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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Have you ever witnessed the Tesco battle?

185 replies

7SunshineSeven7 · 01/02/2017 09:58

It happens in the fruit and veg section and in the fridge section.

The reduced stuff gets put out later on at night and its like everyone loses their mind. Elbows go flying, people start swearing. I saw an old man push into a woman with his trolley for some grapes. The poor worker putting the stuff out has a deep, harrowing look in their eyes as they try to throw the stuff down and get away!

It is insane. 10/10 would recommend. Grin

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GinIsIn · 01/02/2017 11:41

There was a man killed in M&S a few years ago in a trolley rage incident. Forgive the Fail link...
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3029077/London-man-dies-M-S-shopper-rammed-trolley.html

BeMorePanda · 01/02/2017 11:44

I've never seen this before (Kensington).
Though the reduced section can get busy its very civilized.

I used to love to shop at Waitrose Kensington High Street at 4.30 on a Sunday and I'd often pick up scallops at a massively reduced price & indulge myself - its not something I would otherwise afford to buy.

cozietoesie · 01/02/2017 11:45

....'Let's get ready to rumble'...

I guffawed at that. Grin

melj1213 · 01/02/2017 11:45

Then when the staff member comes along to do the final reductions down to silly prices ( like 30p for a tray of mince) she comes back to the person doing the reducing and hands the items over to be reduced further.

I work in Asda and we have a policy in our store that once you put it in your trolley, that's the final price - you cannot come back later to have it reduced further.

In our store we have two old men who come in every.single.night. and lurk at the reduced section, waiting for whichever employee has drawn the short straw and is bringing out the final reductions and if they're not out by 8:30 on the dot then they will find the nearest shop floor colleague and badger you to find out where they are. They then buy pretty much whatever is on the reduced shelf and nothing else, and won't let anyone else even get a look in, and they do this every night. It's definitely greed and not that they're skint and trying to stretch their money, because the amount of food they buy each night could easily feed about 10 people comfortably, so even if they were bulk buying and freezing stuff, they are in every night buying the same amount and must have a huge stockpile by now ... even the other "whoops" shoppers all mutter about them behind their backs!

Anyway, the greatest night I have seen at least in a long while was the night when, for some reason (probably a late/early delivery needing any spare colleagues to go help with) all of the final reductions had to be done early and the two guys weren't in yet ... well there was a lady who we all know, she's always skint but one of our nicest customers, who was just coming past the aisle as the colleague was finishing to do the reductions. This lady was always missing out on getting any of the fresh produce because these two guys would take the lot before she could even get a look in, so the colleague spotted her and went over to let her know that the final reductions were out, and led her over to the shelf ... well this woman was looking through the produce while chatting to the colleague when the two vultures suddenly rounded the corner and made a beeline over.

This woman saw them and basically just ran her arm along the shelf and dumped the whole lot into her trolley just as the two old guys got there. Well they had a huge shitfit tantrum a threenager would be proud of and tried to tell her she couldn't do that etc etc and tried to take stuff out of her trolley ... at this point the colleague stood in front of them and basically said "Now you know how everyone else feels when you come and do this, and as you know, once it's in a customer's trolley it is their item and I will not allow you to remove things from another shopper's trolley. If you try to take anything else I will have security escort you out of the store and you will be issued with a store ban" and followed through with it when they wouldn't back down. The following 6 weeks when they were banned were the most stressfree evening shifts I think I have ever worked in my store!

7SunshineSeven7 · 01/02/2017 11:51

That was the most beautifully heroic thing I've ever read.

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RhodaBorrocks · 01/02/2017 11:55

At my local Tesco the reduced items fridge is next to the free from fridge. I need to get to the free from stuff and people always assume my trying to push in to get reduced stuff.

Once there were some people giving me really filthy looks, one woman said "We were here first!" until I said "Oh no, I just want to get some dairy free stuff!" The gathering crowd parted like the red Sea, and many seemed disproportionately pleased when DS and I got what we wanted and walked away.

(I get everything else in Aldi and just the dairy free stuff in Tesco round the corner)

BastardBloodAndSand · 01/02/2017 11:57

Worse things I ever saw was a gaggle of Chinese ladies ((relevant because they owned / ran our local takeaway so I'm guessing that's where the 5p mushrooms were heading )) literally crash through the whole section throwing things to each other. Even worse one who was skidding along the floor had a baby strapped to her chest. 😲😲😲

Why the police weren't called I don't know.

TheSecretMrsFairbrother · 01/02/2017 12:02

I had a Saturday job in Waitrose as a teenager and this thread is giving me flashbacks!

My job was to reduce the meat on Saturday evening (no Sunday opening then) so there would be quite a lot.
It was ridiculous, grown adults chasing me around the store waving packs of mince at me "are you going to reduce this".

I would stick it all in the trolley, take it out the back and do the reductions in my own time. I'd then take the trolley on the shop floor and go the long way round to the chillers seeing how big a crowd I could get following me.

It was like the Benny Hill routine and I may have hummed the tune as I went round.

The chillers were opposite the fish counter and me and the bloke who worked on there would have bets on how many people I could get following me and my trolley of bargain meat around the store.

HunterofStars · 01/02/2017 12:03

Good on that woman, Melj. Grin.

I tend to avoid the reduced section but sometimes I will look and have got some lovely bargains before now, although not as good as the lamb for 49p.

It makes me wonder whether people do actually eat it or whether it all goes to waste.

That said I once read somewhere that a woman in an EA relationship went to the supermarket at reducing down time and the person doing the mark-down said to her colleague "I'm waiting for her to go away before I do the marking down". That made me Angry and Sad because of the greedy vultures, the genuine get a bad rep too.

7SunshineSeven7 · 01/02/2017 12:04

It was ridiculous, grown adults chasing me around the store waving packs of mince at me "are you going to reduce this". Grin Grin

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Wickedstepmum67 · 01/02/2017 12:05

Guilty as charged of watching the 'reduced for quick sale' stuff going out, but round our way all is refreshingly polite. I once witnessed a lady divvying up bargain food so everyone got a fair share! I do love a bargain myself, but wouldn't get in a scrap over it, and some of the rudeness described in these posts is a disgrace - shop workers should carry a sharp pencil and 'accidentally' prod offenders with it.

glueandstick · 01/02/2017 12:08

In Tesco (don't usually shop there so don't know the sticker debacle) I asked where some form of veg was. Bloke said it was all about to be reduced and shhhh come with me. Took me to one side, and handed it over in a clandestine manner and warned me to keep the sticker hidden.

I didn't believe his stories of reduction diving.

Then I saw it. It was like a particularly violent football match.

Itmustbemyage · 01/02/2017 12:10

People are crazy, a friend of mine does reductions in ASDA. Once she actually got pushed into one of the fridges, when she was heavily pregnant! by a male customer (who subsequently was banned from the store) another lovely customer helped rescue her and looked after her til security staff arrived.

7SunshineSeven7 · 01/02/2017 12:11

glueandstick The chosen one. You have been blessed with reduced food without enduring the hardships of battle.

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Frouby · 01/02/2017 12:11

My Dp once nearly got into a fight in an m and s over a reduced duck. Someone had piled their trolley high with yellow stickered stuff and left it next to the aisle where they reduce stuff. Dp assumed it was to go on the shelf and took a duck out. He was just showing me what he had found when some grungy, dreadlocked bloke came over and tried to take it from him. There was a huge stand off between dp and bloke. Bloke was ranting he was a poor student type, dp refused to back down on the basis that the bloke was taking all the yellowed sticker stuff and it was unfair and we were skint too and had a family to feed.

It was mortifying. A manager was called. Dp kept the duck. Student bloke was told to keep his trolley with him at all times or it would be.classed as abandoned and put back on the shelves.

PrivatePike · 01/02/2017 12:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CockacidalManiac · 01/02/2017 12:16

Whoops Aisle Apocalypse

Have you ever witnessed the Tesco battle?
7SunshineSeven7 · 01/02/2017 12:19
Grin
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NotTodaySatan · 01/02/2017 12:19

Have y'all seen .

It's a Tesco somewhere in London. I can barely watch it such is the level of cringe. Savages.

Bicarb · 01/02/2017 12:22

I still have fond memories of Morag the reductions lady in my local supermarket when I was at Uni.

She took a shine to my flatmate and me so used to keep things in the back for us that she thought we'd like.

Every time I see Chicken Kievs, I have a little smile. I don't think I ever paid full price for them!

Only1scoop · 01/02/2017 12:24
Shock
HunterofStars · 01/02/2017 12:25

Itmust - that is Shock and Angry. I hope your friend and her baby were alright.

Nottoday - That video was shocking. I'm now wondering if these people are the same nutters who get into fights on Black Friday over a half price TV.

PickAChew · 01/02/2017 12:26

I used to get involved in the scrum, when I was a student. Some people were bloody vicious with their baskets, all over a packet of brown bacon or the like.

Only1scoop · 01/02/2017 12:27

If that's what they do over a reduced pack of kippers I dread to think what a TV battle might entailConfused

Halfbaked · 01/02/2017 12:29

I used to work in Waitrose as a student and did the fresh produce reductions. This was in a well to do area of London.
It was hideous, elbows people waving items in your face asking for them to be reduced. They did two reductions too about 3 hours apart!! There were always people who would fill their trolley with the first lot then get you to reduce them the second time. They would just hang around the store.
When they brought in the rule that if it was in your trolley it couldn't be reduced I had a husband and wife team who would work as a tag team. One would take the stuff out of the trolley and put it back on the shelf. I would reduce it and then the other would pick it back up again- I shit you not!! Nothing the manager could do as it was not in their trolley.
I felt like my personal space was totally invaded as they kept so close so no-one else could get in to snatch their bargains. They were so rude too.
My manager always took the date labels off the melons, so they rarely got reduced.