The rise and fall of the Supermarkets

melted welly · Jan 24, 2020

Big supermarkets play up to needy people’s need to feel special, Lidl just sell stuff. I don’t mind pulling the shrink wrap off the pallet and theres something pleasing about the 500kg bag of nuts with a scoop cable tied to one of the loops.

Not shopped in Tesco for over 12yrs. Reason was our veg price getting screwed into the floor, an ever increasing audit burden, all very stressful, last minute loads put thru on weekend, don’t get paid more for staff overtime. Then went into local Tesco for some food during harvest, picked up pack of “ready to eat” bbq chicken thighs. Got home to eat them, partly defrosted and still frozen in the middle, checked packet - suitable for home freezing. Recipe for a dose of the skits, what’s to say hadn’t been defrosted and once or twice refrozen already. Not gonna contribute to their double standards and race to the bottom.

icanshootwell · Jan 24, 2020

What i like about aldi and lidl is, your not being conned all the time like the big 4,s pricing strategy, one product on a pallet and one price, simples. If the stores busy, they put another on the till.
As for the others there are 3 for 2 offers etc and the way they try to mislead you with different size packs and weights of there produce. When you actually walk around tesco, asda, you can see how much effort has gone in to tricking and misleading you.

Yale · Jan 24, 2020

icanshootwell said:
What i like about aldi and lidl is, your not being conned all the time like the big 4,s pricing strategy, one product on a pallet and one price, simples. If the stores busy, they put another on the till.
As for the others there are 3 for 2 offers etc and the way they try to mislead you with different size packs and weights of there produce. When you actually walk around tesco, asda, you can see how much effort has gone in to tricking and misleading you.

Totally agree,it shouldn’t have to be a mental battle with the shopkeeper (big 4 supermarkets).

I think this is half the reason people have changed to Aldi and Lidl.

Its just straight forward shopping.

Scribus · Jan 24, 2020

From experience Tesco is top heavy management wise. In the good old days they just added new managers for this, that and t'other, doesn't work like that now but they have a huge backlog of dead wood marking time until retirement. They have got leaner over the years, our local store has near half the staff it had a decade ago but the picture isn't quite as clear as that because a lot (most) are part time.

Personally I don't like the Aldi/Lidl experience and rarely go there, but the son in law is climbing the greasy pole within them and they pay well so can't whinge too much.

Johnnyboxer · Jan 24, 2020

betweenthelines said:
In a previous job I used to phone supermarkets on a regular basis

"Hello, you are thought to Tesco HighSt Branch," Lots of chat about offers for customers etc, then "If you are a supplier, please press 2. Thank you. If you want to speak to the fresh food Manager press 1, for the Dairy Manager Press 2, For Deliveries, press 3, for the Duty Manager press 4, for the Store Manager, press 5"

Ring Lidl (only 1 number, and that's the store manager's mobile) "Hello, how can I help" usually followed by "Can you phone back in 10 minutes, I'm on the tills at the moment"

From memory I think Tesco took milk in 15 sizes/types, Lidl took 6.

You had to book a delivery slot with Tesco (but could still be kept waiting up to 4 hrs to tip. With Lidl, just get there before 10.30 am

Tesco had computer generated order system (based on sales) that they would still alter on a daily basis. Lidl stores took the same order every day (and they never ran out, or had milk go out-of-date)

The Tesco National Buyer once told me "If we order just a single pint of skim milk, we want it that day-do NOT just add it to the next delivery!"

Sums it up

I like shopping in Lidl and Aldi

No fuss or frivolity - just good food and a realistic price

So what if the tolls aren’t all manned - gives you time to chat to people in the Queue

Sid · Jan 24, 2020

I see Tesco's are removing the plastic keeping 4 tins of beans, pet food, etc together.
Wouldn't it be much simpler to stick a ban of packing strap around the tins?
Still in 4's
Is that less plastic? Or more?

Do all these products in multi packs need a label on every tin? A simple spray of Heinz beans like the use by date would suffice.

So many way to save costs, packaging and the planet.

SteveHants · Jan 24, 2020

I mostly shop in Aldi, although I will shop in a Lidl if it's closer.

One of the ways that they can keep prices low is that (until recently) they spent no money on advertising. Their own brand products are packaged to look just like the branded alternative and it works.

Also, Aldi's booze is fantastic.

A1an · Jan 24, 2020

Martin Holden said:
Also makes me laugh that they have some weird hardware for sale too. Last Christmas 2018 Lidl were selling proper axes ? alongside the normal produce!!

Hilly · Jan 24, 2020

Martin Holden said:
Morrisons to cut 3,000 managers and take on more shop-floor staff

So Morrisons are following on from what Sainsburys have also announced - cutting costs due to poorer sales than predicted. The relative newcomers Aldi and Lidl clearly have had an impact on the established players and all of this at a time when food is still actually too cheap. We have also even seen some milk processors walking away from big supply contracts due to un profitable business, so does our food industry need a major overhaul so that UK produce can be produced, processed and retailed in a self sustaining manner where the entire supply chain makes money?

I find food quite expensive to be honest .

neilo · Jan 24, 2020

icanshootwell said:
What i like about aldi and lidl is, your not being conned all the time like the big 4,s pricing strategy, one product on a pallet and one price, simples. If the stores busy, they put another on the till.
As for the others there are 3 for 2 offers etc and the way they try to mislead you with different size packs and weights of there produce. When you actually walk around tesco, asda, you can see how much effort has gone in to tricking and misleading you.

Are Aldi/Lidl not trying to trick & mislead when they sell their own brand products with similar packaging, an£ names very close to, the more expensive main brands?

Make no mistake, they’re all at it. They put a lot of effort into store layout, just to push you to buy higher margin items without you realising they been ‘suggested’ to you.
Milk being at the back of the store is a typical case, where you have to walk past other stuff to get to it. I notice Lidl/Aldi don’t put the milk chillers just inside the door either, so you can just grab a bottle when you’re passing.

TheTallGuy · Jan 24, 2020

neilo said:
Are Aldi/Lidl not trying to trick & mislead when they sell their own brand products with similar packaging, an£ names very close to, the more expensive main brands?

Make no mistake, they’re all at it. They put a lot of effort into store layout, just to push you to buy higher margin items without you realising they been ‘suggested’ to you.
Milk being at the back of the store is a typical case, where you have to walk past other stuff to get to it. I notice Lidl/Aldi don’t put the milk chillers just inside the door either, so you can just grab a bottle when you’re passing.

Precisely, another trick they use is that the branded products that look like they have really good prices are generally smaller than the standard sizes bought elsewhere.

Ffermer Bach · Jan 24, 2020

Treemover said:
I can buy most things as cheap from a small shop as a supermarket. The only difference is range and choice. Then these mega supermarkets really have some amount to choose from. But do i really need all that choice??
No comparison between a family owned butcher and supermarket, or bakery. So in some ways supermarkets lack quality.
But people like them. Way of the world.
As farmers how do we change the value of our products upwards?
Find direct market, avoid volume players. Not easy but can be done.

of course the other advantage of a supermarket is parking, and once you are used to parking (for free) next to the shop, it's hard to go back to parking in town, likely paying or spending ages looking for a space and having to carry shopping back to the car, so I think councils (and planners) bear some of the blame for the rise of supermarkets

Hindsight · Jan 24, 2020

Martin Holden said:
Interesting comments so far. Aldi and Lidl remind me of the first supermarkets of the 70’s. Basic and rapid checkouts. Many products get wheeled in on the delivery pallets and that’s where you pick them from! Also makes me laugh that they have some weird hardware for sale too. Last Christmas 2018 Lidl were selling proper axes ? alongside the normal produce!!

While we all rave about the German discounters holding them in high esteem, apparently, the reality is their rise in the UK has totally disrupted the business model of the pre-existing big four. Now while we might savour that come uppance the reality is those four still dominate the market and are writhing around to adjust cost structure to remain competitive with the Germans and thus are like trying to grab a wounded animal and backlashing against suppliers. I am not sure this is actually as good as contributors on this thread think it is.

neilo · Jan 24, 2020

Hindsight said:
While we all rave about the German discounters holding them in high esteem, apparently, the reality is their rise in the UK has totally disrupted the business model of the pre-existing big four. Now while we might savour that come uppance the reality is those four still dominate the market and are writhing around to adjust cost structure to remain competitive with the Germans and thus are like trying to grab a wounded animal and backlashing against suppliers. I am not sure this is actually as good as contributors on this thread think it is.

I believe they have all been busy restructuring to try to compete. Tesco have shed something like 4000 staff recently, mostly from 'management' roles iirc.

Yale · Jan 24, 2020

neilo said:
Are Aldi/Lidl not trying to trick & mislead when they sell their own brand products with similar packaging, an£ names very close to, the more expensive main brands?

Make no mistake, they’re all at it. They put a lot of effort into store layout, just to push you to buy higher margin items without you realising they been ‘suggested’ to you.
Milk being at the back of the store is a typical case, where you have to walk past other stuff to get to it. I notice Lidl/Aldi don’t put the milk chillers just inside the door either, so you can just grab a bottle when you’re passing.

Question is did you buy the pack of ring spanner’s with the milk?

Chae1 · Jan 24, 2020

I don't think supermarkets are going anywhere. Here to stay in my opinion. Even if its just supplying through online deliveries.

Its amazing how much less you spend when not walking round shop picking up impulse purchases. My wife hates when i come shopping.

betweenthelines · Jan 24, 2020

The big supermarkets have, in my opinion, increased choice (and therefore costs) beyond reasonable limits. As in over a dozen options for what is, after all, just a bottle of milk. Same with bread, where Tesco have literally hundreds of choices for "a loaf of bread"

I'd really like to know when customers started telling shops "No we don't want a 4 pint bottle of milk, we want it in 6 pint bottles. Skimmed or semi skimmed, that's not good enough, we want it 1% fat. Bread, you expect us to buy a white loaf and a wholemeal loaf-why can't we have a loaf that's a bit of each?"

Smith31 · Jan 24, 2020

Morrisons is over priced its loyal customer base is leaving them to go to Aldi or the funeral directors.

They will go bust in the next 10 years, far too small to compete with Asda/Walmart and the oil money backed Sainsburys.

SteveHants · Jan 24, 2020

betweenthelines said:
The big supermarkets have, in my opinion, increased choice (and therefore costs) beyond reasonable limits. As in over a dozen options for what is, after all, just a bottle of milk. Same with bread, where Tesco have literally hundreds of choices for "a loaf of bread"

I'd really like to know when customers started telling shops "No we don't want a 4 pint bottle of milk, we want it in 6 pint bottles. Skimmed or semi skimmed, that's not good enough, we want it 1% fat. Bread, you expect us to buy a white loaf and a wholemeal loaf-why can't we have a loaf that's a bit of each?"

They "tell" a supermarket this when the supermarket trials products and they buy it.

Tesco's reckons a key factor in it's success is collecting purchase data etc which they do through clubcards and so on.

Lowland1 · Jan 24, 2020

A lot of this is praising the Aldi and Lidl model but the main factor in their success is the fact that they are family businesses and as such do not need massive profits in order to satisfy their shareholders fifty million pounds is better shared amongst a few family members than a billion between several hundred thousand shareholders as such their model is not driven by the need to generate a massive turnover by trying to sell all and everything but rather by selling a few profitable lines. We sell Veg to both Aldi and the others (Tesco, Waitrose et al) but do better with Aldi because they are prepared to take a lower margin than the others. The quality is the same and they sell it for a bit less but pay more than the others and give us less grief.

The rise and fall of the Supermarkets

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100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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