Supermarkets are taking the pi$$

[ButterflyTable]

I can’t believe how expensive food is now especially in the likes of Sainsbury’s for the same product. Total P-take, e.g. Organic Milk Sainsbury’s £2 Aldi £1.79.

Why give us ‘nectar’ prices when they are inflated prices in the first place? £5.50 for a Pizza Express Margherita and £2.75 on Nectar. I think actually it’s the fakery with making us think we are getting a good deal that’s pissing me off.

I went to Aldi today (we don’t have one near us) as I was doing a drop off nearby and the price difference is huge!!

Yeah ime Sainsbury's do their best to avoid providing any kind of direct service.

Maybe because they are over inflating the price in the first place, to make it look like you are making a massive saving, with the nectar card. It is all smoke, and mirrors.

No!

I gave up shopping in supermarkets in covid and I'd never go back. I get farm produce and goods from small businesses delivered to me on repeat orders. They are often national companies so deliver everywhere. I don't write shopping lists, roll my eyes at the thought of having to figure out what's for dinner, end up spending loads on things I didn't mean to, stand in queues or waste my time behind dear Betty who wants to chat with the cashier for an hour or people who can't work self-checkouts.

The quality is much, much better. As are the sizes. If I'm paying more it's worth it, not because I'm buying substandard leftover EU produce that they couldn't sell on the mainland or because they felt like increasing the prices. Plus they want to keep your business and they have personal customer service if things go wrong.

This is why I shop at ALDI.

I have never, EVER shopped in Sainsbury’s and thought, ‘wow, that was a really pleasant experience.’

In my area, Aldi, Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s are all the same. The only store that I step into and find the experience to be nicer is M&S

I'm very lucky where I live as there is a fantastic Asian food store which sells every herb/spice under the sun, sauces, rice, pulses, "exotic" fresh produce etc at a fraction of the cost of supermarkets. If you have one in your area I would highly recommend them.

I hate the 2 tier pricing as well.

I'm hoping that they get slammed in the CMA investigation that is currently underway.

ALDI staff are always really helpful and always open a till if I ask if there are none open. I never use self checkout in ALDI. I agree the staff will not chat with you for half an hour, but I am not looking for that. I also like less choice. I struggle with choice and I do not need ten different types of baked beans to choose from.
For other veg that ALDO dies not do I use a local Asian shop. All supermarkets are pretty awful with fruit and veg.

I love an Aldi shop!
Shop there for everything now. Save a fortune. Save time too - less choice so no wondering what things to choose / working out which is the cheaper option etc. There's no 'deals', just all round, good value prices. And I like the super speedy checkout experience, everywhere else seems so slow now. Why would you want to spend more time in a supermarket than you have to? I've got better things to be doing.
I find the quality fine too.
And I find non-brand are the same / very similar to branded but way cheaper. Aldi do have some brands but don't understand why anyone would buy them. Eg. Birdseye frozen garden peas £1.99, Aldi frozen garden peas 89p. Weetabix £3.99, Aldi weetebix £1.89. A pea is a peas and a wheat bisk is a wheat bisk right?!

I like my local Aldi. They let me pack at the til, don't throw the food at me, the staff are all friendly and pleasant, the quality is good.

There are two other ALDIs in my town but I hate them because the shopping experience is totally different.

Personally I like the more limited choice because I get overwhelmed in normal supermarkets and stressed out.

Last time I went to Sainsbury's I found it hideous. The lighting, the colours, it felt so bleak and depressing. But I used to shop there in my last town and it was fine.

There are definitely differences between individual stores regardless of the chain.

The suggestion that Aldi is bad for UPF reasons is laughably ridiculous. They all sell UPF shit - even the most high end ones. It is perfectly possible to avoid it regardless of where you shop. The organic offering (and everyone normal understands what that means in terms of food 🙄) isn't the best but I can't afford organic sadly anyway.

My local Sainsbury’s is the pits. It’s a monstrosity on the outside and filthy on the inside. Always blood splattered over the fridges in the meat aisle which I’ve complained about numerous times (absolutely hate the mince packaging as well), floors often dirty, god knows who their salad supplier it is never fresh (peppers are always going rotten), I’ve had frozen food that’s obviously been defrosted and refrozen, there’s never any staff around to ask for help. It’s an extremely badly managed store which is a shame as we get a discount as DH works for them (not in a store)but only use it to do a big stock up on tinned or packaged foods as Tesco fresh food is much better quality especially meat like chicken and beef.

Our local Tesco on the other hand is always lovely and clean, fruit and veg always fresh and well presented and a very pleasant shopping experience. Lovely, friendly staff who’ve been there for many years. Store is very well managed. I’d rather pay a bit more to shop here regularly.

Aldi is a but meh, clean but very cluttered store. I wouldn’t buy meat in there as don’t trust it. Pop in sometimes to get juice, yoghurts and bread if I can’t be arsed to drive further away to Tesco.

I use self scan in all of them and don’t give a shit that they know that I buy organic, don’t drink but eat lots of chocolate.

Aldi & Lidl have much lower margin expectations.than other supermarkets as well, for example they're happy to sell a pack of pre-made sandwiches at 15% margin whereas Sainsbury's want 30% so charge a higher price.

Ultimately supermarkets control the supply and prices of most of our food, which higher up the chain comes from about 5 main suppliers. It is possible to do without them, dependent on where you live. Markets, health food shops, meat / veg from the supplier on line, but it really isn’t easy, and it can be time consuming. And ofcourse it’s more expensive. I did it all of last year. I went back to the supermarkets for the last few months and I’m steeling myself to not use supermarkets again. They are sooo easy. But I don’t want to buy from the Big 5, I want to eat locally grown and sourced food. I want less packaging, less plastics. Less waste.

I recently saw a lady responding to hassle she'd had on instagram for shopping in m&S when others "can only afford Aldi". So she took photos and showed his many items are the same price in both places.

But do we think the quality is the same? From the items I've tried, the quality is discernibly different.

I’m not a fan of the current nectar price promotions. It annoys me to have to buy something the following week for what I’m sure is a now inflated price.

im tired of working out what to buy from where and when.

our local Aldi is well stocked with pleasant staff. I shop mainly online for Sainsburys but rarely have substitutions and delivery drivers are always helpful and pleasant. If I go there I use a self checkout.

I play one off against the other and am fortunate that I can easily shop for what I need. I think that I cook from scratch probably makes that easier.

but I’d rather just have a good value shopping experience without the brain ache.

They all do it now. Superdrug and Boots have different price levels. You see a huge amount come off at the till and the cashier was like 'Wow you saved £20!' and I was like well no, I just didnt pay double for what these are normally priced at!

I agree with paying more for a more pleasant environment, greater choice etc. But fundamentally, the only reason that supermarkets exist is to make a profit for shareholders, so what else do you expect them to do? If people vote with their feet and stop going, prices will fall. Whilst people are still shopping there, they are patently not too expensive.

I really don't understand why people expect commercial businesses to operate like charities....

I do most of my shopping in Sainbury’s, with the odd bits from Tesco and some things from M&S.

Sainsbury’s for what I buy is hardly any different from Aldi prices. (I’ve periodically done comparisons) and IMO, the quality is much better than Aldi. I know that the Nectar price thing is just about data collection but I don’t give a toss - loyalty cards are everywhere and they all do the same...and with Sainsbury’s I end up with about £180 worth of ‘free’ Nectar points by Christmas which comes in very handy!

comparing out of season strawberries in March to ones in season is not really a fair comparison!

Club cards etc are about collected consumer data and what not which is more profitable

Huh. I'm surprised at this. Sainsbury's (with nectar) is cheapest for us at the moment. We were caught in their IT blunder last weekend and I had my shopping list to do a direct comparison with tescos and it was £8 cheaper at Sainsbury's. Their food quality is really good in my opinion too. They're our fave at the moment

Not if you're buying non UPF food, obviously.

That’s because they are exponentially more efficient so they make good margins in other ways, meaning they require less on sales. For example you get more people through the tills due how customers are encouraged to pack and the fact their products have massive barcodes (just check next time you go in) and have them in multiple places so passing through checkouts is quicker.
That way they need fewer staff, lower upfront investment, lower running costs, smaller stores etc. It’s a really smart model.

I refuse to buy products in Sainsburys or Tesco on their card prices. I'd sooner walk out, and find another supermarket.

I hate hate hate loyal pricing.

Its reduced the amount I shop and both.