Why is the Co-op so expensive?
Discussion
Mikebentley said:
The bread is really good and I find they are really good at discounting stuff down after about 6PM. I always pop in and buy our bread on my way home and usually get a couple of fancy Walnut and sun dried foreskin loaves for 10p each. Pack of doughnuts for 10p etc. The other week I had a bag full of stuff for 57p. More money for other fun stuff.
Loved the COOP until just heard that Labour Party information
Why does it matter? It's a shop, you are cutting your own nose to spite your face.Loved the COOP until just heard that Labour Party information
My Mrs sister works at Coop I think she said they made £1.3bn profit last year.
Johnnytheboy said:
I hate Co-op.
Unfortunately I'm surrounded by them. But I do all in my power not to shop there.
Apart from their political leanings, they tried to shut my old local (along with 200 other Marston pubs) and turn it in to a shop no one wanted. They failed, in part due to me. To put it mildly, they did not go about said plan in a particularly nice ethical way.
They also seem to exist as an ethical employer of village idiots, as all their anglophone employees in the ones around me are, to put it politely, a bit special.
Well done on protecting the pub (or doing a struggling landlord out of his retirement?), but this is not a mistake Co-op make.Unfortunately I'm surrounded by them. But I do all in my power not to shop there.
Apart from their political leanings, they tried to shut my old local (along with 200 other Marston pubs) and turn it in to a shop no one wanted. They failed, in part due to me. To put it mildly, they did not go about said plan in a particularly nice ethical way.
They also seem to exist as an ethical employer of village idiots, as all their anglophone employees in the ones around me are, to put it politely, a bit special.
They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
SpeckledJim said:
Well done on protecting the pub (or doing a struggling landlord out of his retirement?), but this is not a mistake Co-op make.
They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
Maybe. Haven't used that.They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
I have used Carpro Ceriglass and a Rayon pad from cleanyourcar.co.uk with excellent results.
It does make a mess (polish splatter).
And you need to be on max speed on the rotary and a fair amount of pressure.
But I got some horrific marks out of a windscreen and passenger window , was quite amazed!
sjabrown said:
The Co-op in the village where I work has a very poor selection of fresh fruit and veg. But a very extensive selection of booze.
It is a deprived village with a significant alcohol problem.
I guess the Co-op makes a decent profit.
Coop stocking more veggies and fewer beers would positively affect the health of the village?It is a deprived village with a significant alcohol problem.
I guess the Co-op makes a decent profit.
"They've stopped doing Carlsberg Export, Dave, so I've got us 6 of these broccoli things. Got to be worth a try, eh?"
Come on. It's not the retailers' fault. It's so much bigger than that.
xjay1337 said:
SpeckledJim said:
Well done on protecting the pub (or doing a struggling landlord out of his retirement?), but this is not a mistake Co-op make.
They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
Maybe. Haven't used that.They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
I have used Carpro Ceriglass and a Rayon pad from cleanyourcar.co.uk with excellent results.
It does make a mess (polish splatter).
And you need to be on max speed on the rotary and a fair amount of pressure.
But I got some horrific marks out of a windscreen and passenger window , was quite amazed!
bloomen said:
My local shop is a coop and it's the only decent sized shop for several miles. As long as you shop carefully it's not much worse than the major chains but they do hit you harder on the essentials like bog roll.
I've noticed a couple of coops pop up on new build estates nearby. What's interesting about them is that they're consistently 10-20% more expensive for everything than other coops.
Not only did the residents over pay for their luxury executive new build paper s
tboxes but they're also locked in to a grocery premium too. I wonder if the developer gets an ongoing kickback.
How's that work then? If the residents don't want to use it, they won't use it.I've noticed a couple of coops pop up on new build estates nearby. What's interesting about them is that they're consistently 10-20% more expensive for everything than other coops.
Not only did the residents over pay for their luxury executive new build paper s
tboxes but they're also locked in to a grocery premium too. I wonder if the developer gets an ongoing kickback.If the developer is also the landlord to the Coop, then they'll probably be doing well on that rent if it's a prime site.
SpeckledJim said:
Johnnytheboy said:
I hate Co-op.
Unfortunately I'm surrounded by them. But I do all in my power not to shop there.
Apart from their political leanings, they tried to shut my old local (along with 200 other Marston pubs) and turn it in to a shop no one wanted. They failed, in part due to me. To put it mildly, they did not go about said plan in a particularly nice ethical way.
They also seem to exist as an ethical employer of village idiots, as all their anglophone employees in the ones around me are, to put it politely, a bit special.
Well done on protecting the pub (or doing a struggling landlord out of his retirement?), but this is not a mistake Co-op make.Unfortunately I'm surrounded by them. But I do all in my power not to shop there.
Apart from their political leanings, they tried to shut my old local (along with 200 other Marston pubs) and turn it in to a shop no one wanted. They failed, in part due to me. To put it mildly, they did not go about said plan in a particularly nice ethical way.
They also seem to exist as an ethical employer of village idiots, as all their anglophone employees in the ones around me are, to put it politely, a bit special.
They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
They already had a Co-op (which was s
t) in the village which they wanted to close, a large housing development in same village was granted on the proviso that they build a mini-supermarket in a vacant plot in it, then one day we all get a leaflet though our doors announcing a shiny new store opening. Only through a bit of reading between the lines did we realise that through a retail shell company they'd bought a huge job lot of (admittedly not top tier) pubs to turn them into Co-ops. At which point they abandoned the idea of developing the site allocated to them, not being that worried by the fact the new site was in a really odd spot for a shop. There was a contact name at a planning consultant firm if you wanted to learn more about it. He was rude to the point of swearing if you suggested you'd like to keep the pub. He was then equally rude to the planning officer at the council and the parish council secretary, whom he put the phone down on. Not a good PR move...
Their planning application was full of inaccuracy and downright lies. They lost the planning, and then more or less threatened the council with legal action if an appeal was rejected.
The village, while this was going on, mobilised in more ways than I have space to list. We won and kept our village pub, which is thriving.
The impression that came through all this is the Co-op and the companies they choose to work with give the impression of having the morals of alley cats, despite the ethical image they like to put forward.
Johnnytheboy said:
xjay1337 said:
SpeckledJim said:
Well done on protecting the pub (or doing a struggling landlord out of his retirement?), but this is not a mistake Co-op make.
They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
Maybe. Haven't used that.They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
I have used Carpro Ceriglass and a Rayon pad from cleanyourcar.co.uk with excellent results.
It does make a mess (polish splatter).
And you need to be on max speed on the rotary and a fair amount of pressure.
But I got some horrific marks out of a windscreen and passenger window , was quite amazed!
wtf I didn't post that in this thread.
What a silly forum / retard moment.
Johnnytheboy said:
Not the place to go in to too much detail, but here's the potted version.
They already had a Co-op (which was st) in the village which they wanted to close, a large housing development in same village was granted on the proviso that they build a mini-supermarket in a vacant plot in it, then one day we all get a leaflet though our doors announcing a shiny new store opening. Only through a bit of reading between the lines did we realise that through a retail shell company they'd bought a huge job lot of (admittedly not top tier) pubs to turn them into Co-ops. At which point they abandoned the idea of developing the site allocated to them, not being that worried by the fact the new site was in a really odd spot for a shop.
There was a contact name at a planning consultant firm if you wanted to learn more about it. He was rude to the point of swearing if you suggested you'd like to keep the pub. He was then equally rude to the planning officer at the council and the parish council secretary, whom he put the phone down on. Not a good PR move...
Their planning application was full of inaccuracy and downright lies. They lost the planning, and then more or less threatened the council with legal action if an appeal was rejected.
The village, while this was going on, mobilised in more ways than I have space to list. We won and kept our village pub, which is thriving.
The impression that came through all this is the Co-op and the companies they choose to work with give the impression of having the morals of alley cats, despite the ethical image they like to put forward.
Sounds good, and I'm glad you saved the pub. They already had a Co-op (which was s
t) in the village which they wanted to close, a large housing development in same village was granted on the proviso that they build a mini-supermarket in a vacant plot in it, then one day we all get a leaflet though our doors announcing a shiny new store opening. Only through a bit of reading between the lines did we realise that through a retail shell company they'd bought a huge job lot of (admittedly not top tier) pubs to turn them into Co-ops. At which point they abandoned the idea of developing the site allocated to them, not being that worried by the fact the new site was in a really odd spot for a shop. There was a contact name at a planning consultant firm if you wanted to learn more about it. He was rude to the point of swearing if you suggested you'd like to keep the pub. He was then equally rude to the planning officer at the council and the parish council secretary, whom he put the phone down on. Not a good PR move...
Their planning application was full of inaccuracy and downright lies. They lost the planning, and then more or less threatened the council with legal action if an appeal was rejected.
The village, while this was going on, mobilised in more ways than I have space to list. We won and kept our village pub, which is thriving.
The impression that came through all this is the Co-op and the companies they choose to work with give the impression of having the morals of alley cats, despite the ethical image they like to put forward.
Supermarkets almost always face a battle when they want to open a new shop, so I'm not surprised that their 'soldiers' are not 'shy'.
Coop's 'ethical' face is just a face when it comes to the commercial realities. If they weren't up for a fight where necessary they wouldn't be able to open as many new shops as they currently are, because most of them come after a fight.
I'm not saying this next bit applies to you directly, but every community has a vocal and energetic group who will reject any proposal for a shop of a certain size and insist it isn't wanted. They'll produce a petition which demonstrates same.
Nobody in the community who disagrees and thinks 'actually, that'd be pretty useful' does so vociferously enough to stick their head above the parapet and get the local grief that'll come their way if they do.
So the supermarket goes to war. More often than not it wins, because 'we don't want it' isn't a valid planning complaint, and if that was true, the supermarket wouldn't want to open a shop there anyway.
So the supermarket opens its shop and lots of people shop there after all, so proving its utility to the community.
westberks said:
our village is served by a co-op and its the main shop apart from a very poor corner shop (makes the co-op look like Harrods food hall!)
its one of the franchised ones; I found this out when complaining about the personal hygiene of the staff. these are all locals from the stump variety family tree; I think they share one set of teeth and have a weird religious aversion to showering. Seriously the whole queue were muttering about the smell & this is a village full of horsey types that walk around smelling of dung; which is far nicer! That and the appalling stock levels where most days it looks like something from the USSR in the 70s, with one cabbage in the veg section and bugger all else!
when I eventually managed to find who to make my complaint to they wanted to know which member of staff and were surprised to hear my response of 'most of them, and if your manager doesn't realise then you need to get him tested for a sense of smell'! they also couldn't really explain the stock issue and a year later its hardly improved.
had that level of complaint been levied against any other reputable chain I'd have probably received an apology and vouchers or the suchlike; the co-op barely acknowledged the issue and thanked me for getting in touch.
its one of the franchised ones; I found this out when complaining about the personal hygiene of the staff. these are all locals from the stump variety family tree; I think they share one set of teeth and have a weird religious aversion to showering. Seriously the whole queue were muttering about the smell & this is a village full of horsey types that walk around smelling of dung; which is far nicer! That and the appalling stock levels where most days it looks like something from the USSR in the 70s, with one cabbage in the veg section and bugger all else!
when I eventually managed to find who to make my complaint to they wanted to know which member of staff and were surprised to hear my response of 'most of them, and if your manager doesn't realise then you need to get him tested for a sense of smell'! they also couldn't really explain the stock issue and a year later its hardly improved.
had that level of complaint been levied against any other reputable chain I'd have probably received an apology and vouchers or the suchlike; the co-op barely acknowledged the issue and thanked me for getting in touch.
All the ones near me and slightly further afield stock Tiptree Tomato Ketchup, locally sourced pate's and pork pies and locally brewed beers......bloody love it! Champagne Socialism at its best; they'll be the first thing to go under Corbyn!
Edited by crispyshark on Tuesday 27th February 16:14
SpeckledJim said:
Johnnytheboy said:
Not the place to go in to too much detail, but here's the potted version.
They already had a Co-op (which was st) in the village which they wanted to close, a large housing development in same village was granted on the proviso that they build a mini-supermarket in a vacant plot in it, then one day we all get a leaflet though our doors announcing a shiny new store opening. Only through a bit of reading between the lines did we realise that through a retail shell company they'd bought a huge job lot of (admittedly not top tier) pubs to turn them into Co-ops. At which point they abandoned the idea of developing the site allocated to them, not being that worried by the fact the new site was in a really odd spot for a shop.
There was a contact name at a planning consultant firm if you wanted to learn more about it. He was rude to the point of swearing if you suggested you'd like to keep the pub. He was then equally rude to the planning officer at the council and the parish council secretary, whom he put the phone down on. Not a good PR move...
Their planning application was full of inaccuracy and downright lies. They lost the planning, and then more or less threatened the council with legal action if an appeal was rejected.
The village, while this was going on, mobilised in more ways than I have space to list. We won and kept our village pub, which is thriving.
The impression that came through all this is the Co-op and the companies they choose to work with give the impression of having the morals of alley cats, despite the ethical image they like to put forward.
Sounds good, and I'm glad you saved the pub. They already had a Co-op (which was s
t) in the village which they wanted to close, a large housing development in same village was granted on the proviso that they build a mini-supermarket in a vacant plot in it, then one day we all get a leaflet though our doors announcing a shiny new store opening. Only through a bit of reading between the lines did we realise that through a retail shell company they'd bought a huge job lot of (admittedly not top tier) pubs to turn them into Co-ops. At which point they abandoned the idea of developing the site allocated to them, not being that worried by the fact the new site was in a really odd spot for a shop. There was a contact name at a planning consultant firm if you wanted to learn more about it. He was rude to the point of swearing if you suggested you'd like to keep the pub. He was then equally rude to the planning officer at the council and the parish council secretary, whom he put the phone down on. Not a good PR move...
Their planning application was full of inaccuracy and downright lies. They lost the planning, and then more or less threatened the council with legal action if an appeal was rejected.
The village, while this was going on, mobilised in more ways than I have space to list. We won and kept our village pub, which is thriving.
The impression that came through all this is the Co-op and the companies they choose to work with give the impression of having the morals of alley cats, despite the ethical image they like to put forward.
Supermarkets almost always face a battle when they want to open a new shop, so I'm not surprised that their 'soldiers' are not 'shy'.
Coop's 'ethical' face is just a face when it comes to the commercial realities. If they weren't up for a fight where necessary they wouldn't be able to open as many new shops as they currently are, because most of them come after a fight.
I'm not saying this next bit applies to you directly, but every community has a vocal and energetic group who will reject any proposal for a shop of a certain size and insist it isn't wanted. They'll produce a petition which demonstrates same.
Nobody in the community who disagrees and thinks 'actually, that'd be pretty useful' does so vociferously enough to stick their head above the parapet and get the local grief that'll come their way if they do.
So the supermarket goes to war. More often than not it wins, because 'we don't want it' isn't a valid planning complaint, and if that was true, the supermarket wouldn't want to open a shop there anyway.
So the supermarket opens its shop and lots of people shop there after all, so proving its utility to the community.
Well done johnnytheboy though helping save the local pub!
SpeckledJim said:
Sounds good, and I'm glad you saved the pub.
Supermarkets almost always face a battle when they want to open a new shop, so I'm not surprised that their 'soldiers' are not 'shy'.
Coop's 'ethical' face is just a face when it comes to the commercial realities. If they weren't up for a fight where necessary they wouldn't be able to open as many new shops as they currently are, because most of them come after a fight.
I'm not saying this next bit applies to you directly, but every community has a vocal and energetic group who will reject any proposal for a shop of a certain size and insist it isn't wanted. They'll produce a petition which demonstrates same.
Nobody in the community who disagrees and thinks 'actually, that'd be pretty useful' does so vociferously enough to stick their head above the parapet and get the local grief that'll come their way if they do.
So the supermarket goes to war. More often than not it wins, because 'we don't want it' isn't a valid planning complaint, and if that was true, the supermarket wouldn't want to open a shop there anyway.
So the supermarket opens its shop and lots of people shop there after all, so proving its utility to the community.
I should add that the objection wasn't to the the supermarket, it was to closing a trading pub, when there was an empty site allocated to a supermarket, and actually another shut pub in the village they could have had in a better location. Supermarkets almost always face a battle when they want to open a new shop, so I'm not surprised that their 'soldiers' are not 'shy'.
Coop's 'ethical' face is just a face when it comes to the commercial realities. If they weren't up for a fight where necessary they wouldn't be able to open as many new shops as they currently are, because most of them come after a fight.
I'm not saying this next bit applies to you directly, but every community has a vocal and energetic group who will reject any proposal for a shop of a certain size and insist it isn't wanted. They'll produce a petition which demonstrates same.
Nobody in the community who disagrees and thinks 'actually, that'd be pretty useful' does so vociferously enough to stick their head above the parapet and get the local grief that'll come their way if they do.
So the supermarket goes to war. More often than not it wins, because 'we don't want it' isn't a valid planning complaint, and if that was true, the supermarket wouldn't want to open a shop there anyway.
So the supermarket opens its shop and lots of people shop there after all, so proving its utility to the community.
My assumption is they got the pub for a song.
Monkeylegend said:
westberks said:
our village is served by a co-op and its the main shop apart from a very poor corner shop (makes the co-op look like Harrods food hall!)
its one of the franchised ones; I found this out when complaining about the personal hygiene of the staff. these are all locals from the stump variety family tree; I think they share one set of teeth and have a weird religious aversion to showering. Seriously the whole queue were muttering about the smell & this is a village full of horsey types that walk around smelling of dung; which is far nicer! That and the appalling stock levels where most days it looks like something from the USSR in the 70s, with one cabbage in the veg section and bugger all else!
when I eventually managed to find who to make my complaint to they wanted to know which member of staff and were surprised to hear my response of 'most of them, and if your manager doesn't realise then you need to get him tested for a sense of smell'! they also couldn't really explain the stock issue and a year later its hardly improved.
had that level of complaint been levied against any other reputable chain I'd have probably received an apology and vouchers or the suchlike; the co-op barely acknowledged the issue and thanked me for getting in touch.
its one of the franchised ones; I found this out when complaining about the personal hygiene of the staff. these are all locals from the stump variety family tree; I think they share one set of teeth and have a weird religious aversion to showering. Seriously the whole queue were muttering about the smell & this is a village full of horsey types that walk around smelling of dung; which is far nicer! That and the appalling stock levels where most days it looks like something from the USSR in the 70s, with one cabbage in the veg section and bugger all else!
when I eventually managed to find who to make my complaint to they wanted to know which member of staff and were surprised to hear my response of 'most of them, and if your manager doesn't realise then you need to get him tested for a sense of smell'! they also couldn't really explain the stock issue and a year later its hardly improved.
had that level of complaint been levied against any other reputable chain I'd have probably received an apology and vouchers or the suchlike; the co-op barely acknowledged the issue and thanked me for getting in touch.
xjay1337 said:
Johnnytheboy said:
xjay1337 said:
SpeckledJim said:
Well done on protecting the pub (or doing a struggling landlord out of his retirement?), but this is not a mistake Co-op make.
They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
Maybe. Haven't used that.They don't spend £1m converting a pub to a supermarket to discover to their horror that nobody shops there. Once they open it always turns out that lots of people want to shop there and spluttery petitions that swear the opposite are never true in the event.
I have used Carpro Ceriglass and a Rayon pad from cleanyourcar.co.uk with excellent results.
It does make a mess (polish splatter).
And you need to be on max speed on the rotary and a fair amount of pressure.
But I got some horrific marks out of a windscreen and passenger window , was quite amazed!
wtf I didn't post that in this thread.
What a silly forum / retard moment.
I love the Co-Ops terribly poor stock control. Lobster for £1 at Valentine’s, luxury goods for .50p at Christmas, steak, joints of meat reduced to pennies - hit it at the right time and fill your freezer. It helps that I have a discount card too, and a Manager that used to text me when the stuff was being yellow stickered 
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