Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that Tesco don't give a monkeys - twin trolley issues

234 replies

Ilovemyself · 28/05/2013 13:52

I have been having an on and off battle with my local Tesco (the only supermarket without driving 13 miles or so) for a while.

Ever since my twins were born I have struggled with trolleys.

When they needed the reclining seat trolleys, they were always tucked away at the back so I had to pull out 10 or 20 trolleys to get them out. I would the have to clean them as they were always filthy (I did find a manager once and gave him a handful of really manky baby wipes from where I had cleaned one)

Now they are in the normal trolleys, I always struggle to find a twin one. They are normally half way down a row of trolleys because the trolley boys don't seem to have a brain cell and put them there.

I have complained to the store manager and have even been on a customer focus group where I made my feelings known about the trolleys. I was told then ( over a month ago) that trolleys were on order.

Today, after searching the lines of trolleys in the dry storage area, I had to check all of the trolley bays in the car park, in torrential rain. There were none, so I had to put one twin in the seat and the other in the trolley (which I detest as it isn't fair on the next user to have dirty shoes in the bottom of a trolley)

Should I really kick off about this now?

OP posts:
TheBigJessie · 28/05/2013 15:28

www.shopequip.co.uk/admin/uploads/dis62l_300.jpg

zzzzz · 28/05/2013 15:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AprilFoolishness · 28/05/2013 15:28

Oh I feel your pain.

I pop one of mine in the trolley to get out of the carpark and then make an ENORMOUS deal out of rearranging them in the shop entrance near the staff desk where the twin trolleys are normally lurking.

Or I do a kind of Hyacinth Bucket "WHOO HOO" at the nice man who tidies up the trolleys to get him to find one and bring one over.

When they were too young to plonk one in the trolley I have had to leave empty handed though.

Waitrose, weirdly, was the worst, when the staff near the door said "Oh, I don't think we do those trolleys". THey bloody do, I use them every month, AND they have brakes on them unlike cheap-skate Sainsbo's with its carpark on a hill. (Clearly NO-ONE has thought about how you get twins out of a trolley without brakes in a carpark on a slope...)

So YANBU OP. Make a big fuss, hopefully it'll learn 'em.

DreamsTurnToGoldDust · 28/05/2013 15:31

Why are people being so sarcy on here? Some people like to go to the supermarkert, some kids like it. Supermarkets should have enough trolleys in suitable places for customers, thats their business, selling to customers.

chesticles · 28/05/2013 15:32

YANBU
I had a rant at our Tescos not long after my twins were born. (probably hormanal) They had one twin baby trolley, I always had to hunt all over the car park for it and it was always filthy. With twins you don't have the luxury of using the car seat trolleys, you have to use the plastic cradle ones, I used to carry extra blankets to line the seats, with holes cut in them for the straps to go through!
Then just as the twins were coming into the toddler style seats, Tesco replaced all their normal trolleys, but all with single child seats! The buggers, so now I put one in the seat and one in the trolley
I know shopping online is the answer, but you do need to pop in just to get milk etc sometimes and if the kids are really small then you have to use the trolleys, it's either that or have the kids bolting round the place!

MummytoMog · 28/05/2013 15:35

I feel your pain. I have a pair of hideously walking averse toddlers, so two fold down seats are the only solution. If I put DD in the trolley, she will dick about with the shopping, if I put DS in the trolley he will eat the shopping. Generally now I take a back carrier with me and if I can't find a fold down two seater trolley, I carry one of them on my back round the shop. Normally the three year old, who has decided that she loves me so much she needs to be in physical contact with me at ALL times. My back hurts. Maybe I'll start shopping at Asda.

ilovecolinfirth · 28/05/2013 15:40

I saw a toddler falling out of a trolley at tesco the other day. Hit his head on the floor with some force. Just go to customer services and ask someone to help you.

trikken · 28/05/2013 15:43

I second customer services.

BarbarianMum · 28/05/2013 15:46

Yes there is - the supermarket can sort it!

My Tesco is nothing like this. I don't have twins but 2 close in age. Used twin trollies for years, never a problem finding them (in a special bay next to the P&C parking). Which is just as well, as there are large Sainsburies and Morrisons stores within a 5 min drive.

southbank · 28/05/2013 15:53

Yes Viviennmary I cried because I had driven to 2 supermarkets to get food,nappies and milk I desperately needed.Both of them didn't have a suitable trolley for me,and by the time I got to Asda I was quite emotional and was in tears.Would I react the same now?No because I'm not just 6 months into motherhood and I have a clear head to think about things logically.Maybe my head isn't clouded by pnd anymore
Why do some people have to be so fucking snippy and rude on
here?Thread is about the inconvenience of lack of twin trolleys but you choose to pick up on a comment about me being in tears over a trolley when I was trying to sympathise with the op

Trapper · 28/05/2013 15:55

Yes, I am for real. If I ran Tesco and you 'kicked off' I would politely suggest that you take your custom elsewhere. I do not understand why you see this as some kind of a right or entitlement. If you have sextuplets would you kick off about the lack of appropriately configured trolleys?
Don't get me wrong, I do sympathise - my two are a year apart (eldest is two) so have had similar challenges to overcome. However I really don't think this is a battle you are going to win and not one worth wasting your (valuable) time on.
Shop elsewhere or suck it up.

zzzzz · 28/05/2013 15:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrsBertMacklin · 28/05/2013 15:57

OP, it will probably take longer than month for the trolleys to arrive, they may well be on order, but not delivered yet. Have you asked for an updated lead-in time from the store manager?

If you feel they are fobbing you off, then an email to Customer Services to escalate matters would be my next action.

BarbarianMum · 28/05/2013 15:57

[Hmm] good job you don't run Tesco then, Trapper

Sextuplets are very, very rare. People with twins, or 2 children close in age both requiring use of a trolley, not so much.

Bearbehind · 28/05/2013 15:58

This really can't be as big a deal is it is being made out to be. I can see it is inconvienient but it is not the end of the world.

People don't generally line up their trollies when returning them, often the trolley shelter isn't wide enough to have a line for each style.

It strikes me as a bit entitled and self absorbed to insist there is a trolley just to suit your needs sitting right where you want it when you go. Shit happens, the store might be full of families with multiple young children or peope using the wrong type of trolley for their needs. Do you want them to operate trolley detectives who administer fines for misuse of trolleys?

Our Tescos never has the small trollies by the door as they haven't got enough but I still manage to find one in the trolley shelter without too much trouble.

StinkyElfCheese · 28/05/2013 16:02

I have to say our local Tesco is fab for twin trolleys - I still wedge my boys in them and they a're 4 the only problem we have now US that they have pay trolleys - put a pound in one the twin ones are free so loads of people rake the. Twin ones if they don't have a pound manager has putup signs and will walk round the store and make people swap trolleys if you need one..... The local Sainsburys won't buy and todlar twin trolleys as they said they were more likely to get stollen so notwRoth it :(

Sorry for the spelling am on phone with a cat wedged drooling on my lap :)

MummytoMog · 28/05/2013 16:03

Yes, but are you dragging around two non-walking children at the time? Sigh.

I normally leave mine in the car while I find a trolley, but there's a limit to how long I'm prepared to leave them unattended in a vehicle while I try and wrestle an appropriate trolley out of a trolley store.

Can I interject here to complain about people using parent and child spaces when they have teenagers and no small children? or would that be added entitlement to entitlement?

poorbuthappy · 28/05/2013 16:04

I too emailed Tescos a few years ago as there were no twin trollies in their Newport store.
When I asked I was told a member of staff would walk around with me pushing the other trolley.
I asked if surely it would be easier to simply provide trollies with 2 seats.

I shop at Asdas where there are thousands of twin trollies and the trolley collectors are lovely and help.

Tescos simply do not care because they make too much money. (Although not from me Smile)

southbank · 28/05/2013 16:07

Ah ok,yes you are right this really isn't an issue.
Op,anyone else with twins,young children close in age,listen this isn't a problem ok,whatever inconvenience it has been you were imagining it.
Op come back with a proper problem to discuss,nothing too self absorbed or entitled though.
ffs

CrikeeThree · 28/05/2013 16:09

Just want to echo the pleas to be cautious about putting babies/toddlers in the trolley itself.
I have seen toddlers thrown out of trollies before. It is really not nice Sad

Original poster
Ilovemyself · 28/05/2013 16:16

Bearbehind. It is simple. Just do what other stores do. Have all twin trolleys.

I guess you think they shouldn't provide wheelchairs for disabled people either.

Not self absorbed, just think they could provide a better level of customer service.

OP posts:
OwlinaTree · 28/05/2013 16:19

poorbuthappy am lolling at you doing your shopping while a stranger pushes the other trolley. They really don't think this through do they? You could really spin it out, maybe try on a few clothes, have a coffee, queue at all the different fresh food counters, ask staff member's opinions on nipple cream, nappy rash and the like.

Next time they would have a lovely twin trolley with your name on it

zzzzz · 28/05/2013 16:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

theodorakisses · 28/05/2013 16:36

You think my comment is stupid, I think your perception of what is a problem is stupid

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 28/05/2013 16:41

Trapper - why does it make business sense for a supermarket to alienate parents with two small children who both need to be in a trolley??

Their basic aim is to get as many people as possible in through their doors, spending as much money as possible, so doing reasonable things to make it easy for them - like providing suitable trolleys - is good common sense.

Swipe left for the next trending thread