2021 - Retailer woe & retail sector chat

[vaud]

We have a farm locally where you can go, buy a reusable bottle and a machine pours you own.

OK, no CO2 creds given you need to drive there, but it is nice milk, so we tend to mix and match - some supermarket milk and some farm milk.

[Drawweight]

n3il123 said:

We started to get ours delivered in the first lockdown last year, we found that the milk delivered by the supermarket was going off during the week (despite the sell by date) so found our local milk and more on facebook and now get a pint delivered every other day or so we add a bit to the weekly shop to get us over the weekend.

Works well for us, and the cost is negligible in the grand scheme.

When I first retired I used to just buy milk from the supermarket (don’t laugh) but going into the supermarket maybe 3 times a week I wasn’t just picking up milk I was buying all kinds of other stuff and spending £10-20 at a time.

Now we get it delivered and shop once a week.

[HTP99]

I didn't realise the consumption of milk was so high, I don't drink it and the wife only has it in her tea (drinks alot of tea) a four pinter lasts a week easy.

[vaud]

HTP99 said:

I didn't realise the consumption of milk was so high, I don't drink it and the wife only has it in her tea (drinks alot of tea) a four pinter lasts a week easy.

12-16 pints a week for us (2 adults 2 growing kids)

[Vasco]

HTP99 said:

I didn't realise the consumption of milk was so high, I don't drink it and the wife only has it in her tea (drinks alot of tea) a four pinter lasts a week easy.

Probably the coffee/latte drinking millions.
The milk industry in general must have seen an enormous increase in demand over the past decade in particular if all my local Nero/Costa outlets are anything to go by.

[n3il123]

Drawweight said:

When I first retired I used to just buy milk from the supermarket (don’t laugh) but going into the supermarket maybe 3 times a week I wasn’t just picking up milk I was buying all kinds of other stuff and spending £10-20 at a time.

Now we get it delivered and shop once a week.

Pretty much how it worked for us, used to shop almost daily, depending on which of us was home etc so would pick some up then. When it got to lock down, queuing, masks etc etc we switched to once a week shop and then a delivery, milk was going off or we were running out.

We now plan our meals/ snacks etc for the week and have hardly any waste and we're saving especially now the two of us are home everyday.

[liner33]

Yeah we switched to the Cravandale stuff due to only shopping once a week . Never knew how much tea the wife drinks at work until now , with just the two of us we go through 12 pints a week just for hot drinks

[alangla]

ambuletz said:

So apparently asda are to start selling 2nd hand clothes in some stores.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56916414

https://www.prelovedkilo.com/asda

surely that will have a knock on effect for charity shops then?

Asda in Govan (probably their biggest store in Glasgow) have had one of these rails for a few weeks. At a quick glance it looks like it's mainly 1990s style branded tracksuits on the rails and the prices appear to be astronomical. Would love to know (a) what the margin is on this stuff (b) how much of it they're actually shifting, given I've never seen anyone actually looking through the stuff and (c) where are they getting it? Is it bought direct from the previous owner or is it "better" stock bought wholesale from charities etc?

[Jamescrs]

HTP99 said:

I didn't realise the consumption of milk was so high, I don't drink it and the wife only has it in her tea (drinks alot of tea) a four pinter lasts a week easy.

18 pints a week in a typical week at our house assuming both kids at school and me and the wife are out at work.

I buy 3 x 6pint bottles on a Friday night and it's just about gone by the following Friday night

[acer12]

n3il123 said:

We started to get ours delivered in the first lockdown last year, we found that the milk delivered by the supermarket was going off during the week (despite the sell by date) so found our local milk and more on facebook and now get a pint delivered every other day or so we add a bit to the weekly shop to get us over the weekend.

Works well for us, and the cost is negligible in the grand scheme.

Will they deliver a pint on its own? As a business model that seems a bit crazy unless they are charging a large markup (a pint is 50p in the supermarket) as there are a lot of costs including background ones (collecting money, bank fees etc) and even the time of the milkman walking up your driveway with a pint adds up.

[SydneyBridge]

I guess if they have a delivery at a number of properties in one road, it does not matter hugely how much they deliver to each house

If the one pint is half a mile from next delivery it is not worth it

[anonymous-user]

Our kitchen window looks out onto the cul-de-sac and I'm often sat in there late watching TV. There are 3 separate milkmen that come into the street between 10pm and 1am every day and do one drop. They reverse in at lightening speed! No idea how they make much money doing one drop on a street.

[hyphen]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

No idea how they make much money doing one drop on a street.

EV so cheap to run vehicle. They also do eggs and what not as well as milk.

And no traffic at the times they work neither, so efficiently move along.

[anonymous-user]

Definitely not EVs. Two are diesel Transit flatbeds and the other an L200. We're in urban Leeds, not out in the sticks, too. The speed they come in and out, I suspect they're also partaking in some kind of endurance racing.

[vaud]

RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:

Definitely not EVs. Two are diesel Transit flatbeds and the other an L200. We're in urban Leeds, not out in the sticks, too. The speed they come in and out, I suspect they're also partaking in some kind of endurance racing.

We cancelled ours as the milkman had a very noisy L200 with squeaky brakes and used to deliver at 3:30am, waking me up in the summer.

[Mezzanine]

liner33 said:

Yeah we switched to the Cravandale stuff due to only shopping once a week . Never knew how much tea the wife drinks at work until now , with just the two of us we go through 12 pints a week just for hot drinks

Jesus!

Either your house loves really milky tea (wrong!) or that’s a hell of a lot of cups of tea!!

[Vasco]

Mezzanine said:

liner33 said:

Yeah we switched to the Cravandale stuff due to only shopping once a week . Never knew how much tea the wife drinks at work until now , with just the two of us we go through 12 pints a week just for hot drinks

Jesus!

Either your house loves really milky tea (wrong!) or that’s a hell of a lot of cups of tea!!

It's not really excessive if you drink latte.

[MiniMan64]

Since when was milk only drunk in tea?

[scottyp123]

Mezzanine said:

liner33 said:

Yeah we switched to the Cravandale stuff due to only shopping once a week . Never knew how much tea the wife drinks at work until now , with just the two of us we go through 12 pints a week just for hot drinks

Jesus!

Either your house loves really milky tea (wrong!) or that’s a hell of a lot of cups of tea!!

Maybe

[liner33]

Mezzanine said:

Jesus!

Either your house loves really milky tea (wrong!) or that’s a hell of a lot of cups of tea!!

The latter , I drink one or two cups of coffee a day rest is the wife maybe 12-15 cups a day