Some of both. Mostly the former.
I avoid the own brand items because generally they are rubbish, with the exception of Tescos Finest, and equivalents which generally are good.
Do Aldi and Lidl have major brand products? When I last looked in one, some while ago, they only had cheap own brands. .andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
In message , Andy Hall writes
Brunel campus in the 70's. All the supermarkets were in Uxbridge a not insignificant walk away. Obvious solution to many poor students was to transport the MacFisheries purchases home in one of their trolleys.
In message , Andy Hall writes
That's what they appear to have at Sainsbury at Locksbottom - didn't stop my trolley when I tried it. :(
To me it's really annoying. Last time I went to a Homebase, I found this and asked the manager to supply me with a trolley which he duly did using a key to unlock it. I pointed out to him that if he can't trust me with his trolley then I don't trust him with what I might put in it.
There was some story about trollies rolling around in the carpark and damaging cars.... complete rubbish. They don't have enough places to stow them after use.
I doubt if I will shop there again.... They are expensive on most things anyway.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
OK, so charge a £20 deposit to those wishing to do this.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
In message , Andy Hall writes
Where is the quality in a bottle of flavored carbonated sugar water?
I think you've been caught by the same advertising that results in the poor in developing countries buying Coca Cola rather than food because they see it as westernised and therefore better for them. :(
But still not as irritating as finding trolleys all over the car park because hardly anyone puts them away. I wish my local sainsburys would have deposit trolleys.
When I was a child we used to do that, but we MADE our own transport out of old perambulators (the younger members of this group might need to google to see what a perambulator looks like !....), life for kids has not been the same since the 'push chair' came along...
Hear hear. If it stops Victor Meldrew^H^H^H^H^H^H^^HH^H^H^H^H^H^H Andy shopping there where we can hear the moaning, perhaps that's a bonus! :-)
Quite true, and *some* of their own brand 'Value' (...) type of ranges are the *same* as their own brand non value range [1], if you get my drift....
[1] off the same packaging line, the difference is in the label AIUI.
My local one did.
It caused so much hassle, they took them out again.
You have hit one of the nail squarely on the head there, those store car parks that have coin released trolleys don't have the trolleys left all over the place, those that don't use coin released trolleys do seem to have the trolleys left were the user parked - often blocking other car parking spaces and thus causing even more congestion on busy days.
ISTM that some people who don't like coin released trolleys also don't like having to return trolleys back to were they should be left......
So *you* would prefer to hand over a £20 deposit before you could use a trolley or perhaps you would prefer to have all the prices rise to pay the wages of the people monitoring and surcharging those leaving the supermarket area with a trolley and return other peoples deposits when they don't leave with a trolley, rather than put a £1 coin into a slot - strange person....
In one sentence you have shown that you know sod all about what you are talking about, and I say that with a family history of 50 plus years in the food industry.
"Andy Hall" wrote | Why on earth anybody would want to take a supermarket trolley | home I have no idea.
I borrowed one once to move house as I didn't have access to a car.
But I took it back afterwards.
Owain
"Andy Hall" wrote | Well, OK, then make a feature of it and charge those that do | want to take them home a returnable deposit of a tenner or | something that is enough to encourage return.
But then the shop would have to employ a Trolley Commissionaire, and on their profit margins it would be uneconomic.
And in some of those neighbourhoods (a) a tenner for the trolley would be more than the customer can spend on a week's food (b) anyone pushing a trolley that's returnable for a tenner would get mugged by someone wanting their next fix.
Owain
"Bob Eager" wrote | Hear hear. If it stops Victor Meldrew^H^H^H^H^H^H^^HH^H^H^H^H^H^H | Andy shopping there where we can hear the moaning, perhaps that's a | bonus! :-)
I don't want to get into pseudo-text-editor wars but I think ^W^W is a generally acceptable substitute for ^H^H^H^H^H^H^^HH^H^H^H^H^H^H ?
Owain
I don't buy Coke or any of that sugary crud anyhow - I know you are paying for the name/advertising there. I was referring to products like meat, fish, eggs, milk etc. I don't care for brand names either.
In message , StealthUK wrote
The farmers claim that they get nothing for their produce so the only difference between the expensive prices you pay at Tesco/Sainsbury/Waitrose/Adsa and the cheaper prices you pay at Lidl/Aldi/Farmfoods is down to the operating costs and profit margins. Expensive doesn't always equate to quality - it's just that the middleman is taking a larger slice of the price you pay.
With the so called down-market supermarkets you don't free carrier bags. You don't get 'if there is one in front of you we will open another till' (over staffing). You don't get in-store bakeries re-heating 'home made' ingredients that have been mass produced in a factory. You don't get loyalty cards which must cost much more than the one or two percent discount the expensive supermarkets give you on your spend. You can't pay by credit card because that adds a few more percent to the price. You don't get the choice of 100 different bottled waters as one or two is enough. You don't get extra staff unpacking the boxes as it's cheaper to dump the palette of goods on the sales floor and let the customer put them in the basket. You will not get double size parking spaces reserved for mothers with their screaming brats.
Many of the cost savings are one or two percent and when added together you can see why these stores can be substantially cheaper.
Except my experience is that Lidl/Aldi etc. are only cheaper on brand name products and for most goods the previous set had own label products cheaper than those brand-label ones.
Lidl/Aldi/FarmFoods are tiny compared Tesco and Asda, the extra buying power is probably worth a lot more than a couple of %.
Jim.
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