Tesco confirms it has discontinued selling cornflour due to "lack of customer demand"

[mandolinwind]

If you are going to be very inconvenienced by this decision please reply to the Twitter thread and tell Tesco what you use cornflour for in your kitchen:

twitter.com/croakinggoat/status/1592468320443592705

Correct. I'm glad you're so certain on the location and spread of supermarkets in rural North Scotland.

We have a few tesco supermarkets. There's a Morrisons but it's even further away than tescos. Theres an asda but its tiny and miles away. No sainsbury, no asda, no lidl, no aldi, nothing else.

But if you're certain there's more then I'm surely mistaken and have missed them.

Can you just accept that rural Scotland is limited in both what we have and how long it would take to drive there? Thanks.

I looked for cornflour in Lidl yesterday and there was none. I looked twice thinking I'd missed it the first time. I also looked for the price tag and couldn't see it. So hopefully they haven't stopped it as well. I should have asked someone actually but I still have a little bit left and couldn't be bothered.

I use it so infrequently and I have a supplier in my village who uses it more (she is gluten free) and is always happy to give me a couple of tablespoons as and when.

I tried to buy Birds Custard Powder (main ingredient: cornflour) at my Tesco this week and they didn't have it, only instant custard or cans.

Bet it's a problem with cornflour supply.

Tesco aren’t going to discontinue something just for fun

it will be because it just doesn’t make financial sense for them to continue it.

🤷‍♀️

Supply issue. Likely to impact other retailers too.

Your online help person is likely just typing cornflour in to a stock checker and seeing it’s discontinued. Which is true - it IS discontinued, but nothing to do with customer demand. Everything to do with being unable to actually source the product. Won’t be resolved until in to the new year.

They’ll discontinue for a few months then bring it back at twice the price for a smaller amount. No point telling them you use it, they know that, they have systems that tell them how much of each product in each shop is selling them. Don’t like it buy your cornflower somewhere else, no point wasting mental energy on it.

Yup.having a personal knowledge of what your told to say...this line about demand is on the list. Call centres,staff will be told to say the same thing.its easiervthay why.as is showing here where all people then believe the same thing,sorted.it causes less unrest.its gives time to work on or or a resolution.
you do get a right laugh when one staff member suddenly goes rogue,or has a rapor or sympathy with customer so is honest, or forgets and tells the customer the actual reasons.

If it was a supply issue - they would have said so!!! Just as they have done many times in the past re items… sunflower oil being most recent.

seriously there’s no “allegedly” about to. Low customer demand so they withdrew as didn’t make financial sense. End of! No conspiracy 😂

I’m waiting for someone to say they think Tesco may have had something to do with Covid

"Don’t like it buy your cornflower somewhere else, no point wasting mental energy on it."

Do remember that not all of us live in towns with a variety of supermarkets or are able to shop in person.

Our nearest large Tesco store is a 7 mile drive. Our nearest Sainsbury, Asda and Aldi are all over 6 miles away. Many people have deliveries or are doing Click and Collect because they are unable to shop in store or because they are clinically vulnerable and are avoiding large stores because of C-19.

I think I will decide what I "waste mental energy on", thanks.

Use wheat flour and butter to make a roux.

"seriously there’s no “allegedly” about to. Low customer demand so they withdrew as didn’t make financial sense. End of! No conspiracy"

I've been told otherwise by someone who works for them. It looks like a supply issue, not "low customer demand".

Oooooo so it is a conspiracy! You have contacts OP. Goodness…. This could work for a Hollywood conspiracy action thriller!

Cheese sauce is made the same as all white sauces, sweet and savoury - the base is sugar, flour and milk.

There is NO sugar in cheese sauce.. sweet ones maybe but cheese is a savoury sauce.

I’m no cook

but sugar in cheese sauce???

And the base is flour and butter - a roux as other posters have said.

What I've been told suggests that the admins replying to queries on Twitter have not been responding with the correct reason for the lack of this product on the shelves.

Someone on Twitter has also posted to say that they have exchanged many emails with Tesco and have been told that it's not due to a lack of demand but to a change of producer and a change of packaging.

I use cornflour but a box lasts me at least a year, hardly a big seller

@ChiefFinderOuter

I use normal flour for white and cheese sauce, make a roux add milk

so what’s your point?

if they say it’s because of low consumer demand - then there is no reason for that to be a lie. They have been stated many times in the past about low supply hindering stock. So why not do it with…. Cornflour

@badbaduncle

I only use cornflour on chicken for sweet and sour/orange chicken Chinese style. Normally my chicken isnt floured

Someone on Twitter has also posted to say that they have exchanged many emails with Tesco and have been told that it's not due to a lack of demand but to a change of producer and a change of packaging.

and did that someone provide screenshots of their email exchange?

Plain Flour