Has Sainsbury's lost it?

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

R D S laid this down on his screen :

Fortunately, that is simply not true. We use all of the supermarkets, buying what ever suits us the best. We have a brand new local Lidl and it is our preffered source for many things, well laid laid, a nice environment - certainly the equal of Waitrose and Sainsbury.

I have needed to drink more the past couple of years and water doesn't cut it with me, so I began buying the 'No Added Sugar' orange drinks to dilute - being borderline T2. I tried Robinson's and few others settling on the Kia Ora, 4 to 1, but they stopped aking it in the UK. Recently I tried not expecting much the Aldi 9 to 1 version at around

90p for 1.5L. Its the best I have tasted so far. Lidl sell shelled mixed nuts, in sealed bags at a good price, I have bought several bags of them and every single nut as been absolutely fresh, something I have never come across no matter where I have bought them or how much I have paid. Lidle ginger nut biscuits, 25p for a large pack. Tesco £1 for a pack 2/3rds the size and not nearly as nice. Never had a bad Sunday joint from Lidl.

The same applies to many other things. We do however, never buy fruit or veg from either Lidl or Aldi, we get those from the Coop.

[Michael Chare]

How hot an oven do you need to make a pizza?

[Swer]

Doesn?t work so well in mine. They wait far too long before opening a new one and the new one closes much too quickly. And I hate the fact that they have no self checkouts at all.

[Mathew Newton]

At least they got rid of the only roundabout I've ever seen that people didn't think twice about parking on (whilst nipping in to the Tesco Express next to it)... ;-)

[Gareth's was W7 now W10 Downst]

Come back the Wiltshire Bacon Factory, all is forgiven :-)

[Steve Walker]

Do you mean parking around the outside edge of it, like this one?

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4576601,-2.3568672,19.16z?hl=en If you drop into streetview, you'll see parking spaces marked around part of it and a bus stop on the other side of it.

SteveW

[alan_m]

I find the waiting time in checkout queues at Tesco and Sainsbury far exceed those in the German discounters

Most self checkouts seem to need a permanent member of staff present to help out when they go wrong and/or to help when people don't know how to use them.

[alan_m]

+1

I'm also getting pissed off with the argos approach where they take order and money and then I have to wait until the staff in the hidden warehouse finish their tea break before finding the items.

[Mathew Newton]

Similar, but this one didn't have marked bays - people would just stop in the actual carriageway ('cos I won't be long!'). Here's the Streetview:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.4636747,-2.1168364,3a,60y,171.33h,74.26t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCo3XidTAgaZoODlVOGXw0Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en (Unfortunately no-one caught in the act here, although there is someone parked further on; still on double-yellows mind! ;-))

Given it's relatively quiet location it's not the biggest crime, but given someone on the Internet just happened to mention a road junction hidden away in a town that I'd just happened to have driven by a few times I felt compelled to comment and this was the most notable memory I had of it!

[Steve Walker]

Ah, that is a stupid place to park.

SteveW

[spuorgelgoog]

Legal requirement for alcohol and other "staff must be present" sales.

Owain

[michael adams]

IME experience that can depend on the time of day. For anyone fortunate enough to be able to choose their own time, in my local branch at least turning up as late as possible (on weekdays anyway) seems to do the trick.

Possbly a lot of these people aren't going to buy stuff late on, if it means leaving it the van overnight.

michael adams

...

[tabbypurr]

and practical requirement to reduce thefts.

NT

[michael adams]

That depends on the variety. A lot of Baxters soups, Lobster Bisque, Beef Consomme are supposed to be thin. Such soups aren't supposed to be filling but to serve as an introductory course to a meal. And possibly to impress one's guests.

If you want thick soup, aside from adding cornflour which doesn't do much else, buy a bag of dried vegetables; or just dried barley, Soak this ovenight and then boil until soft. Just add as much as you want to any soup. The rest can be kept in a bowl in the fridge.

This is from a long time ago so I can't remember exactly how long the soaking or boiling took.

michael adams

...

[Brian Gaff]

I'm afraid logic is not what I associate with the retail trade unless its a corner shop where the attitude and mood of the assistant hit his or her pay cheque

I do detect that a number of employees these days take the view, I am far more important than to demean myself on scanning goods though. She was probably employed as an undermanager or something, a post only needed because they had cut managers who were now expected, for the same money to manage several shops. British companies do not treat their staff very well, its no wonder they take the view they do, just look at the Royal Mail!

Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes that is because people only come in and buy the special offers then go down the road to one of the German companies for the rest. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

And how is that the fault of a supermarket? Brian

[Jethro_uk]

To do it properly well over 300C. You can get a circular electric pizza oven from Amazon

[Max Demian]

ASDA seem to have stopped weighting purchases, presumably to prevent the dreaded "unexpected item in the bagging area", so they trust us.

[spuorgelgoog]

My experience of Asda is that the scale isn't properly linked to the scanner.

"unexpected item in the bagging area"

<remove item>

"please replace item in the bagging area"

Asda are also the only supermarket that (sometimes) use reduction labels without barcodes, so a staffperson has to be called over to type the barcode and a reduction code. Morrinsons' reductions *always* scan correctly. Tesco's are a bit hit and miss depending on whether the label was squint in the printer.

Owain