken on Sunday, take the remaining meat off to use in another meal and then make stock from the carcass.

I doubt it.

My expensive chicken suddenly seems cheap.
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They know how to boil a potato, make bad tasting bread, and prepare a simple salad. That's if my 1990s Home Economics classes are still the standard.
 
Diagro said:
Errrm?

They already do and have been doing so for years.
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Barely. We cooked infrequenly during cooking lessons, and spent the majority of the time getting bored by the 5 food groups and writing about what we cooked the week or two before.
I don't remember anything more complicated that 3-4 ingredients and basic chopping and mixing. Lesson times were also a big issue.

There is plenty of improvement to be had in cooking lessons in schools.

You also have to buy all your own ingredients, which was a problem for a poor school like mine.
 
Scottland said:
I'd like to see more transparency when I shop about how much goes to the farmer and more honesty about the welfare of the animals etc. But in the real world, nobody seems to give a stuff.
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In general, people's first priority is to their pocket... other considerations secondary, if not irrelevant.
 
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