Odd / worrying eperience in LIDL tonight.

[eldersis]

I have shopped at ASDA (sheffield) for my main shop for several years but the number of items constantly unavailable or out of stock means I often go to LIDL to get missing items. This week, milk, eggs and all the meat I ordered was unavailable do I took myself off for a second shop.

A maintainance guy was removing every other fluorescent tube in the rows of striplights ! Not replacing but removing. The cashier who I have known for years confirmed this, she also said that they had turned the heating down to the point that staff were wearing fleeces over their uniforms. She was wearing a plain black zip up fleece (no pattern or logo) and her supervisor wasn't happy as it was not official uniform.

So two huge companies seemingly in trouble.

Asda out of stock , no longer sending slightly pricier substitutes OR (as i feel pushing more expensive brands)

LIDL. Halving lighting costs and reducing heating .

Anyone else seeing this in their own regular supermarkets ?
Anyone noticing other odd events ?

The thread title promised
Something much more exciting Than Lidl just having cut down
On its lighting!

Many of them have freezing air come out of some cabinets with hot air blowing right at it.

I've not really been aware of the lights changing here in Lincolnshire but have definitely noticed the lack of stock in Asda. In all honesty, I do feel a bit uncomfortable with it. I shouldn't because we're all well aware of the situation but...
It's a bit like when McDonald's closed when covid began. All of a sudden it felt like smack you in the face real!

Yes! I was at primary for the first time in ages last week and there was only one checkout in the whole massive shop. There used to be one on every floor!

The Issa Bros bought Asda in 2020 when interest rates were still low.
The interest on their debt was £125 million a year.
I wonder what it is now.
They also sold the distribution centres and lease them back at £57 million a year.

I couldn't work out why my local Morrisons seemed so different the other day, now I realise why!

ASDA I think it's the new owners not having the advantage of Walmart supply chain expertise. They're new to the market, maybe cash flow issues, delaying paying creditors.

Add to that there is a general problem with suppliers and transport. There's still plenty of food if not exactly what you are used to.

Cutting down on lighting is a good thing IMO. Every little helps.

Good. Energy has been too cheap for so long (until the last 6 months). We need to stop wasting it. We need to stop buying it from Russia.

We are lucky. We are paying a small price for this evil war.

We can afford it but we have turned our heating down.

I'm always surprised that these modern, warehouse build style out-o-town supermarkets were not built with solar and battery systems to help power them

I think we're really at peak superstore at the moment. They're really not being built at the rate they were maybe 15 years ago are they? The supermarket chains are concentrating on their convenience store offerings. Aldi and Lidl on the other hand - you may have a point.

Maybe they are doing though? Solar panels started commonly appearing on new-build warehouses etc maybe about 5 years ago. Nobody would know about it though unless they were interested enough to find out.

Thanks all ! I dont post often but glad I have posted something of interest to discuss.

> Ariela . Thanks ! You highlighted something I hadnt noticed before.
WHY these huge warehouses with 50 meter plus ceilings. What a HUGE waste of energy !

Iceland doing similar
Not subbing items that are even 10p more expensive

This weeks order,
No, Milk, No bread, No butter but they had other ‘brands’ of the item

Was a pointless online order, only ordered cause we were both sick and couldnt get out and the main items on the shop were missing

Thanks all for your replies, Glad I am not the only one seeing these odd things happening. So the consensus is ... Cut costs (energy) regardless of comfort/ safety/ or effect on partially sighted. Cost not reflected in reduced prices !

SO just to keep up profits then !

Went to Morrisons for a cafe breakfast. And it was freezing in there. The cashier we noticed had hats and coats on. Sat rosy cheeked and cold at their tills. Poor things

Same in our local Morrison's. It was cold too. The staff were fed up.

Our local council has turned the street lights down so they are at half power. DH and I like it. They are turned off altogether at midnight because we look onto a park. Our bedroom is pitch black. It's great. Makes sense. It's pointless waste to have them on full and through the night.

Yes I mentioned yesterday to my daughter that Asda was now substituting with less,I ordered a 12 pack of cat food for 9.20 they sent a pack of 6 instead at 4.95 where normally they'd send 2 packs of 6 for 9.90 but not charge the extra 70p

@LuluBlakey1 i would worry that this compromises the safety of women walking alone at night?
perhaps it’s not a route they would take (most of us avoid parks already), but as a mum whose young adult children frequently walk home from hospitality jobs/ gigs in the early hours I’d be a bit disappointed at this.

Is it expensive to replace with LED lighting? That doesn't use much energy once it's in. I was thinking it was odd that that my local Lidl had lights that heated up the tins, they are noticeably warmer than those that have been in my own cupboard.

To be fair, even before the CoL went up, there were some shops that you needed to go into wearing a head torch.
Mainly clothing shops.

Why doesn’t supermarkets have solar panels too?

Yes!

I live opposite a Lidl, and noticed recently that the store isn't lit up so brightly as normal.

Do you remember kwiksave? Their chilled section was through a plastic heavy curtain presumably to save costs.

Because the cost to buy them doesn't return in three years which is the longest return on investment I can imagine a supermarket tolerating

We've talked about doing similar with our florescent lights at work-but the ones left are being replaced as a LED type that produces far more light than before for less electricity. In fact, judging from the room we've done we could probably remove 2/3 and it would still be lighter.

You have to replace the fitting in the light to do that, so it does cost a little.