Supermarkets - the Megathread

Muahahaha

M three wrote: »

Thats doesnt explain why a supermarket allows you to order a product, yet doesnt tell you they dont have it until your (partial) order is delivered.

Seems to me like poor inventory management. And a missed opportunity by the retailer.

Their online delivery system is loss making, think about the labour it takes to do your shopping and to then deliver it, it must take almost an hour per household yet you can get delivery for as low as 3 euro and free for the over 65s. Because its loss making Tesco are not going to allow any back and forth about missing items or it would become even more loss making for them as more staff time is spent sorting your order.

jlm29 wrote: »

It’s worse today because they’re selling garden stuff in their Thursday specials, and everyone “needs” garden stuff at the moment.
Another day they’d be selling craft stuff or saucepans or something and no one much would care

Report on another thread that the queues were so big outside one Lidl this morning that the Gardai showed up. People are going mad for outdoor stuff and BBQs at the moment. Its going to be crazy when Woodies and B&Q open back up, theres lots of pent up demand out there, its like a pressure cooker about to blow.

jlm29

wonski wrote: »

Friend of mine works in Lidl and a queue started forming at 6am in the morning...

There goes our relaxation of restrictions...

Idiots everywhere.

And I read somewhere else that each shop got only 3 of each furniture item, so most people would have come away empty handed. I’d rather sit on a blanket on the patio than stand in a queue outside lidl at 6am

Postgrad10

They get a few of everything per store for those offers unfortunately. It’s not worth fighting for.

Hurrache

AulWan wrote: »

They must have some idea though. I would check my order the evening before its due and there would often be a message "this item cannot be increased, this item is not in stock". I leave those items in the basket and mark them "find a suitable alternative". 9 times out of 10, when you go to pick up your order, they will have what was originally ordered.

Sometimes it says "this item is permanently out of stock" ( or words along those lines). Those, I will delete and replace.

They can't be certain though. Between now when you order and 2 weeks time when your order is picked they won't know how many people between then and now will buy the same product, nor any potential supply issues.

What Username Guidelines

Hurrache wrote: »

They can't be certain though. Between now when you order and 2 weeks time when your order is picked they won't know how many people between then and now will buy the same product, nor any potential supply issues.

Thats why you go in the night before and edit the order to what you need.

AulWan

Hurrache wrote: »

They can't be certain though. Between now when you order and 2 weeks time when your order is picked they won't know how many people between then and now will buy the same product, nor any potential supply issues.

Which is why I update my order the night before its due. I'm constantly adding to and taking away from my order during the week.

You can amend the order as many times as you like up until 11:45pm the night before it due to be picked.

AulWan

Hurrache wrote: »

They can't be certain though. Between now when you order and 2 weeks time when your order is picked they won't know how many people between then and now will buy the same product, nor any potential supply issues.

Which is why I update my order the night before its due. I'm constantly adding to and taking away from my order during the week.

You can make as many amendments as you like up until 11:45pm the night before it due to be picked.

AulWan

Hurrache wrote: »

They can't be certain though. Between now when you order and 2 weeks time when your order is picked they won't know how many people between then and now will buy the same product, nor any potential supply issues.

Which is why I check my order and update it the night before its due. I'm constantly adding to and taking away from my order during the week.

You can make as many amendments as you like up until 11:45pm the night before it due to be picked.

Zardoz

wonski wrote: »

Friend of mine works in Lidl and a queue started forming at 6am in the morning...

There goes our relaxation of restrictions...

Idiots everywhere.

Lidl and Aldi should stop doing specials ,all its doing is attracting imbeciles.

Why are people so thick .

wonski

Zardoz wrote: »

Lidl and Aldi should stop doing specials ,all its doing is attracting imbeciles.

Why are people so thick .

They are making money on them. Unless the government tells them to stop they never will.

Sheep Shagger

Had to Q to get into Aldi today, had to laugh as all the trolleys I saw coming out didn't have groceries in them.....instead plants, bags of topsoil, planter boxes, paint etc.

Can't blame people I guess as Woodies etc is shut, I know it isn't food but if social distancing is adhered to for customers and staff why can't large retail warehouses be open?

wonski

Woodies and the likes should be the first to open when any sort of relaxation of restriction is announced. At least its easier to control crowd in them and will keep people in their gardens and houses for some time when they do paint, refurbish etc...

Zardoz

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Had to Q to get into Aldi today, had to laugh as all the trolleys I saw coming out didn't have groceries in them.....instead plants, bags of topsoil, planter boxes, paint etc.

I had a quick look at Aldi's special offers for today ,it was mostly junk ornaments for the garden and some garden furniture
There was very little stuff that would be deemed necessary like topsoil or paint.

Plumbthedepths

Zardoz wrote: »

I had a quick look at Aldi's special offers for today ,it was mostly junk ornaments for the garden and some garden furniture
There was very little stuff that would be deemed necessary like topsoil or paint.

You may view items relating to gardening as unnecessary but many do. It also gives people something to do.

odyssey06

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

You may view items relating to gardening as unnecessary but many do. It also gives people something to do.

They are unnecessary in that a shop selling only those items wouldnt be allowed to open.

FloatingVoter

Yeah, my Lidl on Cork St. had a queue caused by idiots buying gardening rubbish and plants. They sell plants every other day. One couple in buying one shrub. That's two places in the queue for a ****ing weed. And it was a chilly morning. Hope they're proud of themselves.

Plumbthedepths

odyssey06 wrote: »

They are unnecessary in that a shop selling only those items wouldnt be allowed to open.

You're wrong there is a shop 40 metres from Tesco in my nearest town selling items of a similar nature.

iamwhoiam

I will be going to Dunnes from now on . The elderly hours is so well organised . The queue is separate from the other queue , trolly sprayed while waiting , tea and coffee offered . Inside a table with spray, gloves and handwash . Plenty of room inside and no shelf stockers cluttering the aisles . It was calm and stress free .

odyssey06

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

You're wrong there is a shop 40 metres from Tesco in my nearest town selling items of a similar nature.

Ah, that must be the loophole in the restriction extensions.

Jim_Hodge

Plumbthedepths wrote: »

You're wrong there is a shop 40 metres from Tesco in my nearest town selling items of a similar nature.

Surely that's on an order and collect basis only.

Plumbthedepths

Jim_Hodge wrote: »

Surely that's on an order and collect basis only.

Nope.

M three

Muahahaha wrote: »

Their online delivery system is loss making, think about the labour it takes to do your shopping and to then deliver it, it must take almost an hour per household yet you can get delivery for as low as 3 euro and free for the over 65s. Because its loss making Tesco are not going to allow any back and forth about missing items or it would become even more loss making for them as more staff time is spent sorting your order.



Report on another thread that the queues were so big outside one Lidl this morning that the Gardai showed up. People are going mad for outdoor stuff and BBQs at the moment. Its going to be crazy when Woodies and B&Q open back up, theres lots of pent up demand out there, its like a pressure cooker about to blow.

It is NOT loss making so you're uninformed.
And there isnt a major increase in labour, rather than staff place items on shelves and then pick them off again later they instead pick most of online orders direct from stock room. It actually reduces a lot of the labour

krissovo

odyssey06 wrote: »

They are unnecessary in that a shop selling only those items wouldnt be allowed to open.

It does not take much to add a couple of items that qualify the retail outlet. There is a large one near me that is 99% garden orientated but does have have a few household fixings which means they can open.

wonski

krissovo wrote: »

It does not take much to add a couple of items that qualify the retail outlet. There is a large one near me that is 99% garden orientated but does have have a few household fixings which means they can open.

Dealz is a good example. It's not like they are essential items only, but in fairness I don't mind them being open. Apparently their pregnancy tests were flying off the shelves, too

Caranica

wonski wrote: »

Dealz is a good example. It's not like they are essential items only, but in fairness I don't mind them being open. Apparently their pregnancy tests were flying off the shelves, too

Dealz stock a lot of stuff deemed essential - toiletries, medicines, food, cleaning products for example.

soups05

wonski wrote: »

Dealz is a good example. It's not like they are essential items only, but in fairness I don't mind them being open. Apparently their pregnancy tests were flying off the shelves, too

I'm sorry to have to tell you this, we truly live in a world of idiots. A friend from college is currently on lock down in Dublin and is part of a whatsapp group. Someone posted a link to a covid19 test being developed in Ireland. (Galway i think) which is similar to pregnancy tests. The information was twisted into pregnancy tests can show if you have covid19.

The "news" spread like wildfire and suddenly shops are selling out of tests.

I don't know about the coronavirus peak but I definitely think we have reached the stupidity peak.

Muahahaha

M three wrote: »

It is NOT loss making so you're uninformed.
And there isnt a major increase in labour, rather than staff place items on shelves and then pick them off again later they instead pick most of online orders direct from stock room. It actually reduces a lot of the labour

Yes it is loss making and you're the one who is uninformed. But dont take my word for it, here is the Financial Times saying so

Part of the answer is that for the vast majority of retailers, selling food online is unprofitable. “It is truly one of the worst business models in existence,” said Brittain Ladd, a food retail consultant based in the US. “Retailers simply do not have the competence to deliver to homes profitably.” 

All the incumbents have been cross-subsidising home delivery from their store operations,” said Nick Harrison, global retail practice co-leader at consultants Oliver Wyman. He estimates that it costs upwards of £10 to pick and fulfil each order, whereas delivery charges to the customer are half that amount. None of the big UK players disclose the sales or profits of their grocery delivery businesses separately. 

https://www.ft.com/content/8aa756ac-3c35-11e9-b72b-2c7f526ca5d0

Or This is Money
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-3828648/Deliveries-hit-Big-Four-supermarkets-500m-lose-5-7-online-order.html

Big Four supermarkets lose £5 to £7 on every online order: How chasing internet shoppers is 'like selling tenners for a fiver

The soaring popularity of grocery delivery has left a £500million black hole in the profits of Britain's biggest supermarkets which will worsen as more shoppers use the service. Dan Murphy, a partner at global retail consultants Kurt Salmon, is warning that supermarkets are caught in an 'Emperor's new clothes' scenario and have 'blinded themselves to the reality' of the loss-making nature of food delivery.

'They lose between £5 and £7 on every order and the more orders they attract and more it grows the more they lose,' he said.'

Sheep Shagger

What those quotes forget to state is that even though there may not be a charge for delivery or it maybe low, the supermarket recoups its costs via the actual sale of items.

Online shopping also means people tend to shop in one place rather than the old style shopping around so the basket total is higher than if it was done instore.

Muahahaha

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

What those quotes forget to state is that even though there may not be a charge for delivery or it maybe low, the supermarket recoups its costs via the actual sale of items.

Online shopping also means people tend to shop in one place rather than the old style shopping around so the basket total is higher than if it was done instore.

Wouldnt be so sure about that, the article says the layout of supermarkets is designed so you visit all four corners of the store and that way you're tempted to buy more items as you pass them. Also theres reasons they put bakeries at the entrance, its to break down your resistance to sticking to a budget, consumer psychologists have written about this before. None of this happens when shopping online, its much harder to tempt someone into an unintended purchase than it is if the product was physically right in front of them.

Anyway their main problem is the strategy was to subsidise online deliveries in the expectation that they would get so efficient that it would eventually cover its costs. They need to be delivering to dozens of houses all within the same area on the same day to make it work efficiently. Right now its not, last time I ordered from Tesco he drove a 30km hour long round trip to get to me and I paid 3 euro delivery. Id say a delivery like that easily cost them 15-20 euro by the time you factor in labour costs of picking and a driver on the road for an hour, tax, insurance and diesel. Yet it cost three euro and would have been free for my over 65 neighbours, that simply doesnt add up no matter what way you look at it. Plus I used a 15 euro off 75 euro voucher too.

Article also says now Amazon Fresh and Amazon Pantry are entering the UK online food market and they also intend to be loss making. The big supermarkets will be coming under even more pressure from a company with huge cash reserves.

Tails142

Tesco Ireland is massively profit making, I wont be losing sleep, country is known as treasure island. I think I spend more shopping online as there is a disconnect between me clicking a button versus loading a trolley up to the brim and having to load at the checkout, pack it up and put it to the car. Some of my shops have been over €300 quid recently, 110 items plus. 80 item limit might be no harm.

When your holidaying and you go grocery shopping in the UK/Spain/France you notice some difference in the cost of items and that's often in small spar type supermarkets too, rip off republic and someone is fretting that tesco might be losing money delivering to your door as they rob you blind.

Atlantic Dawn

I noticed this week it's calmed down a little, less Waltons type family outings to the supermarket. I also noticed though couples using the trip as if it was date night, some basically having sex in the Q, ffs.

odyssey06

In the normal run of events I don't do one big shop, get some small things in ALDI and then one mid sized shop in LIDL usually.

If Tesco didn't have online offering (click and collect) they wouldn't be getting a cent from me... instead they're getting €200 a week.

The 'extra' cost of online is to some extent fixed, regardless of whether it's a €50 \ €100 \ €200 shop.
You already see supermarkets with limits or charges i.e. delivery orders must be > €50, click and collect charge if order < €30. With a tweak to those numbers, the supermarket can shift the online orders to a value that works for them.

I'd like the see numbers that show Tesco making a loss on a €100 or €200 shop in the greater Dublin area, for example.
The use of €10 vouchers off large spends in store suggests they have some leeway to absorb costs on larger shops - though probably they would not be able to offer both free delivery and such vouchers.

expectationlost

Retailer Lidl Ireland says it is to temporarily stop sale of certain items due to longer queues at some stores. https://www.newstalk.com/news/lidl-stop-selling-certain-items-due-large-queues-stores-1009400

This includes a Crivit outdoor trampoline, Smoby garden slide, Gemini swingset and a wooden kitchen.

how else did they think this would go?

owlbethere

I would like to see conveyor belts wiped down after each person. Counters too. Or if that's not possible. Every hour or so.

Charles Babbage

owlbethere wrote: »

I would like to see conveyor belts wiped down after each person. Counters too. Or if that's not possible. Every hour or so.

What they need, and which should be obligatory, is a UV light inside the machine which sanitises the belt each time it passes around. This would not be rocket science.

jlm29

owlbethere wrote: »

I would like to see conveyor belts wiped down after each person. Counters too. Or if that's not possible. Every hour or so.

They do that in my local dunnes

Onesea

Reading this particular thread... What in the hell is going on over there? Are you all gone mad?

Living Off The Splash

Onesea wrote: »

Reading this particular thread... What in the hell is going on over there? Are you all gone mad?

You are judging us from where?

Hurrache

Tails142 wrote: »

someone is fretting that tesco might be losing money delivering to your door as they rob you blind.

I'm sure you realise that they are no more expensive than any other supermarket in Ireland, and cheaper on many goods, to the point that some producers have issues with the prices they sell their goods for?

zell12

I see Lidl have increased basic ham slices from
e1.99 to e2.15 and another e2.09 to e2.29

Zardoz

ALDI Ireland have today announced they are returning to normal opening hours from Thursday, May 7.

The supermarket chain's standard store opening hours of 9am - 10pm Monday to Friday and 9am - 9pm Saturday and Sunday will be reintroduced across Aldi’s 142 stores in Ireland.

lucalux

Zardoz wrote: »

ALDI Ireland have today announced they are returning to normal opening hours from Thursday, May 7.

The supermarket chain's standard store opening hours of 9am - 10pm Monday to Friday and 9am - 9pm Saturday and Sunday will be reintroduced across Aldi’s 142 stores in Ireland.

Was just about to post this!

I'm so glad to hear it as my normal shopping time is 9-10pm and its much quieter.

Zardoz

lucalux wrote: »

Was just about to post this!

I'm so glad to hear it as my normal shopping time is 9-10pm and its much quieter.

Yes ,thats my normal shopping time too ,its always very quiet.
Will be nice to avoid the savages. :pac:

lucalux

Zardoz wrote: »

Yes ,thats my normal shopping time too ,its always very quiet.
Will be nice to avoid the savages. :pac:

Some of them at least!

Never any kids in, whole place is that much more chilled out, headphones on and get checked out in no time?

Every little helps!

(Oops wrong shop.. :pac:)

road_high

Zardoz wrote: »

ALDI Ireland have today announced they are returning to normal opening hours from Thursday, May 7.

The supermarket chain's standard store opening hours of 9am - 10pm Monday to Friday and 9am - 9pm Saturday and Sunday will be reintroduced across Aldi’s 142 stores in Ireland.

I'm delighted to see so many slipping out of this "emergency" mania that has stagnated the nation for two months now. The more that can go back to normal, the more pressure mounts on Leo/Harris/NPHET's Woke Plan for National Bankruptcy.

SozBbz

Zardoz wrote: »

Yes ,thats my normal shopping time too ,its always very quiet.
Will be nice to avoid the savages. :pac:

I'd been going between 8-9pm to my local aldi the last few weeks to avoid queuing and it had been working well, so even later is great.

The only issue is that the fruit/veg available at that hour can be limited at best.

Also, I tried 2 different aldis last week to get eggs, as they'd be a staple of alot of meals in our house. Zero eggs in either shop. The second aldi I tried also had an M&S food nearby so I got eggs from Northern Ireland in there.

Have aldi been particularly hard hit by the poultry virus that knocked out a number of producers in the last week or so? Is it the same in all supermarkets?

jlm29

SozBbz wrote: »

I'd been going between 8-9pm to my local aldi the last few weeks to avoid queuing and it had been working well, so even later is great.

The only issue is that the fruit/veg available at that hour can be limited at best.

Also, I tried 2 different aldis last week to get eggs, as they'd be a staple of alot of meals in our house. Zero eggs in either shop. The second aldi I tried also had an M&S food nearby so I got eggs from Northern Ireland in there.

Have aldi been particularly hard hit by the poultry virus that knocked out a number of producers in the last week or so? Is it the same in all supermarkets?

My sister in law said they were scarce in dunnes too, but I forgot to look when I was in my local dunnes on Sunday. My other sister in law keeps chickens, so we have an abundance of eggs currently.

Muahahaha

Was in Dunnes for the first time since the restrictions started, god that warning message played over the speakers about every 3 minutes is annoying, its just far too frequent

r93kaey5p2izun

I received a big delivery from SuperValu today - enough for 2 weeks for 5 adults and 3 pets, though there will be a smaller order of certain other items arriving from Tesco on Thursday. Overall they did well on stock, and substitutions were minimal. Quorn and wheat germ are the only things completely missing. Very happy with them.

Eggs were nowhere to be found around here around 4/5 weeks ago, but there's no shortage in SV or Tesco here now.

Atlantic Dawn

Muahahaha wrote: »

Was in Dunnes for the first time since the restrictions started, god that warning message played over the speakers about every 3 minutes is annoying, its just far too frequent

It makes the Christmas CD they play on repeat seem utterly harmless