OT-ish B&Q automated checkout

[F]

Never full around here, and usually more staff than customers.

Their 'special offers' are often more expensive than 'normal' prices elsewhere.

[stuart noble]

Christ, what a way to live eh?

[stuart noble]

+! I can see it saving me money

[stuart noble]

Her indoors is of the opinion that quality is standard across all the supermarkets, and prices are determined solely by the number of staff standing about waiting to be helpful. In that respect I think Sainsburys have too many chiefs and far too many Indians.

[The Natural Philosopher]

her indoors had to be told that yes, at Waitrose the price per gram/100g/kilogram/sheet of bog paper is displayed below every item so you can easily see that 'green' washing up liquid is 3 times as expensive as green washing up liquid..so I wouln't trust her judgement on anything.

"Oh look she said "They do instant coffee in bags to refill your jar" "yes, but its more expensive than in the jar"...sigh.

And she still thinks that 30% off £4 is a bargain, whereas paying £2 is not.

I walked round LIDL and ALDI looking at basic stuff. It was all more expensive than waitrose.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Their checkouts are generally quicker - but usually not so many in use - and everyone seems to have a trolley full to the gunnels.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All that says is you never do the shopping. Or stick to Harrods.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I was right that you never do the shopping. Pretty well all supermarkets display a price per gram or whatever to allow you to compare actual cost.

[Dave W]

If I'm expected to do the cashiers work for them, I would expect some sort of discount.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well actually no. I hsavbe visited both once. Checing the prices I knew I could get elsewhere. They had rubbish products that were not cheap.

Perhaps they are cheaper than Tescos, but I don't shop there either.

I do the shopping regularly - at least 50% of it.,

[The Natural Philosopher]

what is that supposed to mean? I merely pointed out that despite years of shopping my wife was unaware of that fact.

You really are an unpleasant fellow, changing the argument to suit your politics all the time, and never actually responding to the points made.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

You must have a very different Lidl to the one I use. And if you've only visited them once, how can you possibly know all their products were rubbish? And it would have taken ages to compare value for all of them.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

She probably takes her lead from you.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 13 April 2013 15:34 stuart noble wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I can categorically say that quality is *not* the same.

Sainsburies online shopping used to leave us with a lot of fresh produce that had 1-3 days of firdge life left. Some of those fruit and veg could barely last that long before going weird.

Similar with Tescos, from my them local store (where I get to pick the longest dates).

Waitrose (via Ocado) give me 2-7 days of fridge life and *most*[1] of the products are fresh and nice within that life and often for a few days more.

[1] Watermelons and strawberries are still rather variable.

I quite like Morrisons but they don't AFAICS do home delivery, and I lost interest in trudging round supermarkets years ago.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 13 April 2013 15:40 The Natural Philosopher wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I did email Ocado that I wished they would have a "sortby" price/unit (including taking into account the special offers).

They did not implement it...

I agree - some offers are actually very good - yes, I will buy 3 months of washing liquid or dishwasher powder if it is really the cheapest per wash.

However, if it means buying 3 lots of fruit that will die before anyone east it, it's a waste.

[The Medway Handyman]

Reasons Morrisons is the best;

Salad bar, build your own Pizza, great deli, huge selection of wine & beer, great breakfast in the cafe, they sell Cheeselets, brill in store bakery, great pies & stuff, excellent meat.

[Dave Liquorice]

The supermarkets must love her. I do all the shopping you really do have to watch the "offers" and compare the value of £1.70 for 120g or 2 for £3.00, against £3.50 for 300g. I'm sure they pick the numbers to mak e the maths hard to do in your head...

And it's not unknown for the same product to be in the chilled section and the froozen section at considerably different prices, which the offers can swing one way or the other...

I can't say I've noticed a any great difference in price between the Ald i and Tesco in Hexham. They are bang slap next to each other so you'd expect the pricing to be competative in the Aldi.

[Nightjar]

To be fair, some of them may be Portuguese. There is a colony of them in the area and the phonetics of Portuguese sounds much like some of the East European languages to me.

Colin Bignell

[Dave Liquorice]

Washing up liquid I only buy when the Co-op has it on offer. I'll then buy one everytime I go in for the duration of the offer, so that's about

3/week. We then have enough stock to last until the next offer. B-) IIRC the normal price is £1.80 the offer is normally £1.

Same with the cat food buy only on offer or I'll buy two instead of one

jar of coffee when it's on offer etc.

Some stuff is bought from Costco at silly prices:

Geetas Premium Mango Chutney £3.99 for 1.5 kg. Sunmaid Raisens £6.29 for 2 kg. Basmati Rice £17.99 for 20 kg. Decent quality dried pasta various £4.69 for 3 kg. Decent quality dried spaghetti 4.99 for 3 kg. Kikoman Soy Sauce £5.59 for 1.9 l.

True enough, perishables are bought as required in quantities that will

be consumed before they have gone too far.

[F]

You're not wrong: started up just a few miles away and Ken used to frequent the not-very-posh pub/restaurant just down the road. A very pleasant and approachable man with no airs and graces.