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Supermarkets discussion
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DannyMich2018
Member
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- 19 Dec 2018
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- 739
I've noticed that Asda certainly are getting more competitive on price and in my opinion if you've not got a Loyalty Card (Nectar, Clubcard, More Card) they are the best price store for a lot of items. Aldi in Hinckley seem to have a big problem retaining staff as they are always advertising and the staff which are there are so awfully miserable-seems to be a problem store- so I'm going there much less now and prefering Asda.
Silver Cobra
Member
Asda have also jumped onto the loyalty card band-wagon with the Asda Rewards scheme (all digital via an app; no physical cards are involved). Rather than reducing the cost of items up front in the vain of Clubcard/Nectar Prices, it gives you credit for particular products, either 10% of the value of the item or a set amount like a pound or two, with that credit then able to be used to make vouchers to give money off your shopping once you've accrued enough of it.
The irony is that Asda always used to say that they didn't have a loyalty card or reward scheme to enable them to offer the best prices up front compared to their rivals. I imagine the Issa Brothers decided to change that once they saw Lidl and Co-op join Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons in offering a rewards scheme/loyalty card. I believe only Aldi do not offer a loyalty card or rewards scheme of some sort (Waitrose has the My Waitrose scheme).
Live from the 14th floor of 1 Angel Square
Asda rewards is a game to a certain extent like Pokémon, well... sort of, plus they give away freebies from time to time.
I don't go 'looking' awards, but stumble across them.
The thing is to check the Asda awards app regularly to see your balance (and check for freebies) . I very nearly slipped up once as they expire after 6 months (I think) , and I had 2 days to cash in about £76.
Ugh. The only thing more irritating than a loyalty card is an app. I get that the deluded big-data wonks believe that if they can just get their next hit of data then they will discover the one big insight, and I understand that an app gets them access to more of my data and theoretically more of my attention.
At the end of the day though, the problem for shops is that I'm just not that into them. If pushed I'd have to admit that I'm not loyal - I've just being using them all along to get groceries.
Sainsbury’s having major IT problems today with some shops closed and home deliveries being cancelled.
www.gbnews.com
Sainsbury's hit by major tech failure with thousands of customers' orders impacted
The supermarket said it will be unable to fulfil the 'vast majority of today's Groceries Online deliveries'
www.gbnews.com
How bizarre it apparently affects contactless but not chip and pin payments in storeSainsbury’s having major IT problems today with some shops closed and home deliveries being cancelled.
Sainsbury's hit by major tech failure with thousands of customers' orders impacted
The supermarket said it will be unable to fulfil the 'vast majority of today's Groceries Online deliveries'
Would that be because contactless requires periodic bank verification based on recent transactions, but a correct pin is locally verified against coding on the card.
Thankfully my local Sainsbury's was open this morning - they had staff at the entrance letting people know about the paying-by-card problems, apparently customers could pay at the regular checkouts but needed to do chip-and-PIN. The self-checkouts which accepted cash were open but the ones which accepted card were closed. Big queues for the regular checkouts!Sainsbury’s having major IT problems today with some shops closed and home deliveries being cancelled.
Sainsbury's hit by major tech failure with thousands of customers' orders impacted
The supermarket said it will be unable to fulfil the 'vast majority of today's Groceries Online deliveries'
-Peter
Mcr Warrior
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Who'd have thunk it? Cash is still being accepted! 
It's quite possible they use a completely different provider for the two, or that they have a more basic backup provider which can't handle contactless. From the description of the disruption they seem to have lost their primary data centre, and somebody decided (possibly correctly) that full disaster recovery wasn't worth the cost
The pin is verified locally but it should still need an online authorisation from the bank in my (limited) understanding.
A backup provider is an good idea. I don't know in person payments at all, but having different providers for contactless and chip+pin on the same machine sounds odd, but given that the entire banking industry is a cursed house of cards waiting to fall down I could see it
Maybe large organisations like Sainsburys have an agreement to carry the risk of local only authorisation, just like Amazon will accept an order without 2nd ID verification.
Silver Cobra
Member
The irony with the Sainsburys store I tried to visit earlier today is that their cash machine outside wasn't working, and with no others nearby, anyone wanting to use cash to pay in the store who hadn't already got some was out of luck. I couldn't say if it was just a coincidence or if the fact that their cash machines are Sainsburys Bank machines links this problem to the main card processing problem in the store.
RJ
Established Member
It's affecting chip and pin too. I tried using an Amex and the RMT Visa card which both declined, but a Mastercard did work.
Software update overnight Friday into Saturday is crazy for a retailer.
Still have to stand up weekend hypercare and compared to Saturday night have the risk of doors opening at 6/7am rather than 10am so 3 or 4 less hours to identify / fix / roll back
Either do it Saturday night heading into the quietest morning of the week or keep it during the week so less staff are inconvenienced and less money is spent on overtime / days off in lieu etc
No, test the software update properly and have simple backout procedures following a test which demonstrates that the update hasn't worked. It's standard stuff that I did in the 1980s, and nothing has changed to make it invalid since then.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
It is at times like this when thankfully cash has not been ended as means of payment.Who'd have thunk it? Cash is still being accepted!
There was a major outage on the railway yesterday afternoon (around 3pm), then McDonald's had its issue, then Sainsbury's and now another supermarket? Before that Oyster was down at a number of stations too.
I'm not one for conspiracies, but I'm now wondering if there's something else going on and the Government is telling those impacted to play down the problem.
I'm not one for conspiracies, but I'm now wondering if there's something else going on and the Government is telling those impacted to play down the problem.
Xenophon PCDGS
Veteran Member
Have Tesco had any problems this weekend?
Yes. Maybe they were matching a Sainsbury's software update....
To be fair there isn't any indication that the updates weren't tested and didn't have a backout plan, it's just that these things don't always work. As I recall they didn't always work in the 90s either. I could equally believe that they've cut their operations staff to the bone, or have a software product which has been acquired in the past and doesn't support sensible ops requirements because nobody wanted to pay for it.
D6130
Established Member
Or....as the ultimate conspiracy theory....perhaps it's all part of Mr Putin's grand strategy to destabilise the Western economy? 
There was a big banking update last night so I've heard, maybe Sainsbury's or Tesco's used this organisation.
He doesn't need to, we will do it ourselves.Or....as the ultimate conspiracy theory....perhaps it's all part of Mr Putin's grand strategy to destabilise the Western economy?
D6130
Established Member
Very true!
birchesgreen
Established Member
They did a software update on a friday night??? That was always one of the biggest no-nos when i worked in software development, one reason being most developers are drunk by about 7pm on a friday night.
DynamicSpirit
Established Member
Interesting. The last couple of companies I worked for tended to view Friday nights/Saturday mornings as the best time to do software updates, on the basis that if something went wrong, you had the whole weekend to fix it. But that logic doesn't really work if you're a supermarket and your busiest day is probably going to be Saturday
Busaholic
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- 7 Jun 2014
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- 14,095
It's a funny conspiracy theory when it's his declared aim, unless you believe he's only kidding, like he was about 'taking back' Ukraine.Or....as the ultimate conspiracy theory....perhaps it's all part of Mr Putin's grand strategy to destabilise the Western economy?
