To want supermarkets to go back to selling food!

[5EllipticGoldRings]

Really fed up with going into the supermarket and finding that another of my favourite foods has been discontinued whilst the insidious creep of household goods and electricals take over shelf space .
Also sick of arguing with customer service in tesco when electrical items bought there develop a fault (2 irons and some scales) - No I won't be contacting the manufacturer, Yes you are responsible for them, you are the retailer and I expect you to fulfil your legal obligations

[CaffeLatteIceCream]

Erm...supermarkets do sell food. If your favourite thing is discontinued it's because it wasn't particularly popular or isn't being manufactured anymore. Supermarkets cannot actually be expected to cater to all their individual customers tastes.

And you don't actually have to buy your iron from Tesco just because they sell them there. Lots of independent electrical retailers you can go to.

[RedButtonhole]

YANBU, I was thinking this myself the other day. Surely if they kept to food then lots of small businesses that tend to be more independent (florists being one example) would not be struggling to stay afloat?

[noddingoff]

Shops sell what people want to buy. You have demonstrated the demand for irons by buying two of them, so don't complain when Tesco continue to supply them. (YANBU to complain about crap customer service though; demonstrate your displeasure by supporting an independent shop next time, or at least a chain whose primary business is electrical goods).

[5EllipticGoldRings]

Same iron twice nodding after eventually getting a replacement, and no I don't buy electricals from them anymore.
I cook most things from scratch and it seems to me that it is these type of goods that are disappearing. I understand customer demand but there is also the argument that customers adjust their buying as the supermarkets alter what they make available. If all the small shops disappear then we will only be able to buy what the supermarkets offer.

[lemisscared]

one word - aldi!

[Andrewofgg]

RedButtonhole The supermarkets have put a lot of indie food retailers out of business too. Why should florists or electrical retailers (or butchers or bakers or candlestick-makers) be protected from them?

The supermarkets and shopping centres flourish because we go to them. And we go to them because we'd rather park off street and for nothing and do out shopping in one place and quite possibly under cover than struggle to park and then trudge in the rain from shop to shop to shop.

And we are right.

[Andrewofgg]

As for electricals: the radio now playing Classic FM as I type was bought from Amazon and delivered to the pick-up point at the shopping centre

[SquinkiesRule]

But even Aldi has loads of non food "stuff" they were selling TV's before Christmas.
I usually just use the food isles and ignore the rest.

[lemisscared]

squinkie you are right but unlike the bigger stores its avoidable. in our local tesco you have to walk through miles of electrical, clothes, toys, house
hold shite before you even get to the food and then its arranged so toiletries are separate from the food. In aldi its all in the aidles jumble sale in the midfle and you can avoid it. ima from scratch cook and find that aldi has pretty much everything i need. The size and layout has become the principal reason we shop there . that and the fact its about 25% cheaper than tesco.

[tak1ngchances]

Retailers will sell whatever gives them the best margin. They need to maximise profit per metre of shelf space.
Electrical goods, home furnishings etc are much higher-margin than lots of grocery items. Hence they get increased shelf space.
Everything has to earn its place. If an ingredient you like has been delisted, it's because it constituted part of the tail or bottom x% of sales and was turfed out in a rationalisation exercise.
It is absolutely ruthless, metrics driven and commercially correct. Nothing is done on a whim!

[usualsuspect333]

Aldi had a totally random aisle of shite.

I like that supermarkets sell non food stuff.Means I can just pop to Tesco which is 5 minutes away if my kettle breaks or I need another household item.

[wobblyweebles]

Our supermarkets mostly sell food. It's one of the things I like about where I live. Apart from Wal-Mart, but it's easily avoided.

[NapoleonsNose]

I used to work in customer services for Tesco and if a customer requested that something be brought back in to stock because it had been delisted then if it was available to order it would be brought back. Usually took a week. You might need to be a bit forceful at the customer services desk though and say you know they offer that service. The store I worked in was pretty nice though, others may not be quite so accommodating. Alternatively they will order not stocked products for you as a special order, if its available from their supply depot, but you would need to take the whole case - 6/12/24 or whatever it comes in.

As said upthread though, a product is usually discontinued because it is not popular. Every inch of space needs to be profitable in a supermarket so if a product only sells a couple a week it will be replaced with something that will sell. Annoying, but it is a business not a community enterprise after all.

[flumpysocks]

I complained a couple of times in tesco that something i went there especially to buy was no longer being stocked, despite being frequently sold out when they did stock it. Lo and behold within a fortnight they had started stocking it again and i now go there more frequently. Win win!

[bruffin]

Tescos have sold electricals and clothes eytc back to at least the 70s. When they built the Edmonton Green store back in the early 70s they didnt sell food at all.

[Hatespiders]

I find supermarket food shopping horribly boring. We go to a large Tesco Superstore, and luckily for me they have loads of more interesting things like housewares, books, clothes and all sorts which make the visit bearable.
There have been some food items we've noticed are no longer available; Scotch bonnets and Tesco's tomato puree in jars. But I expect they didn't sell enough to warrant their keeping them on the shelves.
I get quite a few clothes at Tesco!