Re: Result!

Which is very worrying. Hell you even work in the same places.

You are quite right from the perspective of an investor. I already explained to you that I am not an investor in the retail sector but a customer. This means that I get to choose who I do business with. With me so far? It's not really of any interest to me whether Morrisons is profitable or not, only whether they have what I want to buy (they don't) and the level of service I expect (they don't).

I'm not having any problems at all, so I don't know where you are getting that idea.

I haven't seen any such claims.

I've seen them say that they could possibly have 'up to 10%' - but with no committment to actually deliver that and no timescales quoted.

'Much' being a handful of stores which didn't fit their demographic, whilst opening at least as many in areas which do fit.

Why not? - they're an increasingly important part of the market.

Hence your often quoted M&S opening up 'Simply Foods' stores at a rapid rate in recent years.

They say they'll have a store in every town in the next 15-20 years.

Spar are going down the pan rapidly, as are all the franchised local stores - they're being replaced by discounters, Tesco Express, Sainsbury's Local, Somerfield forecourts and Simply Foods.

Almost every town around here has a Lidl or Aldi these days.

Ah, I suppose it reflects on me that I only noticed things around their wine range...

I'm really puzzled as to what you expect and / or need out of a food store.

Obviously, you like the 'snob value' of Simply Foods, however, Morrison's fresh quality is significantly better than that of the rest of the 'big 4', and their service standards make Tesco's '1 in front' policy look like a joke - I can get to a Morrison's 12 miles away, do a shop and get home, in the same time it takes to do a shop (and queue at the tills) at a Tesco only 2 miles away.

You're new round here aren't you ? (uk.d-i-y)

Well, one of the links was from the Guardian, so in Andy's view that invalidates it automatically.......

I'm not sure what happens if a Guardian (or Observer) story supports his opinions (or 'the facts' as he seems to think of them). It's probably going to be a similar scene to asking a computer in a bad 60's SF film to calculate Pi exactly, lots of flashing lights and a big cloud of black smoke.

Phil Young

Hint: You don't have to 'work in retail' to have another business reason to be interested.

By most normal definitions, you do.

And Steve, despite the piss-taking he gets for it, actually seems to be rather good at his job.

Thanks for sharing that incisive summation with us.

Any more guesses, while you're on your "I'm going to make myself look stupid" crusade?

Fine, fine. Carry on marching out of step with reality, then. Say you don't like their products, their stores, their staff, but don't call them a failure because it makes you look stupid.

It shows you're perceptive.

Look I'll spell it out for you.

Once someone can persuade people to try my wifes product sales usually boom quickly.

Now do you understand?

So you should.

Also Waitrose invest in the development of farming techniques, training their suppliers and generally have an 'ethical' approach to business that I prefer to the 'rape and pillage' techniques of most supermarkets.

LAldidl on the other hand source from whoever is willing to cut prices to the bone, no matter how it is done. Buying from those stores is a fair way to ensure someone in the chain is exploited.

I can only feel pity for their victimes.

They really did change. I have no idea if they changed because they sacked some or all of the buyers or if they simply ran them under different rules, but the Wine section in Morrisons bore and bears little relation to the one at Safeway. They also changed the range of beers which used to be good and now seems to be canned lager to the exclusion of all else.

All I suspect that I'm seeing here is people to whom wine is red liquid in a bottle and food is something with a crust arguing that nothing has changed because they stuff they want is still on the shelves.

I would regard that as tertiary. Nonetheless, they are doing it properly.

They say a lot of things.

I wouldn't group those together. The only one that I might use for some items for lunch occasionally is Simply Foods.

If it replaces Spar, that is just about an improvement. I don't think I've bought anything in a Spar shop for five years.