The co op is soooo expensive

[portocristo]

£6.00 for 2 individual prawn cocktails, and they were on offer !!!!

Plus the yellow sticker items are not reduced much (25% for last sell by date at 10pm?) & the food wastage is really high. Fresh fruit & veg is £££££ & very poor.
They treat their staff really badly - zero contract hours, short notice etc.
My Co Op is on a big main road & they have to deal with petrol drive-offs (no pay at the pump you have to pay in store). Open 5am - 12pm. A miserable place.

Yes, the co op is well known for being expensive. Their freezer deals might be good value if you don't mind a couple of crap pizzas, a bag of greasy onion rings, chips and ice cream for £6. It's pretty poor that the food they do deals on is the most processed, carb laden beige food. Id do a few meals of jacket spuds with a few toppings for the same price if I was on a tight budget.

Or have access to cars, so they can drive to a supermarket.
A lot of elderly and other vulnerable groups don’t have that option, they have to use the coop for all their groceries.

before the coop we had the newsagents, which also sold over priced food, and the garage, again expensive.
so a journey was required if possible.

They make me laugh with their reductions. they seem to employ a staff member to be permanently reducing stuff but they do so by a miniscule amount each time but multiple times. Just do a bigger reduction once if you want to get rid of stuff ! It must cost them more to have one person dedicated to this job of constant reductions than what they would lose if they just did a decent reduction in the first place. Our local coop is a joke, no staff, one till open, misleading prices and extortionate prices. i feel sorry for the elderly in our village who have no choice as it's the only supermarket in the village.

also a corner shop, which was forced into closure by the coop

its very difficult for those without a car!
otoh, perhaps they are not aware that prices are cheaper elsewhere, or perhaps they just like to pop out as necessary

The freezer deal is a joke in our store as there is always at least one item of the deal missing ! therefore you have to try to locate a staff member ( very difficult) who will then try to establish whether an alternative product can be accepted for the item that is missing. then wait for store manager to be called down, then half an hour of deliberating whether there is an alternative, then working out how to correct your payment because the till hasn't accepted the alternative product so charged you full price for all the items. meanwhile most of your frozen meal deal is slowly defrosting all over the checkout.

they have reasonably priced bread

Oh the sea salt Chardonnay vinegar ones? So good. Strip your tongue of all skin but delicious.

Our coop is ok. Some stuff is reasonable especially if there's a deal on and some (especially dry goods like kitchen roll and toothpaste) is outlandish and I never buy them there.

Our village one does great orange sticker deals though. I get their sourdough bread for pennies that would usually be £2.60+ and it easily lasts 2-3 days. Lots of bakery every day down to less than a pound for big bag of something.
Ready meals, sandwiches or often the "posh" hummus are hugely reduced which are fine for a cheap easy lunch next day if I know I'm going to be busy.
Freezer deal is good sometimes too.
Their own choc ices are £1.60 for
Pack of 3 compared to £3/£4 for magnums and are fine.

I think if you check prices and know what's a good deal it can be ok especially if your nearest supermarket is a bigger distance.

Dh bought bin bags from our local co op yesterday. I didn't ask the price, i was mad enough.

My nearest one is at the opposite end of the car park to a Morrisons and 5 minutes walk to an Aldi. Dingy place - don't know how they stay open.
The bread is nice though, if they have any.

Totally agree! Very expensive.

Saw some graffiti on a Co-op wall in London. In very large letters, 'RIP-OFF' was spray painted near the entrance. Made me laugh. Yes, graffiti is awful but this served as a warning for anyone who wanted to shop there.

I only usually buy reductions or offers in Co-op. No way am I going to pay their overinflated prices (exception was in lockdown when I couldn't find an ingredient anywhere else).

Even that's ridiculous prices now!

I can get giant galaxy caramel from newsagents for £1.25

Co op charges £1.85!!!

Donuts are reasonable but it is expensive generally

I don't like co op- expensive for rubbish food

It is pricey but I do like the meal deals 3.50 for a coffee, pasta salad and some fruit. Best part of ten quid in the bakery! Beige freezer deal is fine too. Not ideal but good for stocking up on freezer food. Our closest one is tiny and you get really good reductions at about 6pm as they want stuff gone asap, 4 pints of milk for 30p, sandwich meat 50p.

The bigger one next town over does rubbish reductions because they donate all the going out of date stuff to the community larder.

I agree it is more expensive than some .But I do like our local one as it has nice staff decent offers and a strong community commitment. I feel its a ethical company.

Expensive and mostly rubbish.

I do like their bakery though and you can get some brilliant reductions.

co-ops pay their suppliers a fair price. If you prefer to shop at Tesco, who are wankers, that’s your choice.