Tesco profits down - where they have gone wrong?

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Not so very long ago, Tesco used to be held up as a massive UK business success story. I've read Tescopoly and sure some people despise them - they've enraged farmers and the protest lobby by aggressive policy with suppliers,store-expansion and squeezing out independent shops.

They've made a bunch of bad decisions outside the UK; but they had a huge loyal customer-base in the UK and a lot of their problems must come down to complacency and not thinking enough about their home-grown customers, despite the masses of data they collect through clubcards.

I'll post my own personal reasons for reducing my shopping with them, but think it would be interesting to have an open-forum to see just how out of touch and poor they have become, with stories from MNetters. Maybe someone from Tesco will read it and have a think about what they can change.

Dear Tesco....

This is where you have gone wrong...

I really don't like their colour scheme and style - Red and Blue? urgh, shouts artificial and cheap. and what everyone else said.

Quality is terrible compared to Sainsbury's. Poor customer service. Too expensive. Terribly cramped (in my local - not even enough parking space, let alone aisle space). Lack of range of goods. Boring food.

Tesco Finest is also crap, slop in a foil tray. If I want can't be bothered ready meals I go to M&S who have a range to choose from, which i do very rarely. Tesco seem to have just the Finest and the vile looking value range which could not look less appealing with the packaging if it tried.

Both food and non- food Tesco own brand products are poor quality, it's the only brand I refuse to buy anything from.

Baskets are never by the door where they should be, you have to hunt one down before you can start shopping.

When you do find a basket it's an old style metal one with the plastic tubing missing from the handle.

Their security guards usually look like they have criminal records and are more interested in chatting on their mobiles and trying to impress groups of teenagers than anything else.

The clothes in my local medium-size store look like cheap crap off a market stall.

The 'offers' - it's the only place where I feel I'm being screwed over with BOGOFs etc and have to double check everything as at least half the time the 'offer' is more expensive.

Poor choice of decent quality non-processed food.

Generally unpleasant atmosphere.

Feck off Tesco.

Yes car wash people in the car park is real NO NO pissing you right off before you have got in the soulless greedy shack.

The feel of the shop is horrible, like asda but more expensive with less range. My friends and I all tend to do aldi big shop with top up at local Morrisons or veg/ bakery. I hear lots of people complaining that the nice cafe ( don't know as I've never been to one) are being replaced with expensive costa coffee shops.
Ive never been a tesco shopper and probable won't be.

Rude, grumpy staff compared to all other supermarkets even Lidl

too much choice in some ways
not enough in others (eg when they suddenly stop stocking something)
BOGOFs instead of sensible pricing for individual items
excessive prices in general
poor quality in cheap products

I love Aldi (& to a lesser extent Lidl) because the stores are small & neat so you can fly round getting just what you want in a fraction of the time a Tesco shop takes, the quality for the price is fantastic, & you only have to buy the quantity you want

classic example of quality vs price is tinned kidney beans. Aldi are 21p & so are Tesco value; but Aldi's are in spring water, Tesco's value are in brine. Tesco's equivalent to Aldi - ordinary own label, in spring water - are over 60p.

same with tinned plum tomatoes - Aldi 31p, Tesco value 31p, Tesco own label 55p

Tesco are pricing their Value products to match Aldi; but for quality, you have to pay for at least the standard own brand, which are generally at least twice the price

for loss-leaders like milk & sliced bread they do seem to be matching Aldi now (instead of making you buy 2 or 3 to get the same price) but it's pathetically obvious why they're doing it

also Aldi hardly ever relocate stock, which seems to be one of Tesco's principle marketing strategies

I reckon I save 25% on a weekly shop which is way better than clubcard points

(ah - interesting - I just checked Tesco prices on mysupermarket & their kidney beans have changed. Value are now in spring water, own label have reduced to 49p. Clearly they can see where they have to go & who they have to compete with - but have they left it too late?)

Really poor quality food.
Overpriced
surly attitude to customers
Health and safety nightmare- roof had collapsed and water was pouring through the lights but nobody gave a shit.
Dreadful online service
Really shocking attitude to the farmers who supply them especially the dairy farmers.
Tendency to ring up some items twice especially the expensive ones.

I loathe Tesco and refuse to go back.

I'm surprised at people saying they only knock pennies off discounted items, in my experience they're the one place that does. I love going and getting things for 10p.

I think a lot of it comes down to the fact that in the current climate people are happy to spend more time visiting different shops to save money rather than have everything in one place. I like aldi but I'd struggle to use aldi alone without topping up with bits and pieces from elsewhere and I'm sure I'm not alone.

YY to the price:quality thing. Aldi tuna in spring water is the same price as the other kinds. And I can't bear over choice. Sweet corn. In a tin. I really don't need 10 varieties to pick from. Aldi stocks one. So I buy it.

Their stores are 10-20 years out of date. Dirty, scruffy, make you feel like a shoplifter, scary guards, aggressive lighting, weird piped sickly fake bread smells, lots of plastic, lots of grumpy people, Waitrose it ain't.

Their Tesco Express stores are located in areas where they undermine local small businesses, so I boycott them.

Rude, grumpy staff compared to all other supermarkets even Lidl

I used to work for Tesco, they used to be very cheap compared to everywhere else and the quality wasn't bad for the price. These days the quality is worse and they're more expensive than Sainsbury's and Morrisons (we don't have Asda locally to compare).

They've kept cutting back on everything for staff, we used to have double time for Sundays and I only just missed out on time and a half for Saturdays, by the time I left Sundays were time and a half and by now they're probably normal pay. You can't keep removing benefits and expect to get a similar standard of worker, or people who are as happy in their jobs. This is definitely reflected in the service customers receive.

arrogant corporate attitude, determined to turn ever corner shop, filling station , empty field into a tesco'

Boycatt them

Stores are too cavernous. We have a new Extra, it takes me a 10 min walk past piles of shite and helium balloon displays just to get to the food. As if I can be bothered.

They keep reducing the amount of things in packets and hoping you don't notice. Sliced ham for example used to come in packs of 6. They reduced it to 5 without reducing the price and expect us not to notice!!! Then they have the cheek to slightly increase the price a few weeks later as well. Ripping us off by stealth is what it is. I'm sure they've reduced the weight of a packet of cooked chicken pieces too. I use them in my kids' wraps for packed lunches - used to be able to stretch one pack between 2 kids over 2 days. Now there is not enough for that. I wish I'd kept a closer eye on the weight of them before - I am convinced there is less in the pack but I have no proof. They are 2 for 5.50 so not that cheap when it's only 200g per pack.

Also, meat quality is getting as bad as Asda's. Had a 2 pack of venison steak the other week. One was lovely, the other was inedible - all sinew and gristle. But too much hassle to take it back.

In the same month I have had guacamole which hasn't been sealed properly so was not airtight, and was leaking. Couldn't eat it as didn't know if it was safe if seal was broken. Also same with some finest soup - lid just came straight off so obviously wasn't air tight. All these things are a bloody inconvenience because half the time you don't notice it till you get it out the fridge to use and then it's too late to Go back to the shop to change it.

Oh yes - fruit like pears or strawberries which are rock hard they are inedible so you wait for a few days foe them to ripen enough to eat but they suddently start decaying, missing the "soft" part altogether.

It's all about the quality, and tesco's has gone downhill in that respect.

I still use my local Tesco Express, when I have to. I trade-off the extra expense for convenience, on last minute stuff. In its favour they have several jolly members of staff, (hooray!), and a sprinkling of misery guts (boo!). Here are the many problems they do nothing to fix:

• Cramped aisles
• constant congestion from re-stocking cages
• they try to cram in one-third more stock than they should
• struggle to get a buggy around. Forget it if there are 3 people with kids in there
• precarious promotional piles a la Kwik Save of not very enticing deals
• they leave cages full of cardboard boxes outside front of store on permanent basis. Zero respect for the local high street
• refrigeration that constantly breaks down and floods
• dirty floors
• eye-watering pricing of fresh produce, and not great quality
• sandwich fillings/lunch items that I would not give to a pig

The Customer Service is indeed the pits. The only nice people are the delivery drivers, who are good around here.

Recently I bought an item that had something wrong with it, and had to return it. I couldn't find the receipt so I went into the store and asked if I could exchange it for a new one. I had to show my bank statement. Once I had done this, I got a replacement and I also spent about £50 on other bits and pieces. They refused to give me an itemised receipt for the replaced item or the additional items either, purely because I hadn't got the original receipt for the first faulty item to hand. I asked what I was supposed to do if one of the new items went wrong (one was electrical) and the customer service guy didn't know. In the end he 'gave in' and gave me a proper receipt for the new additional items, but I was left thinking 'WTF?'

This also happened in the summer when I bought some sandals, they fell apart in about a week, I took them back and despite the fact that a) they were branded Tesco and b) they were just out and therefore clearly under 6 months old, they wouldn't give me a refund for those either.

It's bonkers, their application of consumer law.

Staffing is another issue

Aldi staff (IME) are wonderful - really helpful & pleasant & know their stuff

Lidl not so good (again just IME) but then they apparently have a much stricter rule book & lot less discretion

Tesco incredibly variable

Prefer the way I see the lidl manager treating the staff.

Tesco treat suppliers so poorly.

It's all down to price.

Aldi is cheaper and very 'trendy' atm.

it isn't all down to price - it's quality & service too

I've been shopping at Aldi for a couple of years now & always think "take that, Tesco!" every time I load my shopping into the car

Which? magazine's shopping survey was very interesting this month

Also quality is no better than Tesco.

It's just cheaper.