Re: Result!

[The Older Gentleman]

God, I'd forgotten completely about Booker. How are the mighty fallen.

[:Jerry:]

WWWWHHHHHOOOOOSSSSSHHHH......

[:Jerry:]

Even more truth in the part you snipped (without acknowledgement) though...

[The Older Gentleman]

Wrong. It suggests that Iceland was correct to sell them. Its business model might have been wrong at the time, but that time was a while back, when they sold the stores, wasn't it?

And in another word, which you rubbished: demographics.

[Steve Firth]

Indeed I recall it well. No supermarket involved was guilty of specifying that Sudan 1 was to be used in their food, and as soon as it was discovered they removed the product from their shelves. In the case of the contaminated lamb that you mention (odd no one worries about scrapie) again a supplier contaminated the food and the supermarket reacted appropriately.

The Aldi and Lidl case is different. The supermarket supplied under its own brand oil that wasn't jsut contaminated it wasn't what was stated on the label. The oil sold in the supermarket for less than the farm gate price for such oil, something that the buyers must have been aware of. A clear sign that it was not what it purported to be. It was sold as having a particular origin, indeed the 'origin' was changed to suit the whim of the supermarket when the buyers must have known that it did not, indeed could not have that origin. When confronted with the news both supermarkets continued to sell the oil and it can be bought today, unchanged in every respect.

The case is in a different league from any accidental contamination both in detail and in terms of how the supermarkets handled the discovery.

Both supermarkets rely upon the ignorance of the customer who apparently cannot tell 'Aosta' ham and salami made in Germany from Aosta ham and salami (here's a hint the versions sold in German supermarket chains are rancid and made from reconstituted chopped meat). Nor indeed can their customers tell the difference between coffee and burnt woodshavings if the stuff on offer is anything to go by.

You might be happy eating food from a supplier that cynically relies on adulteration to get costs down. I'm not.

[Steve Firth]

In your not so humble and IMO ignorant opinion.

[:Jerry:]

Liar

Fran wrote:

I remember when the West Midlands Co-Op got done, oh, maybe 15 years ago.

Fresh fruit and veg. IIRC, the then chief executive of the WMCO and the fresh produce buying director, as well as the chief executive of the fruit and veg supplier who was paying a bung of 5p per tray of fruit and veg sold to every West Midlands Co-Op store[1], all wound up in jail.

The supplier said in court, and this I believed, that the buyer waited until he'd got all set up for the new supply contract, bought new vehicles, hired new staff, etc and then put on the bite. And he had no choice but to comply.

The scheme unravelled because the Inland Revenue found that the buyer had a nice villa in Spain, and wondered how he'd been able to afford it on his salary.

[1] And that soon adds up, even at 5p a time, believe me.

[Fran]

Oh God. What part of different demographics in different areas do you not get?

[Fran]

If what you claim is true, then how come Trading Standards are ignoring this? And the EU come to that.

How many branches of either in Abruzzo, one wonders.

[Cab]

It'll be easier with RFID tags, when they come down in price. Then shops can get rid of most of the staff in stores.

[Steve Firth]

Do you close your eyes every time you pass the pie stall? Or indeed the entire food area which is as relentlessly downmarket as anything I've seen. Safeway used to have a decent reputation for food and drink, Morrisons ditched the baby with the bathwater when they took over. Within a month the shelves had been cleared of that embarassingly decent selection of food and the Morrisons branded high-fat offal tubes had been moved in to replace it.

The wine section was ruined beyond belief. I presume they sacked the wine buyer who doing a decent job. They certainly did at Bookers when the wine section went from "good enough to supply the needs of an independent restaurant" to "f*ck me I wouldn't rub that on a horse."

[The Older Gentleman]

Nobody said it was, and you didn't raise the issue until now.

[The Older Gentleman]

Nope.

[The Older Gentleman]

You have looked at the links I posted elsewhere in this thread, haven't you? And you do know this particular store well, do you?

[The Older Gentleman]

Nope. Read again.

[SteveH]

Erm, maybe. It was definitely Russell Ford's baby. I'd had a run in with him when he was MD of the white goods division, so raised a glass when he was pushed out the door over the organic veg. episode.

Christ, now you're asking - it was a long time ago, but I vaguely recall profits halving from around £70m to £35-£40m around that time.

[SteveH]

I think 'demographics' is too long a word for him to read....

[SteveH]

Erm, that was Morrison's of old. Now Sir Ken has gone, they've moved on

- although they'll still have 'Ye Olde Pie Shoppe', the stained glass and wood is out and they're continually developing and expanding the ex-Safeway 'Best' range.

[SteveH]

Work in progress is all I can say.

[ogden]

No, I walk round with a zapper. Pick up, zap, place in bag.