Dear major UK supermarket ...

[LindorDoubleChoc]

What would you like to say to the chief exec of the supermarkets you use? I'll start ...

If you are going to sell spinach in plastic bags, please at least direct that they are stored in the refrigerated section rather than on the general unrefrigerated vegetable shelves along with the potatoes and onions etc.

Thank you Sainsburys.

Dear ASDA

Please check the colours of the uniforms of the closest primary schools when deciding which options to put in the store.

You will not sell many items in black in an area where all the schools have grey or navy as their base colours. This does mean however that you need to actually talk to staff in store, not just rely on a central algorithm - especially when that then decided "uniform doesn't sell well in this branch, cut it even further"

@CherryLipgloss

I'd like to request smaller packs of pate. It goes off before we can eat it.

Can you try freezing 50% of it in a small Tupperware container? As a single person looking for bargains and/or keen to reduce waste, I find myself breaking down packages (eg smoked fish fillets, cooked chicken portions, uncooked bacon) into smaller portions in reusable ziplock bags to stop them sticking) and defrost in the fridge or microwave). I use the defrost programme on the microwave a lot. 🌹

I wish I lived somewhere that HAD a fishmonger, butcher and greengrocer.

@WhatADrabCarpet - 100% this!!

We no longer have any butchers, apart from halal ones, in our town and our local greengrocer closed decades ago.

I agree that supermarkets should be able to provide loose fruit/veg and counters for meat and fish etc for the growing number of people who live alone or who just want to occasionally buy a few of each item. Why is this so hard?

I agree with whoever it was that mentioned Sainsbury's mince in the new packaging - it looks and feels like catfood now 🙁

To be fair re the raspberries even the ones I pick from my own garden deteriorate massively overnight. They are a buy the day you eat product.

Yes and same to Asda who were the only other supermarket to stock them. Aargh.

To be fair re the raspberries even the ones I pick from my own garden deteriorate massively overnight. They are a buy the day you eat product.

But that's surely even more reason for them to state the date in an instantly-recognisable format, to enable the customer to make an informed decision, and not as a low-level Mensa puzzle.

It's there in plain sight, that they are seeking to hoodwink you and have you bear the cost for food that is about to go off and will need to be binned, rather than themselves; faux concern about environmental and food-waste issues is nothing but a con.

Can we have our hot counter back, with roast chicken, instead of a ghastly sushi bar? I'm looking at you, Tesco!

@Theoldgreygoose I don’t drive either so big supermarkets are actually harder for me to get too and I can only buy what I can carry so I use a selection of smaller shops.
I mostly do my main shop from Iceland via home delivery and get fresh fruit etc from a branch of Lidl near my daughter’s school. A lot of my household stuff (cleaning etc ) and snack foods come from Poundland. My husband also gets some things from a small Sainsbury's at the railway station on the way home from work.
I rarely go to a big supermarket because I actually find it inconvenient for me.
Now the lloyds pharmacy has gone I probably won’t ever go to my nearest large sainsbury’s ever again because it’s not very good and it isn’t even worth it for non food goods (clothes, magazines etc).

If people don’t like the way supermarkets do things - then shop somewhere else.

Am I the only person on the planet who prefers to use self service / scan and go tills?

I'm loving these comments btw 😆. It's so depressing to go into the supermarkets these days...

@RoseAndRose in defence of uniform sellers (as I used to work for a shop that sold them) schools need to actually reply to retailers queries about what is required if the retailer contacts them and if a school is changing its uniform then retailers need to be told at least a year in advance so orders can be changed.

Am I the only person on the planet who prefers to use self service / scan and go tills?

I prefer them - so sick of my shopping being scanned randomly (in spite of the order I put it on the conveyer belt), with the light things first before the tins and potatoes on top, and/or chucked into a bag any old how.

@Pablova I don’t have a problem with self service either.
Quicker and no pointless small talk.

Perhaps consumers should apply common sense and only buy products that deteriorate really quickly the day they want them/ use them the day they are tempted by them.
I understand the issue with stuff that can be kept a few days but some things are always best consumed day of purchase and always will be. Are we really so far removed from basic food knowledge?

@RoseAndRose and vice versa. Schools should contact local retailers if their pupils can’t get the correct clothing.
And “contact local retailers “ means a proper email to the manager not just some randomly letting Joan who happens to be tidying the display know that “St Marys wears red”.

Local Sainsbury - stop shrinking the clothes section in your refit - where will I get DH t-shirts etc now??

If people don’t like the way supermarkets do things - then shop somewhere else.
I have. And filled in one of those online "how are we doing" surveys to tell them exactly why (main culprit: lack of cashiers. Apparently it's now policy to close cashier-tills at 6pm! ... So it's now my policy to shop elsewhere.)

I tried - qua PTA rep in conversation with the head of that department.

I was told that they knew locally, and used to be able to give local feedback and make requests (and there used to be no problem getting grey and navy) but that yes, they had now different stock, yes they knew why it wasn't selling, yes they were rather fed up with having to tell potential customers they didn't carry that stock any more. But that they had precisely zero traction with the super-duper new centralised system

So that's why I addressed the comment to the supermarket that made that change. It was a couple of years ago, so there's a chance it might already have changed back. But if not, there's a lesson there that they won't learn from their branches, as the previous policy change disempowered them and cut feedback routes.

There had been no changes, nor any new schools, just same old, same old navy and grey as the core colours

And those colours used to be in store, until ASDA changed its systems

Glad that other suppliers still take heed of the local demand, and proactively seek it the relevant information. Dear ASDA might want to do the same

@RoseAndRose well Asda are a bit daft then.
At least you tried.

Where the fuck are all the eggs?!

Supermarkets locked all the egg producers into long fixed price contracts, then the egg producers' overheads shot up. So they are going to great lengths to sell their eggs to anyone except the supermarkets. Also, avian flu.

For those complaining about manky veg, two words: climate change. Six weeks of barely any rain here in the SW has devastated, for example, local courgettes. Oh, and when there IS plenty of veg, there's no one to harvest it. So, that's another word: Brexit. Which has also affected veg imported from the continent, as we have seen on the news. Oh, and of course climate change is already affecting S. Europe harder: this year there was a winter drought- no snow in the Alps leading to very low river levels in Italy- then a really cold spring with flash floods, now I believe there's a heatwave in Spain?

But anyway, Lidl: stop putting those stupid special offers boxes in the middle of the aisle. Combined with staff constantly refilling shelves with massive pallets on trolleys during opening hours, it means you can't get round the bloody store! Maybe pay them overtime to do it at night, like supermarkets used to?

Also, please just stop those stupid foil safety seals on the end of the toothpaste. I'll take my chances with the toothpaste saboteurs.

Also....ASDA, why oh why are you so shit?! I sometimes go in because there's one just round the corner from DS1's school, but it's bad for my mental health (and everyone else's) because I spend my entire time moaning about the lack of choice and general shitness. I can't find decent, economically priced crisps in there, FFS, let alone anything else.

I think that some twelve year old in a management consultancy came up with the idea of self-service and they have flogged the concept to the whole grocery industry.
I understand that it's difficult to get hold of staff at the moment but they seem to be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Have they never heard of Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction?
My supermarket was, indeed, super during lockdown and had plenty of staff - on tills and on the shopfloor. Now they are getting rid of them and customers are grumbling and leaving in droves, especially since the savings in staff costs doesn't translate into them being cheaper-than-their-competitor.

Ooh but I do. Super tasty!

Yes!! Why do they do that?!