Are you a supermarket snob?

[K.C. Leblanc]

We've got most of the supermarkets and I tend to visit them all regularly.

My least favourite is Iceland, since the non frozen range is pretty thin. It can actually be quite expensive since there a products that they don't have an own brand for. My local branch is only busy on Tuesdays when over 60s get a discount.

 

[loftie]

Think someone said earlier that the Clubcard / Nectar two tier pricing was only happening on the non-essential processed / unhealthy / multi-pack crap that you shouldn't be buying anyway.

Sainsburys the other day - £1.70 for a bag of rocket leaf salad, or £1 with Nectar

Not so bad online for delivery:

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-wild-rocket-60g

£1 with no Nectar card, 80p with. Though makes the £1.70 price in the town centre store look even more ridiculous.

Pork leg
Lamb leg
Think this is the worst I've seen IMO. We got the pork the other day.

Ham trimmings is a thing that keeps me hunting.

Tesco's trimmings are slithers of cheap ham and you'd be lucky if they reach 1 cm wide, and it's crap anyway.

For the good stuff you have to get lucky at Aldi, or really slum it with inner-city Iceland: ham trimmings to die for 50% of the time. More like the local carvery's finest cuts.

Once you've tasted such trimmings, no more settling for what the major supermarkets will deliver to your door.

Yea we get those. They are very hit and miss though. We had a beef trimming one the other day and I have no idea what it was seasoned with but it was not great, was a shame as it looked like pastrami so was a massive tease. On the flip side we had a different beef one that looked more like roast beef and that was nice. Currently got a ham one that's almost all 1/2cm thick slices.

 

[cheesefest]

I really enjoy food shopping and could never have some one else pick my food. I do go to the back of the shelf for the freshest foods and always ask the Sainsburys bakery staff for their freshest rolls and muffins they are hiding from sale!!

You realise that some isb (in store bakery) bread has only one day’s shelf life on it? Saw a customer trying to grab croissants from the back. I said they baked daily.

 

[cheesefest]

This assumes proper stock rotation principles have been adhered to and I'm sure @cheesefest can confirm that this does not* always happen. Check the date not your assumptions

* represent, y0.

I am out of the supermarket. Need time to get MH back.

Stock rotation doesn’t happen with the bully store manager or the new staff. He used to shout at the long serving colleagues including me in why are you taking forever to do a job. None of the stuff was rotated, esp with him doing it
He plonked stuff on the delivery first on/in front of stuff which had 3-4 days longer than the stuff on the shelf and 1-2 days longer than stuff on the overs. No wonder how waste was increasing.

Then some days I did the bread deliveries- Hovis, Warburtons and Allied (Kingsmill, own brand) and some lines were completely empty. Had 3-4 trays of bread to put out. Customers were trying to get to the bread at back, creating mess and squashing bread. “Just to let you know that all that bread has the same date” “How do you know?” “Shelf was empty and filled it full an hour ago”

I’m glad that I left when I did. Training doesn’t exist anymore at my previous work.

 

[Brazo]

This assumes proper stock rotation principles have been adhered to and I'm sure @cheesefest can confirm that this does not* always happen. Check the date not your assumptions

* represent, y0.

Well I go by the date printed on the packaging. My assumptions aren’t printed on the packaging so your assumption would be pretty hard to pull off!

 

[Brazo]

You realise that some isb (in store bakery) bread has only one day’s shelf life on it? Saw a customer trying to grab croissants from the back. I said they baked daily.

I just buy the bread rolls (bake off) and muffins (thaw and serve) which they pack with a date on. It annoys me that the ones with one day left are sat on the shelves going stale and the ones with 2-3 days life left are quietly going stale out the back of the bakery so I ask for those rather than the ones out on the shelves.

 

[AndyCr15]

It annoys me that the ones with one day left are sat on the shelves going stale and the ones with 2-3 days life left are quietly going stale out the back of the bakery so I ask for those rather than the ones out on the shelves.

I don't really understand why that would annoy you? You understand, that is how the supermarket tries to minimise food wastage?

 

[Brazo]

I don't really understand why that would annoy you? You understand, that is how the supermarket tries to minimise food wastage?

It’s not no.

They have fresh food going stale in the back area that no one can buy and stale food on the shelves that no one wants. This simply increases food wastage as by the time the fresh stuff gets put on the shelf it’s stale.

What they should do is take a hit on the stale stuff, remove it from sale and then from then on in put fresh stuff out that will sell. It’s a circle that needs to be broken.

 

[loftie]

Stock rotation doesn’t happen with the bully store manager or the new staff. He used to shout at the long serving colleagues including me in why are you taking forever to do a job. None of the stuff was rotated, esp with him doing it
He plonked stuff on the delivery first on/in front of stuff which had 3-4 days longer than the stuff on the shelf and 1-2 days longer than stuff on the overs. No wonder how waste was increasing.

This used to infuriate me.

Why are you taking stuff off the shelves?
To put the new stuff at the back so the older stuff gets sold first......
Why is it taking so long to empty a cage compared to other (non perishable) sections?
You don't need to stock rotate non food gifts.....

and this wasn't even from new managers.

 

[imtoooldforthis]

Sainsbury’s for basic essentials and then Waitrose and M&S for stuff where quality matters

 

[Helios1234]

Sainsbury's for big shop for us. Co-op is local and useful for essential things. Sometime we go to Waitrose or M&S for things like fresh bread.

 

[AndyCr15]

They have fresh food going stale in the back area that no one can buy and stale food on the shelves that no one wants. This simply increases food wastage as by the time the fresh stuff gets put on the shelf it’s stale.

What they should do is take a hit on the stale stuff, remove it from sale and then from then on in put fresh stuff out that will sell. It’s a circle that needs to be broken.

I can promise you that wouldn't reduce food wastage. Mind you, I never worked in a supermarket that actively had 'stale' products for sale, so it does sound like you're just shopping in a very bad shop.

 

[Chrisc]

For me it’s not so much the foods but the persons who inhabit them. I enjoy Waitrose, M&S and even Sainsburys as they aren’t full of chavs. I dislike being around chavvy people and if that makes me a snob then so be it!

Amen, my mrs used to get most of the stuff from Aldi and Asda. One year i agreed to help her do some christmas shopping. i walked in and immediately walked out. We went to sainsbury and M&S instead.

Much more civilized imo

 

[Chrisc]

Sainsbury's for big shop for us. Co-op is local and useful for essential things. Sometime we go to Waitrose or M&S for things like fresh bread.

M&S's fresh loaf is 10/10!

 

[Mint8]

Yes I am.

M&S or Waitrose only.
Maybe occasionally Morrisons if I feel like slumming it.

Went to ASDA once - felt like I needed a shower afterwards.

 

[arknor]

I was thinking about buying some dry pasta/spaghetti last night, M&S instantly lights up in my head.
But I resisted and went to Tescos instead.
I can't go in M&S without buying 2 expensive bottled ice teas, a swiss mountain bar, flapjack cookies, and a pack or two of those gourmet gummies (tropical pineapple pinocolada flavour etc)
Those Honey and Ginger yoghurts are pretty good too.

there's just too much to resist in M&S, If I could resist the nice things and just buy vegetables/essentials it wouldn't really be much more cost than any other supermarket and far superior quality


Can't go in the Newcastle store without seeing young wealthy Chinese students, they seem to love it.

 

[robfosters]

I was thinking about buying some dry pasta/spaghetti last night, M&S instantly lights up in my head.
But I resisted and went to Tescos instead.
I can't go in M&S without buying 2 expensive bottled ice teas, a swiss mountain bar, flapjack cookies, and a pack or two of those gourmet gummies (tropical pineapple pinocolada flavour etc)
Those Honey and Ginger yoghurts are pretty good too.

there's just too much to resist in M&S, If I could resist the nice things and just buy vegetables/essentials it wouldn't really be much more cost than any other supermarket and far superior quality


Can't go in the Newcastle store without seeing young wealthy Chinese students, they seem to love it.

No Percy’s?

 

[Brazo]

I can promise you that wouldn't reduce food wastage. Mind you, I never worked in a supermarket that actively had 'stale' products for sale, so it does sound like you're just shopping in a very bad shop.

Yes maybe and it annoys me hence why I mentioned it

 

[cheesefest]

I tell you another thing which customers don’t understand with bread. Just before Christmas “why don’t you have longer dates on the bread?”

Bread is dated 5-6 days when had it delivered, regardless of the time of year. The labelling machine that puts tags or stickers on the same number of days in advance. So bread made in factories overnight will have 17/18 Nov on them and it was the same date range this date last year too.

If manufacturers decided to increase the date without any changes to recipe, storage, supply chain before Christmas. It will get mouldy/stale before the date. Customers will be moaning.

 

[cheesefest]

i know that unsold bakery products we could not reduce or still not sold would go to a combination of food banks and community fridges. The latter is like a food bank but it’s open to all. Plus people can donate stuff if it meets their criteria. For example I collected a TooGoodTooGo magic bag (stuff that shops don’t sell) and it had two bags of satsumas. Can’t eat satsumas or oranges since having bowel polyps. They were able to take them and ripped the nets so people could take 2-3 satsumas.