Supermarkets discussion

[Blindtraveler]

I could have found plenty of use for the Glenfiddich but far less for the Pringles

 

[DerekC]

Even with modern systems you still get errors, garbage data is garbage data no matter how it's entered or carried. At my wife's branch one of the partners accidentally ordered 120 boxes of expensive prawns instead of 12, and by the time they came it was too late to return them (even if accepted). Opps!

Reminds me of when my daughter accidentally ordered 10kg of bananas instead of ten. Somebody in the store saw an opportunity and the whole lot were a bit on the ripe side. Six months supply of banana loaf in the freezer!

 

[dgl]

I would have thought that driving a Ferrari like a 2CV would cause an accident quite quickly, when you've got no power it's rev it to the max!

 

[takno]

"Allocations" were the bane of my life. I remember receiving the promotions sheets and if Pringles were on it, my heart would sink; they just didn't sell in our store and we'd end up with case after case sitting in the stock room. They'd also change the barcodes every now and again so that the ones we did have didn't work with the new promotions...

The other one that they kept flinging at us was Glenfiddich.

That would be an alright evening in. I suspect the promotion wasn't good enough to make it worth doing though

 

[Ediswan]

They meant to order something like 300 boxes of 6 mince pies, but accidentally ordered 300 cases of 6 boxes of 6 mince pies. They had a best before date of the end of January so they still had piles of them long after Christmas on 5p clearance.

I was told that shortly before the Municipal Borough of Edmonton was due to be merged into the London Borough of Enfield, they ordered a final batch of 10 000 pre-printed envelopes, showing the address of the soon to be closed town hall. Problem was, they ordered 10 000 gross. A further order was placed for sticky labels showing the new address.

 

[dgl]

A strange thing happened today in a supermarket I went into where they were giving out free milk, 2 pints of CO-OP semi-skimmed, still well in date with the 30th on them.

Why was the milk free you ask?, well said supermarket was a Morrison's!, obviously a stuffed up delivery and as I suppose they can't sell it as it's not on their system free it is.

 

[SteveM70]

A strange thing happened today in a supermarket I went into where they were giving out free milk, 2 pints of CO-OP semi-skimmed, still well in date with the 30th on them.

Why was the milk free you ask?, well said supermarket was a Morrison's!, obviously a stuffed up delivery and as I suppose they can't sell it as it's not on their system free it is.

Interesting.

Blame Arla and/or their haulier for that one. But its strange, when I've worked in retail logistics we'd occasionally get stuff like that - I can remember a load of Coop branded coffee being delivered to a Makro warehouse, and at Coop we got some Tesco branded crisps, but the policies at both were to reject the stock if it was noticed while the driver was still there, or quarantine it for uplift if it wasn't. Wonder why Morrisons didn't do that, or maybe milk is direct to store for them

 

[Silver Cobra]

That's happened to us a few times in the last year or two (we get milk deliveries directly from Arla via a third party haulier). We mostly land up with either Morrisons or Aldi milk by accident when it does happen. In an ideal world the warehouse colleagues would spot it and pass it back to the delivery driver before they leave, but with the time pressure they're often under to sort out the warehouse and yard, they just chuck it all straight in to the backroom chillers without checking it. As such I'm normally the one who spots it in the backroom the next day. Since we can't sell it, the erroneous milk is either put in the colleague canteen or given to colleagues for free. In the end of the day we've been billed for it and are unlikely to be able to return it, so better to use it in this way than waste it.

 

[SteveM70]

In the end of the day we've been billed for it and are unlikely to be able to return it, so better to use it in this way than waste it

I doubt you'd pay for it.

The supermarket systems are configured so that when the vendor invoice comes in it's matched for price against the purchase order, and matched for quantity against what's been receipted. In your case surely there would be no receipt transaction because you know it's the wrong stock? If it was receipted and paid for, you'd then have to do a massive stock correction to get it off your book stock and that would probably raise a bunch of questions and leave you financially worse off.

(Apologies for delving into supermarket system stuff)

 

[RuddA]

A small shop in Orkney rather than a supermarket, but an example today of when an order is incorrectly placed

Orkney shop orders more Easter eggs than population

An ordering slip-up has left the shop on Sanday desperately trying to get rid of more than 700 eggs.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[philthetube]

They still have manual store ordering?

Most of the major chains have got rid of it completely, with most ordering completely automated other than one-off specials and a few other exceptions

My local coop in East Lancs had a load of water softener on offer, nobody in East Lancs would be daft enough to order it as the water is as soft as a baby's bum, had to be a machine mistake

 

[takno]

My local coop in East Lancs had a load of water softener on offer, nobody in East Lancs would be daft enough to order it as the water is as soft as a baby's bum, had to be a machine mistake

You wouldn't believe the amount of dishwasher salt and softener people waste in soft water areas. Most people seem to have little or no idea how hard the water in their area is, or in fact about the fact that water softener just doesn't work on already-soft water.

 

[jon81uk]

My local coop in East Lancs had a load of water softener on offer, nobody in East Lancs would be daft enough to order it as the water is as soft as a baby's bum, had to be a machine mistake

What is the water softener product? Usually a water softener is a machine you add salt into.

Unless you mean fabric softener for making clothes soft which is a completely different thing.

 

[birchesgreen]

What is the water softener product? Usually a water softener is a machine you add salt into.

Unless you mean fabric softener for making clothes soft which is a completely different thing.

For hard water.

I wouldn't assume that because you think your water was soft for years that it will always remain so. Brum has been mixed for ages now.

 

[jon81uk]

For hard water.

I wouldn't assume that because you think your water was soft for years that it will always remain so. Brum has been mixed for ages now.

But what is the product you add to hard water to make it soft? The previous poster mentioned the co-op had a load of "water softener" on offer, but I don't think that exists as a product and I don't think Co-Op sells the machines.

I have a water softener but its a machine sat under the sink that softens the water and then uses salt to regenerate.

 

[JamesT]

But what is the product you add to hard water to make it soft? The previous poster mentioned the co-op had a load of "water softener" on offer, but I don't think that exists as a product and I don't think Co-Op sells the machines.

I have a water softener but its a machine sat under the sink that softens the water and then uses salt to regenerate.

Bags of salt for dishwashers? Or those filters that go in water jugs?

 

[birchesgreen]

You can get packs of water softener powder you can add to the washing machine as well as other items.

 

[GusB]

What is the water softener product? Usually a water softener is a machine you add salt into.

Unless you mean fabric softener for making clothes soft which is a completely different thing.

I assume they mean something like Calgon.

 

[jon81uk]

I assume they mean something like Calgon.

Ah yes, I always think of that as limescale remover, but I guess yes it does that by softening the water! Also most of the time its just referred to by its brand name.

 

[507021]

I could have found plenty of use for the Glenfiddich but far less for the Pringles

You and me both!

 

[D6130]

But it did cause the funniest moment of my time at the Coop and at the same time teach me a lesson about different perceptions of the word essential

Hebden Bridge type woman walks up to the pop-up shop in Royd (it looked like a portakabin with a serving hatch)

Her - oh, what’s this then?

Me - best we can do till the flood damage is fixed. We’ve got the essentials though

Her - good, I’ll take a jar of red pesto

Me - ah, we don’t have that. I can try and get some from another store for tomorrow though

Her - don’t worry, green pesto will have to do

That may well have been my wife!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

If you go to a large supermarket in France, one of the items almost every shop has on their rotisserie section is smoked chickens. If just one of the UK chains were to start offering this, I reckon they'd make an absolute killing... particularly if they tried it somewhere like Lincoln or Boston where there are large numbers of immigrants from Eastern Europe. As far as I've been able to tell, the best place to get smoked chicken in the UK is from your local Polish shop, and this is usually pre-cooked and cold.

 

[david1212]

Yesterday in Aldi all 8 self-service checkouts were open again instead of only 4 for the last few weeks.

Time will tell if a one-off for Easter or the end of the trial to see if losses are reduced.

Regarding the 20 item limit for self-service checkouts there has never been an announcement or the appearance of prominent notice. Yesterday I did not see if anyone with a large number of items was directed to the manned checkouts.

 

[py_megapixel]

An extremely random thought I've had.

I've been into a few Tesco stores recently where the fresh bakery items are discounted after 17:00, presumably as a waste reduction measure. Today I wanted to purchase such an item at 16:56 so I waited four minutes for the discount to become available.

This made me think of the London Underground fare system - specifically the fact that they advertise that the morning peak ends at 09:30, but actually start charging off-peak fares a few minutes before that. Does Tesco do something similar - i.e. make the timed bakery discount actually start a few minutes earlier than advertised to avoid customer dissatisfaction? In other words, was it actually necessary for me to wait those 4 minutes or could I have received the discount slightly earlier?

 

[hexagon789]

An extremely random thought I've had.

I've been into a few Tesco stores recently where the fresh bakery items are discounted after 17:00, presumably as a waste reduction measure. Today I wanted to purchase such an item at 16:56 so I waited four minutes for the discount to become available.

This made me think of the London Underground fare system - specifically the fact that they advertise that the morning peak ends at 09:30, but actually start charging off-peak fares a few minutes before that. Does Tesco do something similar - i.e. make the timed bakery discount actually start a few minutes earlier than advertised to avoid customer dissatisfaction? In other words, was it actually necessary for me to wait those 4 minutes or could I have received the discount slightly earlier?

Did you have to ask a staff member to physically mark the item down further or is this some local store initiative of automatic reduction?

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Did you have to ask a staff member to physically mark the item down further or is this some local store initiative of automatic reduction?

My local Tesco supermarket has an in-store bakery but no loose products since Covid (that I can remember seeing), the open baskets disappeared and everything is packed in paper bags / clear cellophane / boxes and discounts use yellow stickers throughout the day.

At a Tesco Express last week (Shrewsbury) I saw a similar notice along the lines of 'all fresh bakery items reduced after 1700'. That store doesn't have an in-store bakery but does have loose bakery products in baskets (such a croissants) which you bag yourself. I guess for loose items it's difficult to yellow sticker them unless you also bag them. The express store also had some pre-packed bakery products yellow stickered.

 

[py_megapixel]

Did you have to ask a staff member to physically mark the item down further or is this some local store initiative of automatic reduction?

At a Tesco Express last week (Shrewsbury) I saw a similar notice along the lines of 'all fresh bakery items reduced after 1700'. That store doesn't have an in-store bakery but does have loose bakery products in baskets (such a croissants) which you bag yourself. I guess for loose items it's difficult to yellow sticker them unless you also bag them. The express store also had some pre-packed bakery products yellow stickered.

I entered it at the self checkout machine and it applied the discount automatically - no yellow stickers involved.

 

[hexagon789]

My local Tesco supermarket has an in-store bakery but no loose products since Covid (that I can remember seeing), the open baskets disappeared and everything is packed in paper bags / clear cellophane / boxes and discounts use yellow stickers throughout the day.

At a Tesco Express last week (Shrewsbury) I saw a similar notice along the lines of 'all fresh bakery items reduced after 1700'. That store doesn't have an in-store bakery but does have loose bakery products in baskets (such a croissants) which you bag yourself. I guess for loose items it's difficult to yellow sticker them unless you also bag them. The express store also had some pre-packed bakery products yellow stickered.

I entered it at the self checkout machine and it applied the discount automatically - no yellow stickers involved.

I've only ever seen manually labelled reductions, so I'm now curious to see I this automatic discount applies in my local

 

[davehsug]

An extremely random thought I've had.

I've been into a few Tesco stores recently where the fresh bakery items are discounted after 17:00, presumably as a waste reduction measure. Today I wanted to purchase such an item at 16:56 so I waited four minutes for the discount to become available.

This made me think of the London Underground fare system - specifically the fact that they advertise that the morning peak ends at 09:30, but actually start charging off-peak fares a few minutes before that. Does Tesco do something similar - i.e. make the timed bakery discount actually start a few minutes earlier than advertised to avoid customer dissatisfaction? In other words, was it actually necessary for me to wait those 4 minutes or could I have received the discount slightly earlier?

I happened to be in Morrisons this afternoon whilst amongst other stuff, fresh cream cakes were being marked down heavly, to 21p! They were being put in the reduced chilled section, and the assistant had a barrier around him. Although I was only looking, I was told that if I wanted anything, I'd have to join the queue at the top of the aisle. Sure enough there was a queue of about a dozen people there. I didn't hang around.

 

[GusB]

I happened to be in Morrisons this afternoon whilst amongst other stuff, fresh cream cakes were being marked down heavly, to 21p! They were being put in the reduced chilled section, and the assistant had a barrier around him. Although I was only looking, I was told that if I wanted anything, I'd have to join the queue at the top of the aisle. Sure enough there was a queue of about a dozen people there. I didn't hang around.

I can certainly understand the need for a barrier; I often wished that I had a force field that zapped anyone who came near me when I was carrying out price reductions!

Back then (almost 30 years now - eek!) it was still a fairly manual process. We had to cover the barcode with a red label (it told the till that the item was reduced) and manually write out the "from" and "to" prices on a separate label. Once the item got to the checkout, the red label was scanned, the reduced price was entered by the cashier and then the red barcode was removed and the item scanned again (telling the till what it was). It was a major pain in the backside all round.

On top of that, all items that were reduced had to be manually recorded on an FC - freshness control - form (of which there were four types, depending on the perishability of the goods). Inevitably you'd get customers coming up to you with something that was dated for that day and asking if it'd be reduced. Much as I'd liked to have said "sorry, I haven't done that bit yet - you'll have to wait", it was in my best interests to get it reduced and sold; however, it meant a trip to relevant section to get the price and then a trip to the office to pick up the form that I wasn't carrying with me at the time... I really should have insisted on payment by the mile, rather than the hour!

I have to say that if Tesco have introduced a system that automates this process, it's a big bonus for the staff that would normally have to do it manually.