Supermarkets discussion

[zero]

Human checkouts are much better when the bulk of your purchases are items without barcodes. My wife has yet to learn this. We bought around 5 bakery items and a selection of loose fruits at a "local" supermarket. I said "go to the human!!" but she didn't hear me and went to the self-checkout on autopilot.

I counted 12 shoppers completing their transactions at the manned checkout while she was hunting for each specific pastry and we had to call over the helper 4 times because the weights were not right. The worst thing was that something similar had already happened the previous week and we discussed it...


We have 4 nectar cards. When this personalised offer thing started, we kept track of the things bought on each card and now get four sets of personalised offers which covers most of the usual items. For those concerned about privacy, there isn't any need to use real details to register. However it does require having 2 phones and 2 virtual phones as annoyingly some promotions can only be done using the app.

 

[GusB]

We have 4 nectar cards. When this personalised offer thing started, we kept track of the things bought on each card and now get four sets of personalised offers which covers most of the usual items. For those concerned about privacy, there isn't any need to use real details to register. However it does require having 2 phones and 2 virtual phones as annoyingly some promotions can only be done using the app.

I understand that some people may not wish to have their personal details stored with any loyalty scheme, but please explain how your dodge works and how it actually makes your supermarket experience better. How does having to make four separate transactions make things quicker?

 

[zero]

I understand that some people may not wish to have their personal details stored with any loyalty scheme, but please explain how your dodge works and how it actually makes your supermarket experience better. How does having to make four separate transactions make things quicker?

It doesn't make things quicker! It makes things slower (not that much slower once we got the hang of it) but saves more money.

With one card you get about 6 to 10 personalised nectar prices and around 20 bonus nectar offers every week.

With four cards we get 25-40 personalised prices and 80 bonus nectar offers every week. Around half of the offers are useful, the other half are probably the algorithm trying to entice us to try similar/new items.

For the benefit of those who don't use Sainsburys, this is how it works: on the shelf the label might say £2.79 and nectar price £2.39. But in my nectar account(s) it might say "your nectar price: £1.58". And yes sometimes the discounts are quite significant in percentage terms.

Separately there are also offers such as 100 extra points for buying X or 10 extra points for buying Y. 100 points equals 50p off (actually 49.7p because of maths). These offers can be on the same items as the personalised prices or different items.

Furthermore recently they have started giving us offers like £2 off £20 or £4 off £40. Having multiple cards gives us flexibility on which offer to use. (Before covid, i.e. before the changes to the current nectar scheme and before the period of high inflation, they occasionally sent these as vouchers in the post, but now that everything is app based you don't need to give them a genuine postal address)

We could save even more with 10 cards but that would be too difficult to keep track of.

While some of the offers are on items we wouldn't buy at the regular price (or even the regular nectar price), a lot of them are, so they are genuine savings.

 

[jon0844]

Kudos for gaming the system so well! I thought I was clever for going in after a break, buying one item, paying, getting vouchers and then doing my main shop using the vouchers (given many vouchers may expire in a week, or be for money off a big spend you won't do just after a big shop).

What I do find is that when I don't want any fuss, especially as some offers and points aren't that great anyway, I just go to Aldi.

 

[jon81uk]

If you have a large trolley full of shopping, or multiple trolleys, it makes zero sense to have the customer unload their shopping, scan it and then have to pack it at the end when having a member of staff in the middle can significantly reduce the amount of time it takes. Not everyone appreciates having help to pack their bags, but it used to be a "customer delight" moment when someone had loaded up with more than they anticipated buying and they were asked for help to pack their bags.

The whole scan-as-you-go thing isn't new (Shop'n'Go was a thing when I worked for Safeway years ago), and some customers might prefer it, but I really object to the removal of choice.

I agree it makes no sense to unload and reload the trolley, which is why scan as you go makes the most sense of all the options for larger shops, you only pack once. No stores are forcing that method, it’s the normal small self checkouts that are the only option in quiet hours. Also help with packing is rare in the UK.

 

[Ant158]

Trust me stock loss through self checkouts at all retailers is huge. The discounters seem to be removing them from many stores.

Booths in Clitheroe had them installed and fairly quickly replaced them with a couple of basket tills. Though part of the problem was there was rarely a member of staff monitoring them!

 

[Mojo]

I went to Morrisons Elstree & Borehamwood on Friday evening. Don’t often go to Morrisons as there aren’t any that convenient for me and the last few times I’d visited have been very expensive.

What surprised me the most was not the prices, they actually seemed reasonably competitive, so I don’t know if they’ve had a look at them to bring them back into line with the other three ordinary supermarket chains, but was frankly how quiet the shop was. There were hardly any cars in the car park and barely a handful of customers in the shop. I’ve never seen a supermarket so quiet.

It also looks like they may be about to install gates there too; they had an “air lock” with two sets of one way gates upon entry, the self service area had a reciept scanner on the exit gate but it was not yet commissioned with the gate opening for everyone upon approach.

 

[Hadders]

What surprised me the most was not the prices, they actually seemed reasonably competitive, so I don’t know if they’ve had a look at them to bring them back into line with the other three ordinary supermarket chains, but was frankly how quiet the shop was. There were hardly any cars in the car park and barely a handful of customers in the shop. I’ve never seen a supermarket so quiet.

A couple of Morrison's stores I've been in recently were quiet. It might just've been the times I visited.

It also looks like they may be about to install gates there too; they had an “air lock” with two sets of one way gates upon entry, the self service area had a reciept scanner on the exit gate but it was not yet commissioned with the gate opening for everyone upon approach.

They're doing some experiments with double barriers at the entrance to make it more secure and prevent people walking out without going via the checkout area.

I've not seen their receipt scanners in operatiuon yet so it will be interesting to see how they proceed.

 

[lookapigeon]

Has anyone noticed since the private equity takeover the levels of maintainence and staff morale has taken a plunge in Morrisons?

 

[Blindtraveler]

Yes, from an operation that I would have put on a pedestal a few years ago it's rapidly declining and I am one of the customers contemplating switching away

 

[D6130]

Has anyone noticed since the private equity takeover the levels of maintainence and staff morale has taken a plunge in Morrisons?

Yes, I've noticed that in the Todmorden branch. The new owners must be cutting costs to the bone.

 

[jon0844]

Asda and Morrisons each seem to be reducing things to the point where anyone with an alternative store will switch. Many will stay purely because their store is local, and that's fair enough, but they won't particularly enjoy the experience.

My local Asda ran out of trolleys the first weekend the students returned to University, and we have about five on our road alone. There are photos of trolleys all over the town, mostly by the halls of residence. Asda does have a contract with a new company to collect them, but they clearly aren't. 'My' trolleys have been left in the same place for over a week, and two of them have now got a random Tesco trolley added too.

I bet the Tesco one gets collected, but they use a different firm so the Asda ones will likely be left!

 

[Lost property]

I would never have put Morrisons on a pedestal, but, am happy to acknowledge the standards and quality improved (significantly !) once the founder was removed from office. That said, there is a noticeable deterioration after the take over.

Meanwhile, at the home of the con artists supreme, Tesco, the quality is falling, prices rising, but the sales BS continues unabated. I don't want, or need, to "buy four items ! ", the self sealing packaging has all but vanished, and the veg has a short shelf live. Also, they sold pre-cooked thighs and drumsticks which were quick to reheat and succulent . Now, the size has reduced and the thighs are "old " and tough. So much so, the dog, who will eat all and any form of chicken, rejects them when offered.

There's also a long standing issue with "Del Monte " cans....the ring top pull fails at the spot weld requiring a can opener instead . Ring tops are / were notorious to manufacture, my late father bless him, worked for MB as was who made the canning machines, so it would come as nu surprise to learn Tesco have opted for a cheaper canning method.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I just wish I could get my mother to see what the rest of us all see in Tesco's, absolute shambles. I always liked Morrisons for the fact that they had and indeed still have proper counters, that for me was the selling point but away from that the quality of other goods and indeed the range of such has reduced to a point where simply having a proper butcher at my disposal is no longer enough of a draw

 

[gg1]

I just wish I could get my mother to see what the rest of us all see in Tesco's, absolute shambles. I always liked Morrisons for the fact that they had and indeed still have proper counters, that for me was the selling point but away from that the quality of other goods and indeed the range of such has reduced to a point where simply having a proper butcher at my disposal is no longer enough of a draw

I think it's partially down to the individual stores rather than the chain. There are two Asdas near me and one is notably better when it comes to quality of the fresh veg, keeping on top of out of date stock and reliability of the scan and go facility. Annoyingly the better one is the smaller of the two so has a smaller range of stock. My local Tesco falls somewhere between the two in quality (though closer to the better Asda) and I've pretty much given up on Morrisons.

 

[Cambrian359]

Staffing and management layers have been repeatedly cut in the big 4 supermarkets over the last decade or so. So you essentially now have a decreasing number of over worked customer service assistants on minimum wage with very little management above.
Staffing Everywhere is cut to the bone now to try and keep prices down but you are just left with rundown stores with far fewer staff than they might have had 15 years ago.
Made even worse by loss making online shopping! While more and more staff are picking customers internet orders Less and less are on the tills, manning counters or filling shelves. These aren’t extra employed staff anymore, they are just cut from elsewhere to keep costs down.
It’s only going to get worse.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Yes, I've noticed that in the Todmorden branch. The new owners must be cutting costs to the bone.

It’s been downhill all the way since it stopped being a Safeway!

But yes, noticeably worse in recent months. Availability is clearly less good, plus they’ve reduced the range - I’ve noticed a couple of things I buy regularly don’t have an SET so it isn’t just an availability thing.

 

[jon0844]

There are some rumours, which I believe are just that for now, that our Asda might be seeking to sell off a chunk of its car park for flats, and assuming it will need to continue to provide a certain number of spaces (I don't know what the requirement is), rebuild its store (perhaps a multi-level design) and build a multi-storey car park. Land is in high demand for flats, and the current car park is fully open and spread over a large area.

If they are considering doing this, perhaps they're trying to purposely run down the store so they can argue that they need to invest in a new build that will 'solve all the issues'.

 

[gg1]

There are some rumours, which I believe are just that for now, that our Asda might be seeking to sell off a chunk of its car park for flats, and assuming it will need to continue to provide a certain number of spaces (I don't know what the requirement is), rebuild its store (perhaps a multi-level design) and build a multi-storey car park. Land is in high demand for flats, and the current car park is fully open and spread over a large area.

If they are considering doing this, perhaps they're trying to purposely run down the store so they can argue that they need to invest in a new build that will 'solve all the issues'.

They'll probably go for a ground level car park with the store built directly above it. Most of the largish supermarkets I know of which were built the past 15 years or so share that same basic design.

 

[75A]

Has anyone noticed since the private equity takeover the levels of maintainence and staff morale has taken a plunge in Morrisons?

That wouldn't be possible in the Hinckley branch, the staff have always been morose and sullen.
It was a much friendlier shop when it was Safeways

 

[jon0844]

They'll probably go for a ground level car park with the store built directly above it. Most of the largish supermarkets I know of which were built the past 15 years or so share that same basic design.

Yes, WGC went for a two level car park with store on top (with a smaller mezzanine level). That could work, although where residents of the flats would park is unknown...

 

[DannyMich2018]

Went to Asda yesterday for just a few bits and then Aldi today. The price difference between some identical items is truly shocking!! Cheapest own brand Chocolate biscuits 10p, 6 pack sausage rolls 360g, 30p, 400g cocktail sausages, about 70p, more than a Pound saving there for just 3 items!! I remember when Asda not too many year's ago was the cheapest supermarket...

 

[SuspectUsual]

Went to Asda yesterday for just a few bits and then Aldi today. The price difference between some identical items is truly shocking!! Cheapest own brand Chocolate biscuits 10p, 6 pack sausage rolls 360g, 30p, 400g cocktail sausages, about 70p, more than a Pound saving there for just 3 items!! I remember when Asda not too many year's ago was the cheapest supermarket...

So not identical then?

Asda have increased a lot of prices more than their competitors since they stopped being owned by Walmart

 

[DannyMich2018]

So not identical then?

Asda have increased a lot of prices more than their competitors since they stopped being owned by Walmart

Well yes apart from fact that comparing each own brand like for like.
Defo recommended Aldi chocolate biscuits, 300g same as Asda, really nice, 10p less per pack than Asda.
Even Sainsbury's these days has some better prices on some items than Asda.

 

[Busaholic]

Even Sainsbury's these days has some better prices on some items than Asda.

If the proposed Asda/Sainsbury's merger had been allowed to go ahead prices at both stores would be even higher now.

 

[DannyMich2018]

If the proposed Asda/Sainsbury's merger had been allowed to go ahead prices at both stores would be even higher now.

Yes they sure would be.
I would definitely say to all RF members on here is to shop around if you can do- bargains can still be had.

 

[Yew]

I've not seen their receipt scanners in operatiuon yet so it will be interesting to see how they proceed.

I really hope that this terrible foreign invention doesn't take off in the UK.

 

[jon0844]

I really hope that this terrible foreign invention doesn't take off in the UK.

Have they got any choice when people are just walking out with stuff so brazenly?

Not that I'm sure this really helps that much, but any barrier might put some opportunists off.

Currently Sainsbury's by me has them, but leave the entrance ones open so thieves grab stuff and just run out that way. And clearly most could leap over them anyway.

Thieves aren't worried about being seen. They know they won't be stopped.

 

[gg1]

Are these receipt scanners only in city centre supermarkets at present? I've never encountered one.

 

[jon0844]

Are these receipt scanners only in city centre supermarkets at present? I've never encountered one.

I think they're in places with high levels of theft. Ikea them at the self checkouts in Tottenham, but not Milton Keynes, although eventually they got rid of the Tottenham ones (before the store closed for good) and seemed to employ more security guards instead.

Scanning a barcode on a receipt might stop someone who didn't buy anything, but it doesn't stop someone who doesn't scan everything - as nobody is checking the receipt and what you're exiting with.

At the end of the day, self scanning is going to lead to high levels of fraud. They can put up barriers and giant screens with your face as you shop, and people will still do it because the police aren't going to be interested. At worst you get barred, and who enforces that?