Is it just Coop or is everywhere so bloody expensive?

[Flexilexy]

Coop is my only local shop so normally I do a larger shop in Tesco/Lidl. On Friday I realised I had one nappy left so popped to Coop on my way home. It was £11 for a pack of nappies. £11 bloody quid! I refused to pay that for 36 nappies (which think that was the pack size, might be wrong) so rushed to another town for Waitrose where I got two of the same size packs on offer for £12.
Last night popped in to grab some milk and fruit (don’t get me started on the price of fruit). They had little leaflets in the baskets listing what the food bank needs most so I thought I’d buy some of the stuff listed.
A tin pf corned beef was £4! In fact pretty much all tinned meat for £4+, which I’m guessing it why the food bank has a shortage.

Is it just me or are these prices insane?

Co op is expensive but it is a convenience store so probably to be expected.

We are rural and our village has a Co op (20 mins drive to a supermarket). We only use it occasionally if we have run out of something or need something urgently e.g. bread, milk.

A lot of older people in the village buy quite a lot in there though - it must be hard for them but if they can't get to supermarkets, it's the only option.

its a convenience shop

I don't get the obsession with independent shops tbh. They aren't always better than a chain. And I don't see why the person who owns a corner shop is more worthy of support than the people who work in the local co-op.

Definitely. I can usually pick up stuff for at least 3 meals.

I bought some Cadbury bournville cocoa last week off Ocado which as gone up a lot anyway for £3.50. I saw it for £6.00 in the Co-op!

Co-op is b expensive

That made me chuckle

I don't see how people don't see that Co-op is a co-op. It might be more expensive but that's because all products are made or stocked as ethically as possible, and it shares profits with causes and communities, not faceless shareholders. That's what you're paying for. Aldi and Lidl operate on huge volumes of scale with murky supply chains, so will never be comparable for price.

(Although yes, nappies are unreasonably expensive everywhere. All convenience shops - Co-op, Tesco Express, Sainsbury's Local - will charge similar.)

I’m rural - our COOP is super cheap for many things

Co-op costs a fortune. We have one in the village and also a One Stop which is some sort of subsidiary of Tesco. Little more expensive than big Tesco but not as much as a Tesco express. Have no idea why Tesco brand their small shops under different names…..aren’t there Tesco metros as well? All priced differently?

Co op is where you go when you don’t have options. You pay ( or don’t) for the convenience. There’s a coop where I stay or there’s a 14 mile drive to Tesco in the next town. Milk , bread, special offers and yellow stickers.

Someone in my village is obsessed with coop prices and regularly posts summaries on the fb group of the price difference of various items at the coop compared to different supermarkets!

I think everywhere is expensive. My food shop used to be £110 it had then been £140 and now last two weeks around £155! I am not buying anything different!

I used our village Coop every week for fresh food. It's not cheap but I find I spend a lot less on food since I stopped doing a weekly large supermarket shop. I also throw far less away.
I do a Waitrose or Lidl shop every 4-6 weeks for store cupboard and freezer stuff.

They are so overpriced, I hate how they are the only option in poorer areas too

I think the issue with nappies and similar in the co-op is they don't do own brand of those things - or at least not in mine.

I used to use ours for bread, yellow stickers, milk, but never for cereals, nappies (when we needed them) or even tins - it's increasingly all brands and so far more expensive than other shops, even the M&S up the road.

When I realised a tin of toms and pasta in M&S was cheaper than the Napolina which was only choice in coop, I began to enjoy feeling very luxurious picking up bits and bobs there when I need them instead of the more expensive but also more unpleasant co-op

CoOp generally is a convenience store. It is more expensive generally than a supermarket. 20% or so.

They’re great for yellow sticker action though!

I work for our local Co op. I get the staff discount which helps. We are open 7 am till 10pm seven days a week. Very helpful for people on Sundays when other shops shut at 4pm.

Me too, although it's one of their larger shops, so shuts at 4pm pn Sunday. The 30% own brand employee discount is really good😁

It's expensive here but convenient at open after 4pm on Sundays (yes i know I should be more organised) and next to the pub for 9.45pm dashes for bread and bacon (not me but at least a dozen people nipped out for last minute groceries from the pub before coop closed at 10)

Our local Co-op was £2.45 for a garlic flatbread J could get in Lidl fod 85p. Ridiculous.
Our one caters mainly for older people so stocks things that Tesco no longer do.

The Co-Op has never been known for cheap pricing.

Yeah the Co Op is the main one in the local village and car park is never more than a fifth full.

It's used as a nip in shop, no one can use it like a supermarket because of the prices.

One Stops are privately owned franchises, just like Spar, Londis, Premier, etc. It's just that One Stop shops get their products wholesale from Tesco rather than other wholesalers.