Superquinn IS super

alleepally

For the divilment and because I was bored at the time I fired off an email to Feargal Quinn following the news of the Superquinn buyout for 450million. My email and his reply below. It was only after sending the email I realised it was an Irish consortium!

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My email to Feargal Quinn

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Dear Mr. Quinn:

I read today that your business has been taken over by the British. nothing is sacred any more. I always thought we’d have Superquinn and
the unique Irishness of the brand. Ah well, I guess now you’ll go the
way of Denis O’Brien and toddle off to Portugal to drink loads of
cheap wine and leave the taxman fuming and leave us here without a
decent sausage or fresh tomato and fennell bread.

So this email is just to wish you all the best and perhaps you can
assure all the sausage munchers in the country that the standards
won’t slip and that the small change will always be there at the
checkout. Those few coins have been as constant as the flame at the
window of Aras an Uachtarain. Binding us all together in the glorious
light of sausages, tomato and fennell bread and cream cakes.

Incidentally, I was thinking of putting a wager on with Paddypower
that you will run for president in 7 years time. If you give me the
nod now (on the QT) and we get a good price I can spend the next seven
years placing bets around the country and even England as well if
needs be. I reckon investing a few quid in this will be the investment
of your career but I don’t know if there are an "insider trading"
rules in the gambling game. Personally, I think they are all crooks
anyway and it’s about time someone took them all to the cleaners. In
fact, lets not go with Paddy Power - Celtic is a better bet. That Ivan
Yates is looking pretty smug anytime I see him on television. And to
think he was a politician once. What’s the world coming to?

Is mise.

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Reply from Feargal Quinn

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Many thanks for your email. Let me start by being boringly pedantic, in pointing out that Superquinn has not been taken over by the British. All the
new investors, including the new executive chairman, are Irish - so the company will very definitely remain in Irish hands. And that is no
coincidence either - down the years, as we received overtures from very many suitors, one thing I made my mind up on very early was that if ever the time came to sell, I would try to keep the management and ownership of the company in Irish hands. I am very pleased indeed that we have managed to
achieve that.

As to keeping the Superquinn flag flying, I am very glad to be able to reassure you on that count as well. First, because I will still be very much
around: in my new role as president of the company, I see my function very much as an aid to the new management in maintaining the things that made
Superquinn what it is. But even more important, Simon Burke himself has made it very clear that he is interested in deepening and strengthening the
Superquinn franchise rather than undermining it. So the sausage-lovers may rest easy!

On the other points, however, I am afraid I have to disappoint you. I have no intention whatever of running off to Portugal, I have much too much to do
here in Ireland - including my work in the Seanad. As to that job in the Park, all I can say is that quite honestly it is something that has never
attracted me in the slightest. So keep your bet in your pocket.

With kind regards

Feargal Quinn

eth0_

Wow, you must be feeling pretty embarrassed right now.
Good on Feargal Quinn, I say. Nice to see he can reply personally and humourously to his customers.

davej

Excellent! ..nice of him to reply.

You'd think he'd have more to do with his time then reply to some random bloke who wanted to have a go at him. Especially around this time, what with all the business of dealing with the handover of power etc.

Are you sure you didn't write the reply yourself?

davej

alleepally

Have yis not heard of the Dear John letters book and the follow up which is selling well in the shops at the moment. It was obviously written tongue in cheek and I wasn't having a go at him and I sent a follow up thanking him for being a sport and wishing him all the best.

seamus

I've met him numerous times. He can seem quite overbearing when you meet him in a work environment (and you work for him ), but he is a very nice guy, very commiteed to his principles, and as you see above, never afraid to speak to the little guy.

BuffyBot

I don't know who is worse.. you for writing that mail not even knowing your facts or him for wasting precious seconds of his life responding..

alleepally

BuffyBot wrote:

I don't know who is worse.. you for writing that mail not even knowing your facts or him for wasting precious seconds of his life responding..

Well, as I said in a previous post it was tongue in cheek and he replied to my follow up mail saying he knew it was tongue in cheek and it made him laugh.

elivsvonchiaing

God knows if I was himself - immediate thought would be - I've at most 30 years left - I could reply to this - nah- **** em!

elivsvonchiaing

alleepally wrote:

Well, as I said in a previous post it was tongue in cheek and he replied to my follow up mail saying he knew it was tongue in cheek and it made him laugh.

Ah - I guess that makes more sense! Not sure I wouldn't settle for a laugh though and ... see previous post :cool:

Knifey_Spoony

Haha, thats brilliant! made me smile. Fair play to him for replying, with that reply! Brilliant.

alleepally

http://www.buy4now.ie/Eason/productdetail.aspx?pid=1885271&loc=P&catid=1034.9

This book and the Dear John letters which preceeded it was the idea I was aiming for. Buy either one and see where I was coming from with the email.

evad_lhorg

i couldnt care i they sell once they keep the sausages

Lafortezza

That was nice of Fergal Quinn's secretary to reply to your pointless mail. :rolleyes:

seamus

lafortezza wrote:

That was nice of Fergal Quinn's secretary to reply to your pointless mail. :rolleyes:

Unless his secretary has taken extensive steps to learn how to imitate Feargal's writing style exactly, I'd say it's from him alright.

BuffyBot

Oh no, it is him.

skywalker

really funny stuff. dya want a sausage?

Sleepy

It's what he's always built his business on: taking time to be nice to customers. Remember this guy is world famous for a reason, despite only opperating in a small country like ours, some of his business practices have been copied widely. His book "Crowning the Customer" is an interesting read and is considered the manual on customer care.

seamus

Sleepy wrote:

It's what he's always built his business on: taking time to be nice to customers. Remember this guy is world famous for a reason, despite only opperating in a small country like ours, some of his business practices have been copied widely. His book "Crowning the Customer" is an interesting read and is considered the manual on customer care.

Indeed. What's interesting is that in Superquinn shops, they employ the same pimply-faced and depressed teens, the same disillusioned twentysomethings, give them even less pay than most other supermarket chains, and yet they still manage to provide an infinitely better customer service experience than any of the other chains.

It's strange to see some young fella who looks like a scumbag giving "Yes Sir" and "No Missus" answers.

Kêrmêttê

seamus wrote:

Indeed. What's interesting is that in Superquinn shops, they employ the same pimply-faced and depressed teens, the same disillusioned twentysomethings, give them even less pay than most other supermarket chains, and yet they still manage to provide an infinitely better customer service experience than any of the other chains.

It's strange to see some young fella who looks like a scumbag giving "Yes Sir" and "No Missus" answers.

Strangely enough, there's very few teenagers work in my local Superquinn. It's mostly men and women in their 40's and upwards... I think they even have part time workers who are pensioners who obviously didn't want to give up a working life.
I think this is great that he'd give older workers a job when a lot of other employers are secretly age-ist.
BTW, they don't get paid peanuts and they really like working there.

Dave

From what I understand superquinn employees get better pay that other people in similar jobs.

BolBill

Ha Ha Imagine NOT checking the facts out before sending off a mail

The Real B-man

Fair play to Fergal for Replying only in Ireland

Sleepy

Yep, Superquinn dfinitely treat their staff better than most of the other supermarkets. Remember Des Bishop's experience there? He said at the end of his series that if he had to go for a minimum wage type position again in his life, he'd definitely apply to Superquinn first...

skywalker_208

HAHA He sure told you!

monkeyfudge

It reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons with Ringo in his mansion patiently responding to every bit of fan mail he's ever received.

Also, those Dear John books are awful... They are a poor imitation of The Henry Root Letters, that's a very good book and well worth a read.

newgrange

I had occasion a few years ago to make a complaint about checkout procedure in one branch of Superquinn. Within four hours of putting my card in their response box, I had Feargal Quinn on the phone apologising. The man could teach others a great deal about customer care.

"Supervalu - shopping as it should be..." - dear Jesus say it isn't true.

Sleepy

WHy is it that every time I see the thread title I hear Big Gay Al in my head?

woosaysdan

i thought he would of sent you on free sausages!!! free sausages would of been a nice idea!!! uuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm sausages!!!!!!!!

seamus

Dave wrote:

From what I understand superquinn employees get better pay that other people in similar jobs.

Nah, the part-time employees at least, get much less than those in Dunnes or Tesco.

pickarooney

monkeyfudge wrote:

It reminds me of the episode of The Simpsons with Ringo in his mansion patiently responding to every bit of fan mail he's ever received.

Also, those Dear John books are awful... They are a poor imitation of The Henry Root Letters, that's a very good book and well worth a read.

Haven't read it, but it sounds like a bit of a cog of Ted L. Nancy.

weemcd

Feargal Quinn wrote:

So the sausage-lovers may rest easy!

teeeheheeee

captainplanet

i hope you're all being paid to advertise for superquinn, cause right now i REALLY want to quit and work there and/or by their sausages. good job.

boo4842

Sleepy wrote:

It's what he's always built his business on: taking time to be nice to customers. Remember this guy is world famous for a reason, despite only opperating in a small country like ours, some of his business practices have been copied widely. His book "Crowning the Customer" is an interesting read and is considered the manual on customer care.

I must say that I much prefer to shop in Superquinn in comparison to the competition. I prefer the products, layout of the store, quality and service to that of any other chain in Ireland. Its an added bonus that its Irish too, but its not really why I shop there. I've had a lot of people tell me that Tesco is cheaper, but I really don't see it, and its worth a few cents to shop at SQ, and I used to work at Tesco. I can't justify shopping at Lidl or Aldi, as I find the products far inferior, the stores are a mess, and the checkout and service is horrible. I've gone in there more than once to buy 2 things and just walked out, as the queues are about 15 mins long.