Supermarkets - all changing

[Monkeylegend]

SilverSixer said:

Monkeylegend said:

You get a better class of people in Sainsbury and Waitrose.

Couldn't disagree more. In Lidl/Aldi people always seem to offer to let you in front at the checkout if you only have a few items and they have a full trolley. never seen that in so-called "upmarket" supermarkets.

Had that happen to me last week in Lidl, they clearly know their place in society.

[DWS]

Don't know where my Butler shops to be honest

[Kermit power]

Globs said:

hyphen said:

Why do you object to self checkouts?

I object to self checkouts because if I use one, I'm enabling the company to make a person redundant.

Do you therefore only fuel your car at garages with attendant-operated pumps, or refuse to go through a ticket barrier at the station unless there's a staff member there to open it for you? This is, of course, assuming that you're not still riding a horse to ensure that your local blacksmith doesn't get made redundant?

Would it be better overall for the economy to stick with expensive, time-consuming manual processes, or to invest heavily in automation technology wherever possible, thus potentially creating more higher value jobs to sell equipment to sell to the rest of the world?

[Eddie Strohacker]

Twenty years ago, I ran a produce warehouse for Safeway (!) The QC guy had a manual as thick as a brick that specified everything for everything. he had a spectrometer, scales, all sorts of chemicals & would test samples of everything that came in & quick too. By it's very nature, stock would have to be in & out within twelve hours tops, often withiin an hour as the last deliveries arrived.

Anyway, the point is if anything failed the quality standard, the lot would be rejected. Suppliers knew this well enough, so Safeway turning away a lorry load of spuds would see them off to ASDA. If they said no, onto Kwik Save & so on until in the end, it'd end up on the markets where as often as not, the chefs pick it up cheap & mark it up 1000% by the time it ended up on your plate in the west end.

Funny old business, but they certainly took the quality side seriously & I can't imagine it's slacked off since I was involved.

[toon10]

We use Aldi as I can get a trolley full of stuff for £40. I then have to go to Asda to get speciality items that Aldi just don't do (partner and baby both have lactose intolerance). I then get the pleasure of paying more than £40 for a basket full of stuff.

The bloke next door is a manager at Asda and advised me to just do the shop online. A bit lazy but hey, I'm a progressive guy so came around to the idea. After all, I do spend a lot of time driving to one shop, faffing about getting the little man in and out of his car seat, the shopping itself and then off to to other shop and repeat.

I tried the Asda online site earlier. Dear Lord, I'm raging. After several "oops something went wrong" messages, a few automatically logged out issues and then finally 20 items added to the shopping list of which 18 didn't save, I thought life's too short for this kind of stress and it's easier and quicker just to bloody drive to the shop! We don't have a lot of other choices for supermarkets in my town who deliver.

[Sticks.]

silobass said:

Does shopping online not take a fairly long time? I think I'd rather go than sit in front of the screen to pick things but could be tempted....

It can do if you faff, though I think 17mins is the quickest I've got it down to. It's relative to how far you are from a decent supermarket too. For me, one as fully stocked as online is @10 miles.

I use Tesco because the website is the easiest and quickest, and once you know what absolute rubbish to avoid, it's OK. Local butcher for meats, pies, sausages etc.

I'm really surprised how many people still give up a sizeable chunk of their weekend to go shopping because 'I like to see what I'm buying'. If you work out what proportion of the total buy this is, it's a tiny %. If SWMBO really insists, best keep the peace, and help her unload when she gets back.

[FiF]

Monkeylegend said:

You get a better class of MILF in Waitrose.

EFA, sorry I hate it when people do that, but it has to be said.

[bloomen]

Oh, and wherever you are they want you to put a quid into their shopping trolleys to unleash them. I'm far too classy for that type of operation.

[J4CKO]

Of course you can do a full shop and live happily from Aldi or Lidl, if you really had to you could and wouldnt die, its preferences and being set in your ways, Heinz ketchup doesnt make you cough like Aldi's Bramwells stuff.

I hate it when my missus goes to Sainsburys, its always £150 or more, she likes packaged stuff for lunchboxes, and buys like 16 cream crackers in mini packs of 4 for 3 quid or whatever, I explain that the Aldi packet 30 of the same is 30p, but she doesnt like them going stale and being wasted...

[Yipper]

Aldi is rubbish. Tiny carparks, overcrowded shelves, too-narrow aisles, greasy low-quality food, and creeping up in price.

Lidl, on the other hand, is fantastic. Far more spacious layout inside the store, much nicer food, the bakery smell is like being on a European holiday, and way cheaper prices than Tesco.

Having said that, both Lidl and Aldi have -90% less choice than Tesco. So, if you are a picky shopper, both discounters suck.

What is intriguing is, Tesco has not yet copied Aldi and Lidl. They could overnight build a smaller store with smaller carparks and smaller lines and smaller prices, and stop the discounters in their tracks. But Tesco seem paralysed by fear of cannibalising their own hypermarkets and mini-markets.

[Cotty]

Sticks. said:

I'm really surprised how many people still give up a sizeable chunk of their weekend to go shopping because 'I like to see what I'm buying'. If you work out what proportion of the total buy this is, it's a tiny %. If SWMBO really insists, best keep the peace, and help her unload when she gets back.

Loose veg is the main thing I would like to pick out. Especially if you just want 2/3 onions for a recipe, but a 1kg pack is only 75p so it is not a great loss to chuck a couple if you don't use them up.

[ambuletz]

crankedup said:

hyphen said:

Why do you object to self checkouts? Do you realise there German chains are also rolling them out.

And I think you are in a honeymoon phase/have a particularly bad normal supermarket, as Aldi's near me often have most of the checkouts closed and long queues. Their checkout workers have aggressive targets of how many they have to scan per mili second too along with other sharp practices such as making a Lorry driver who has just driven for x hours also do the unloading.

I use all the supermarkets as being in London they are all nearby, pro's and cons. Tesco is my most hated though, as their ethics seem the lowest of all.

Edited by hyphen on Tuesday 27th June 12:03

Interesting stuff, the Aldi we used in new, about 18 months, but it's fairly small with only about 7. checkouts. Sort of toe in the water feeling perhaps.
I dislike self service checkouts owing to my feeling that the more customers that use them the less staff they employ. My trust that the savings are passed onto the customer by self service checkout use is zero. Having said that I will use self service if I have just a few items and the staff tills are queuing.
I was not aware that the German supermarkets were/are rolling out self serve checkouts, but I suppose it's inevitable to help them maintain thier growing customer base, Some of us are just stuck in our ways I suppose.
Really dislike the poor ethics illustrated by the big 'T' supermarket, I know people that have worked for the Company, dreadful experience for them. Say no more.

I echo hyphens comments.
My local lidl has self service checkouts too. i rarely go in as they will only ever have 1 till open (2 if you're lucky), and you're waiting ages behind 4-5 people doing a big shop. the employee behind the till is always impatient so you're bagging up while the next person is having their items scanned.

If I go into my local asda during a peak time (weekends) I tend to opt for the self service. You hardly have to wait (with many people doing a small shop) and by the time you're done you would still be waiting in a queue at the checkouts (of which all are open) from people doing a big shop. During non-busy times there is sometimes a woman with a stick pointing at empty/nearly finishing checkouts so you get dealt with instantly, if no then the self service is right there and won't have a queue.

[Sticks.]

Cotty said:

Sticks. said:

I'm really surprised how many people still give up a sizeable chunk of their weekend to go shopping because 'I like to see what I'm buying'. If you work out what proportion of the total buy this is, it's a tiny %. If SWMBO really insists, best keep the peace, and help her unload when she gets back.

Loose veg is the main thing I would like to pick out. Especially if you just want 2/3 onions for a recipe, but a 1kg pack is only 75p so it is not a great loss to chuck a couple if you don't use them up.

Fair enough if the quality is variable (seasonal) but you're not limited online to packs, you can buy by number or weight.

As I found early on when I accidentally bought one mushroom instead of a pack

[rambo19]

FiF said:

Monkeylegend said:

You get a better class of MILF in Waitrose.

EFA, sorry I hate it when people do that, but it has to be said.

More chance of a shag with a aldi/lidl milf though.............................

[Globs]

Kermit power said:

Do you blah blah

I cannot save the world single handed. If you can: please do so.
I will however refuse to willingly help put people out of a job, sorry if that appears unreasonable.

[Sargeant Orange]

Lidl convert here after trying their nappies (which are great).

The bakery gets me everytime & the fruit & veg seems to last twice as long as any other I've tried.

Plus a full shop is 40 minutes at most, none of this 2 hour bks. Online shopping just frustrates me & I always seem to have the dregs of fresh food delivered

[768]

bloomen said:

I find you can't do a complete shop in Aldi or Lidl. There are many items they don't sell. I can't be arsed to trudge around two places and I've never been that impressed by what they have on offer.

Likewise.

So I let the wife go. But under strict instruction not to bring back any Aldi chicken after I found vertebrae.

[Monkeylegend]

Sargeant Orange said:

Lidl convert here after trying their nappies (which are great).

PH member for 65 months and still wearing nappies

[nikaiyo2]

NoIP said:

I think all these people that are praising their "high quality" food are either blind, have no taste buds or never bought any fruit and veg from them. The "fresh" fruit and veg choice ranges from 'completely rotten', 'slightly rotten' to 'will be rotten by the time you've arrived home'. I've always thought the fresh fruit and veg quality was poor at the big names (Morrisons being the exception) but Aldi and Lidl's is on a whole different level.

Yup know exactly what you mean. Aldis is cheap,but the veg is utter garbage, it all tastes weird. My Mrs tries to trick me by buying st from there and passing it off as food. I spot it every time. She got some of their extra special (or whatever) beef that I made a stir fry from, never seen more water come from meat in my life. We now have a little rule, when she tries to pass food off from Aldis I buy something from Fortnums

The ham is ok for work sarnies, as are the chilli peanuts. Everything else I have eaten from there is obviously poor quality, obviously worse than decent stuff from the proper supermarkets.

[lucido grigio]

I don't use Aldi or Lidl simply because there isn't one close by.

I can walk to the Asda I use or in the other direction is a Waitrose if I want spend twice as much buying the same things.