Supermarkets discussion

[D6975]

Where I live there’s a Tesco and an Iceland in one direction, or a Sainsbury, Iceland and Lidl a bit further away in the other. The Lidl is by far the cheapest, the Tesco coming in second. This is changing however with Tesco bringing in massive price increases by a rather cynical stealth method. How so?

Take a bag of sweets in the 200gm ish range.

You used to have a choice of

Premium brand name (Maynards etc) typically around £1.20

Tesco own brand about £0.80

Tesco value range about £0.29

What they have done is increase the cost of the first 2 by a small amount, 5p or 10p, but completely removed from sale the cheap ones (Ms Molly – ‘false’ Tesco value brand)

So the option for the cheapest bag has gone from £0.29 to £0.85, pretty much trebling the price.

And it’s spreading - yesterday I wanted to buy a large jar of Tesco own brand Marmite and that too has been removed from sale, only the ‘proper’ stuff being available. Needless to say I didn’t buy any.

 

[Merle Haggard]

I personally use the self checkout because using the cashier operated one is just tiresome..

Using the staffed one I often found that the cashier would be happy to delay me by chatting to the customer in front of me and also any children with them. I'm polite myself, but don't think a stranger would be interested in my day, nor me in theirs. Before that customer moved away, the cashier would slam through my items as quickly as possible (presumably to restore their items scanned per hour target) and then got impatient, sometimes with snapping of the fingers) because I couldn't simultaneously finish packing and also extract and use my debit card (I have a problem with my hands - I've only got two ). Having carefully arranged all the heavy (e.g. tinned) items at the front and the fragile ones at the back it seemed inexplicable how this order was so scrambled by the time it reached me to pack.
If I was too busy packing to watch the till for amounts charged but having a good idea of the total, any query about whether discounted items were correctly charged had to wait until the receipt was produced, and then almost impossible to question - the cashier was dealing with the next customer even before I'd finished packing.
And (not the supermarkets' fault, I know) the character in front who watches their items being scanned until the cashier says 'that's £x' and is obviously taken by complete surprise that they then have to PAY, cue much searching through pockets and looking in purses/wallets. Alternative; the one who tries to pay using their phone; spends a couple of minutes sweeping the phone screen up and down, holds it against the reader. Nothing happens. Repeat process several times with similar lack of success. Often with a smug 'I'm so clever, using leading edge technology don't need plastic cards or cash like you lot' that steadily fades.

 

[DannyMich2018]

Where I live there’s a Tesco and an Iceland in one direction, or a Sainsbury, Iceland and Lidl a bit further away in the other. The Lidl is by far the cheapest, the Tesco coming in second. This is changing however with Tesco bringing in massive price increases by a rather cynical stealth method. How so?

Take a bag of sweets in the 200gm ish range.

You used to have a choice of

Premium brand name (Maynards etc) typically around £1.20

Tesco own brand about £0.80

Tesco value range about £0.29

What they have done is increase the cost of the first 2 by a small amount, 5p or 10p, but completely removed from sale the cheap ones (Ms Molly – ‘false’ Tesco value brand)

So the option for the cheapest bag has gone from £0.29 to £0.85, pretty much trebling the price.

And it’s spreading - yesterday I wanted to buy a large jar of Tesco own brand Marmite and that too has been removed from sale, only the ‘proper’ stuff being available. Needless to say I didn’t buy any.

Yes it's a real lottery food shopping. I'm quite lucky as on my way back from work I'm easy reach of Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrison's, Aldi, Farmfoods, Home Bargains, B and M so can see what I want and shop around and don't spend more than I need to-Iceland has improved lately and has some good deals on, picked up Mccain Chips half price £1.60 the other day. Aldi are the best value in my opinion and try and get most of what I can there.

 

[Blindtraveler]

Aldi lose out for me because my nearest store is a distance away and hard to reach which is a huge disappointment as I love them, if they would offer some kind of delivery service even if this was through a partner such as ocado or deliveroo I'd be happy

 

[jon0844]

Boots has adopted the normal price and advantage card price (apologies if they did this ages ago, I don't shop there often). I only went as I wanted to get eye drops and discovered the pharmacy was closed due to lack of staff. I did however buy some toothpaste and some other bits and this is where it got confusing.

Only one manned till and all self checkouts, so scanned everything and the end price is too high but I know that the discounts are worked out when you press pay (this has always confused customers and staff hate how it does it because it results in the usual complaints and being told 'just press pay and it works out your discounts).

It then showed a revised price but showed the savings as an amount that was too low from what I'd worked out, but again the staff member explained that it doesn't quite work properly with the advantage club discounts. It still shows the item at full price on the summary, and the total discount had some discounts and not others - but after paying and asking for a receipt it DID show the right pricing. Nobody is going to add up all the items to see that it is correct, so clearly there's something up. My assumption is that if it was a regular offer (two items for £xx or £xx off) it can do it, but if it's a different price for scanning your card it can't and shows the normal price.

All a bit of a mess, and clearly just a software issue. Anyone wisely checking the prices so as not to pay the wrong price is really going to have to do a lot work - and the poor staff have to try and reassure customers.

I must say I was disappointed that they don't staff the pharmacy counter all day anymore, although they did say the times are changing soon. This was once a Boots that had a window to serve people outside of hours - now they can't even maintain normal opening hours!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 12 Nov 2023 ==

My local Aldi has just installed self checkouts which is ideal if you are nipping in for a few things.

Our Aldi closes them all off at times. Not sure if that's just a staffing issue or because they have experienced certain times with increased shoplifting. I don't go often enough to know, and doubt staff would tell me if I asked.

 

[Busaholic]

Using the staffed one I often found that the cashier would be happy to delay me by chatting to the customer in front of me and also any children with them. I'm polite myself, but don't think a stranger would be interested in my day, nor me in theirs. Before that customer moved away, the cashier would slam through my items as quickly as possible (presumably to restore their items scanned per hour target) and then got impatient, sometimes with snapping of the fingers) because I couldn't simultaneously finish packing and also extract and use my debit card (I have a problem with my hands - I've only got two ). Having carefully arranged all the heavy (e.g. tinned) items at the front and the fragile ones at the back it seemed inexplicable how this order was so scrambled by the time it reached me to pack.
If I was too busy packing to watch the till for amounts charged but having a good idea of the total, any query about whether discounted items were correctly charged had to wait until the receipt was produced, and then almost impossible to question - the cashier was dealing with the next customer even before I'd finished packing.
And (not the supermarkets' fault, I know) the character in front who watches their items being scanned until the cashier says 'that's £x' and is obviously taken by complete surprise that they then have to PAY, cue much searching through pockets and looking in purses/wallets. Alternative; the one who tries to pay using their phone; spends a couple of minutes sweeping the phone screen up and down, holds it against the reader. Nothing happens. Repeat process several times with similar lack of success. Often with a smug 'I'm so clever, using leading edge technology don't need plastic cards or cash like you lot' that steadily fades.

That could be me talking (not quite had snapping of fingers, just a scowl). As you say, the phone flashers are the most annoying (their first attempt rarely works) and once in a Costa I had to wait ten minutes behind a narcissistic woman who was determined to claim her free coffee by this means regardless of anyone else, all the time berating the barista/cashier.

 

[david1212]

So long as not a big queue i.e. if one or two in front and you can start unloading onto the belt generally operated checkouts seem overall quicker.
The biggest problems with self-service are if you have several of the same item each has to be scanned separately and if not enough space in the bagging area to put all you have bought without stacking i.e. potentially squashing something even if you plan the scanning order.


Last Friday I had a Tesco voucher to use and had just received a coupon for £6 off £40 then for 2 & 3 weeks ahead £4 off £40, all paper, I do not use the app. In addition to the few items I needed the combination of the coupons and Clubcard prices was the opportunity to buy some Christmas items. The Clubcard prices directly saved over £10, the shelf price of some items of course may have been cheaper elsewhere. I used a self-service checkout as long queues at the few open operated checkouts.

This is the important part - Having scanned the items I first presented the paper vouchers which were accepted with value of each deducted from the total. I then presented the Clubcard which deducted the discounts. I had made sure the combined value was over £40, about £46 as it turned out, after the Clubcard discounts. It would seem though that the £6 off £40 voucher would have been accepted so long as the combined value was over £40 without the Clubcard discount. Given this I could have left a couple of items and probably made up another £40 again in 3 weeks time to save £4.

I have always presumed that vouchers are only valid when the Clubcard is accepted and the discounts applied but maybe not. Easier with two people but a way to test would be to have an item or two without any Clubcard discount ready to add if needed but else pay separately on the pretense of needing a separate receipt.

 

[gswindale]

That could be me talking (not quite had snapping of fingers, just a scowl). As you say, the phone flashers are the most annoying (their first attempt rarely works) and once in a Costa I had to wait ten minutes behind a narcissistic woman who was determined to claim her free coffee by this means regardless of anyone else, all the time berating the barista/cashier.

The only place I seem to have a problem with my phone is in M&S where the cash/card machines won't scan my Sparks card from my phone. The card only machines work fine though.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

One of my elderly female neighbours (aged 83) with an ailment, shops at a large Sainsburys store and uses a middle-sized trolley. When she has finished her shopping, she always goes to a member of staff, usually a supervisor, who then takes her to the normal checkout section, loads the shopping from the trolley onto the moveable belt and is given the four or five heavy duty Sainsbury bags. As the items are processed, the member of staff then packs the items into the bags for her. Good to see such good customer service is still found in the retail sector.

 

[Gloster]

I am beginning to get a bit annoyed with Morrisons. The member of staff will watch someone with a heavily loaded trolley go up to the cash only self-service tills and make no attempt to suggest that, if they are paying with a card, they should use one of the free card only tills. (I am talking about the sort of loads that 99% of people nowadays use a card for.)

Tescos seem to be quite happy about people with trolleys using the ’Baskets Only’ tills even when there is plenty of capacity in the other sections. “If you won’t fill our pockets by buying lots of stuff, we’ll make you wait to pay for your miserable little purchases.”

 

[maniacmartin]

Today I was in Sainsburys Croydon Purley Way and they have changed all of the fruit and veg scales for "smart" ones with a camera. They couldn't work out that another customer had put in potatoes so he left them on the scales and got some prepackaged ones instead. They couldn't detect my parsnips either. When I selected parsnips from the menu manually, the green "Press here to print label" didn't respond to presses, no matter how hard. Exact same experience with another set of scales. No worries, I thought, I'll just sort them out at the checkout.

I had a full trolley and used SmartShop (the handheld scanning device), but the SmartShop tills have no scales so it was impossible to add my poor parsnips! The assistant just shrugged her shoulders, so I paid for everything else and left my trolley in the exit aisle to go pay for the loose vegetables at a normal self-service till, except I couldn't get there because of the stupid receipt scanning gates. In the end I just pushed through them to get to the till because they're about as secure as a railway wide aisle gate which made them beep but no-one batted an eyelid anyway. Then the finale was the main exit doors started beeping as I went through, even though I hadn't bought anything particularly expensive (alcohol, electronics, meat etc). As the security guard was busy with the customer in front whose trolley also set of the alarms,I just kept walking - no-one shouted or came running after me. Sainsburys need to remove the awful new "AI" scales that don't work at all.

This is my second bad experience in a week. The previous visit to a different Sainsburys, they wouldn't exchange two 50ps for a £1 coin for the trolleys, as they apparently couldn't open the tills unless I bought something there and then.

 

[jon81uk]

The previous visit to a different Sainsburys, they wouldn't exchange two 50ps for a £1 coin for the trolleys, as they apparently couldn't open the tills unless I bought something there and then.

Thats fairly standard in retail to ensure it is logged properly when the drawer is opened because of theft from staff.

 

[Kite159]

Seems that this year's Nectar/Sainsbury's Christmas Count Up is for selected customers only. Even though it replaced the "double up" voucher scheme they ran in previous years.

Seems Sainsbury's no longer wants my custom, therefore I won't give them any future custom unless they are the only option.

 

[Busaholic]

Seems that this year's Nectar/Sainsbury's Christmas Count Up is for selected customers only. Even though it replaced the "double up" voucher scheme they ran in previous years.

Seems Sainsbury's no longer wants my custom, therefore I won't give them any future custom unless they are the only option.

Isn't it for all Nectar customers whose current addresses they have registered?

 

[Kite159]

Isn't it for all Nectar customers whose current addresses they have registered?

I've been looking via Twitter at other comments and it's selected customers only.

"Hey! The Count up to Christmas promo is invite only, so if you didn't receive an email inviting you to take part, you would not see it on your app. If you did receive an invite, please uninstall and reinstall the app. Caitlin"

https://twitter.com/nectar/status/1722528387288232221?t=GIWIlsHPaK1O9Qs9rcRN-Q&s=19

&

"Hi Ame. Sorry you can't see the offer on your app. This promotion was invite only for selected customers. Chris"

https://twitter.com/nectar/status/1723060508192849966?t=4fCL2CZ0AtTLRIQhRZqm_g&s=19

 

[Mojo]

I don’t have the “Count Up To Christmas” but I do have the “Points Power Up” in my Nectar
App.

Unless I’m mistaken, this is better than the old Double Up promotion as the voucher you get is valid on any products including food (subject to the usual exclusions of spirits, lottery tickets, baby formula etc), whereas the old Double Up vouchers were only valid on home goods, clothing, seasonal items and Taste the Difference wines, port, sherry and champagne.

It is however limited to a maximum of 10,000 points which is £100, and the voucher must be spent in one go. Not sure if you can have multiple vouchers.

 

[gg1]

I don’t have the “Count Up To Christmas” but I do have the “Points Power Up” in my Nectar
App.

I have neither

 

[Kite159]

I don’t have the “Count Up To Christmas” but I do have the “Points Power Up” in my Nectar
App.

Unless I’m mistaken, this is better than the old Double Up promotion as the voucher you get is valid on any products including food (subject to the usual exclusions of spirits, lottery tickets, baby formula etc), whereas the old Double Up vouchers were only valid on home goods, clothing, seasonal items and Taste the Difference wines, port, sherry and champagne.

It is however limited to a maximum of 10,000 points which is £100, and the voucher must be spent in one go. Not sure if you can have multiple vouchers.

Sounds like the 'Points Power Up' is another invite only thing (based on a few posts on the Money Saving Expert forum).

Sainsbury's has decided they no longer want my custom so I will no longer give them my custom unless it's the only option. As soon as I use up the ~£30 worth of nectar points the app will be uninstalled. Other shops are available

 

[Mcr Warrior]

It is however limited to a maximum of 10,000 points which is £100...

At Sainsbury's, aren't 10,000 Nectar points only worth £50 normally?

 

[Mojo]

At Sainsbury's, aren't 10,000 Nectar points only worth £50 normally?

Yes.

 

[jon81uk]

Seems that this year's Nectar/Sainsbury's Christmas Count Up is for selected customers only. Even though it replaced the "double up" voucher scheme they ran in previous years.

Seems Sainsbury's no longer wants my custom, therefore I won't give them any future custom unless they are the only option.

Count up to Christmas is nothing like double up?

For my (personalised) target for count up to Christmas, for each 300 points I earn (including bonuses) I get 1000 extra (worth £5). Whereas Double Up was about spending points not earning.

 

[ChrisC]

Seems that this year's Nectar/Sainsbury's Christmas Count Up is for selected customers only. Even though it replaced the "double up" voucher scheme they ran in previous years.

Seems Sainsbury's no longer wants my custom, therefore I won't give them any future custom unless they are the only option.

I also haven‘t been invited to join Christmas Count up this year. Like you, I also will not do any of my Christmas shopping at Sainsbury’s this year. I will not delete the app. From past experience, I’ve found that if you have been a regular customer and then stop shopping with them, after a few months they begin to send you some very good offers via the app to try to get you back. Whenever the amount of bonus points they are offering me on regularly purchased items goes down to very low levels I don’t shop there for a few weeks and the amount of bonus points offered then increase considerably. You have to play the system with Sainsbury’s Nectar offers.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Count up to Christmas is nothing like double up?

For my (personalised) target for count up to Christmas, for each 300 points I earn (including bonuses) I get 1000 extra (worth £5). Whereas Double Up was about spending points not earning.

That's the offer I got (or at least 3 x 300 points earns 3 x 1000 I don't believe its open ended) - I did wonder if the figures in the offer were personalised as well as whether you got the offer at all

 

[RuddA]

That's the offer I got (or at least 3 x 300 points earns 3 x 1000 I don't believe its open ended) - I did wonder if the figures in the offer were personalised as well as whether you got the offer at all

My offer is 3 x 1000 points earns 3 x 1000 points.
With the app bonus points counting towards this, it was easy to get 900+ points in a single shop so nearly completed all already.

 

[Kite159]

Count up to Christmas is nothing like double up?

For my (personalised) target for count up to Christmas, for each 300 points I earn (including bonuses) I get 1000 extra (worth £5). Whereas Double Up was about spending points not earning.

Nectar said that Count Up to Christmas was poor direct replacement for the Double Up promotion to giving something extra back for customers at Christmas

 

[jon81uk]

That's the offer I got (or at least 3 x 300 points earns 3 x 1000 I don't believe its open ended) - I did wonder if the figures in the offer were personalised as well as whether you got the offer at all

Yes I got three of them too, but I doubt I'll do more than two of them.

Nectar said that Count Up to Christmas was poor direct replacement for the Double Up promotion to giving something extra back for customers at Christmas

Although it definitly is giving something back (I've already got £5 in points from it), trying to claim its like double up is weird, its a great bonus for sure though.

 

[DannyMich2018]

Regarding Sainsbury's and their Nectar prices I had a few week's ago some money off vouchers if I spent more than £40 on one shop. I can get my shopping cheaper elesewhere so these are not needed. For example Terry's chocolate oranges are 50p more pricey than everywhere else pretty much and tubs of Celebrations are more dearer than Asda Aldi, Morrison's, Tesco.

 

[jon0844]

Are all the chocolate tubs for Christmas the same sizes in each store? I ask because there was a time the 4 chocolate bars for £n were different sizes and ranged in price from £1 to £1.25 to £1.49/50 and it was hard to compare.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Regarding Sainsbury's and their Nectar prices I had a few week's ago some money off vouchers if I spent more than £40 on one shop. I can get my shopping cheaper elesewhere so these are not needed. For example Terry's chocolate oranges are 50p more pricey than everywhere else pretty much and tubs of Celebrations are more dearer than Asda Aldi, Morrison's, Tesco.

The Nectar vouchers offering £12 off for one of the weeks and £9 off for the others that I received two weeks ago were conditional on a figure of £70 being spent in Sainsburys.

 

[Typhoon]

The Nectar vouchers offering £12 off for one of the weeks and £9 off for the others that I received two weeks ago were conditional on a figure of £70 being spent in Sainsburys.

Tesco do the same. Clearly I don't know how much you normally spend but with Tesco my minimum spend was the 'usual' spend rounded up to the next ten, so, say I normally spent around the £20 mark, it would be £30, which I met occasionally.. Now it is the next ten up again, so £40 so no chance. I have to carry the shopping home (two bus rides to my nearest decent size Tesco). Sainsbury's have always been much higher than normal spend so vouchers get recycled.