Tesco's and the constant maths test

[IanG]

Every time I go into my local tescos I feel I'm in a maths test.

How much do you really save on the 3 for 2 offers etc. If its a lot they print the saving, if its small they dont.

But also the price rises They had forgot to remove one of the labels and so, 1 kg of pasta had gone from £1.25 to £1.45. A 16% increase, and over the last 12months thats gone for 50 pence to 1.45.

It's not the increases, its the size of the increases. Tinned pasta went from 31 pence to 59 pence.

I really feel Tesco's are part of the evil empire, but there's very little choice where I live. Sainsburys or Waitrose, thats it.

It got me thinking about the causes of the increases, in the summer it was due to the high cost of fuel, but thats since gone down. Clearly sterling's fall must have an effect as we are net importers of food. Hell we even fly scampy that we catch in scotland to china to be de-shelled.

So with every new cause, Tesco hump up the price, but when the cause disappears, we don't see a fall, is it because the public become conditioned to the new prices?

It's not confined to my local tesco's, I'm travelling a bit at the moment for work and will stop at a tescos to buy lunch and breeze past the relevant isles to check to the prices. (Sad I know - but its got my curiosity)

Bread jumped up as well, so I'd guess the common link was wheat, but I know that the raw material cost Vs final price of a loaf of bread cannot alone justify the increases.

[biffvernon]

Every time I go into my local tescos...I really feel Tesco's are part of the evil empire, but there's very little choice where I live. Sainsburys or Waitrose, thats it.

I think the only thing to do about Tesco is to stop shopping there. Every little hurts.
Waitrose is an employee-owned co-operative. Become a member of the Co-op and you own the profits your shopping generates. Shop at local independant businesses and your money is more likely to recycle within your local community rather than sapping off to the Caymans.

[JohnB]

I think the only thing to do about Tesco is to stop shopping there. Every little hurts.
Waitrose is an employee-owned co-operative. Become a member of the Co-op and you own the profits your shopping generates. Shop at local independant businesses and your money is more likely to recycle within your local community rather than sapping off to the Caymans.

I've been in a lot of local shops on my travels, and many of them have a very limited range of products, mostly tinned and processed food. You certainly couldn't live a healthy life if you only shopped in many of them. I usually end up in a supermarket to get a decent range of products. I nearly always use the Co-op when I can find one, and have only used Tesco once when I was desperate (and suffered for it as I've related before ). For anyone used to paying Supermarket prices, Waitrose are very expensive.

I must admit I don't check prices much, and usually get annoyed by BOGOFs and 3 for 2s, as being on my own with little storage space I often can't take advantage of them.

Got to rush. Need to go to Morrisons, as I've run out of dog food!

[MisterE]

Best get use to them as ASDA and Tesco will dominate all retail in the UK over the next few years. My main beef with them is the level of processed food is insane, and its getting more and more processed.

[Papillon]

I really feel Tesco's are part of the evil empire, but there's very little choice where I live. Sainsburys or Waitrose, thats it.

Go to Waitrose for whatever you can afford! They look after their staff and their farmers MUCH better than Tesco's, and are part of the John Lewis Partnership.

http://www.waitrose.com/ourcompany/index.aspx

No, I don't work there, but know people who do and they've told me only good things about it!

As for local shopping, we have a few local shops here (SE London zone 3), that surprisingly, manage to supply us with almost everything we need. I can count the amout of times me and/or partner have been to a supermarket (the near 24 hours Asda) over the last six months, on one hand!

Also, very importantly, we've found out that our usual food items, were on the whole cheaper, or better value for money, in our local shop than Asda's! For example, parsley was cheaper, John West sardines in tomato sauce (I love them with tobasco ) was 59p in local shop and 64p in Asda. Not a big difference, but just to make a point. HP beans in tom sauce: 3 for a Pound in local shop - more expensive than Asda's cheapest economy range, but at least you get something half decent for 33p a tin, than Asda's nasty, cheap stuff for 24p or whatever. Anyway, you get the point.... Sorry for getting carried away

As for processed foods - yes, it is a problem. What we do to get our vitamins and goodness (and enzymes - very important!) is sprouting at home - especially alfalfa - it's cheap, easy and very healthy! Also, we brew kefir, which is easy peasy, takes 2.3 minutes of your time and you get a delicious probiotic dairy drink, daily, that keeps your gut healthy. And finally, I brew my own kombucha (but that is time consumming, admittedly), which is, again, pro-biotic (and slightly alcoholic and fizzy, after my second fermentation in bottle

[Andy Hunt]

Wonder if we'll start seeing a lot more '2 for the price of 3' offers in the new year . . .

[biffvernon]

I just can't see why one would want to make these people richer:

Boardroom pay at supermarket group Tesco rose nearly 18% last year and chief executive Sir Terry Leahy received nearly £10m in cash and shares.

Leahy, who is paid a basic salary of £1.3m, gained an annual cash bonus of £1.2m and another bonus, paid in shares, worth £1.7m. He was also awarded shares worth £1.2m under the group's long term incentive plan and further tranches of shares worth £4.2m were released to him under a previous incentive scheme.

The chief executive's other benefits include perks worth £95,000. Details of the Tesco directors' pay packages are revealed in the group's annual report.

Tesco recently reported record annual profits of £2.8bn. Group sales were ahead 11.1% at nearly £52bn.

The second highest Tesco earner was Tim Mason, the former marketing director who moved to California to build the group's new Fresh & Easy chain of convenience stores.

Mason, who now lives in Los Angeles, received £4.5m in basic pay and annual bonus payments and benefited from £2.3m of share awards granted in previous years. His basic pay is £938,000 and he received £260,000 "in respect of certain localisation costs, including accommodation and school fees". He has also been given a payment to cover "additional tax due on equity awards made prior to Mr Mason's move to the US".

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, the group's director of legal and corporate affairs, has been catapulted into the highest echelons of female executives and one of the few to earn a salary of more than £1m.

Neville-Rolfe, who previously worked in the Cabinet Office, joined the Tesco board in 2006. She now gets a basic salary of £485,000, boosted to £1.5m after annual bonuses and £1.7m taking into account share payouts from previous years.

All the other board directors earned more than £2m. Finance director Andrew Higginson was paid £2.8m in salary and bonus schemes, plus an additional £2.3m.

Tesco chairman David Reid received £675,000, made up of a basic salary of £581,000 and £94,000 for a chauffeur and car. The total cost of the board, excluding share payouts from earlier years, was £23m, up from £19.6m a year earlier.

source

[skeptik]

But also the price rises They had forgot to remove one of the labels and so, 1 kg of pasta had gone from £1.25 to £1.45. A 16% increase, and over the last 12months thats gone for 50 pence to 1.45.

I've just been shopping, but read this post before I went out. The cheapest dried pastas in the supermarket I went to work out at €1.30 a kilo. These are locally produced 'fideo' - looks like chopped spaghetti, used to make a pasta version of paella called fideua. The fancy imported Italian pastas are a lot more expensive.

Food prices shot up very noticeably during the first half of the year, particularly meat and dairy products. Lots of hubba hubba in the press. The only product to fall in price was olive oil, which compared to the UK is splendidly cheap. Since midsummer I haven't noticed any movement in food prices (not that I've been looking) and no press interest.

Overall year on year inflation was 7% to July 2008, and has since fallen back dramatically to 2.3% year on year to Nov 2008.

[biffvernon]

The fancy imported Italian pastas are a lot more expensive.

Well, they may appear a little more expensive but they are sooooo much better. Try Vallebona. You tend to end up eating less of it and it is such a different experience that you don't need so much of the other, probably more expensive, parts of the meal either. There's more to eating than the sticker price on the packet.

[skeptik]

My favourite is fresh spinach tagliatelle with carbonara sauce and topped with freshly grated parmesan. Sadly, wonderfully fattening, and thus reserved as a rare treat.

Unfortunately I can put on weight simply by thinking about a bar of Lindt..

[bigjim]

But also the price rises They had forgot to remove one of the labels and so, 1 kg of pasta had gone from £1.25 to £1.45.

You should know your rights. If there are two prices for the product- ie one on display and one in their prices database- you are entitled to the cheaper price.

I prefer to shop at Waitrose when I can. Yes, it's more expensive than other places, but it's soooo much nicer a place than Tesco. It's less busy, less chaotic and stressful. And I don't really notice the higher prices much since I'm only ever shopping for myself, and the quality's higher too. Unfortunately the closest Waitrose to where I'm based much of the time is about 200 miles away in Edinburgh

[Keela]

Also, we brew kefir, which is easy peasy, takes 2.3 minutes of your time and you get a delicious probiotic dairy drink, daily, that keeps your gut healthy. And finally, I brew my own kombucha (but that is time consumming, admittedly), which is, again, pro-biotic (and slightly alcoholic and fizzy, after my second fermentation in bottle

YAY! A fellow kefir and kombucha fan! I just started with these two in October and love both. Kefir on cereal every morning - delicious! (Although the rest of the family are skeptical of that one... ) I also use it to make soda bread.

The kombucha is better liked so I brew 6 - 12 litres in each batch (I bought two 7 litre glass containers and run either one or two each time.) I've considerably reduced my coffee intake since starting to drink kombucha.


BACK TO TESCO.... I used to be a great fan and did ALL my shopping on line. However it is much more expensive than shopping a bit more in bulk and running a store and a freezer.

[chubbygristle]

gah. stop shopping at Tesco full stop!

It's a positive feedback loop. shop at tesco -> increased ability for tesco to wipe out alternatives -> shop at tesco

I'd like to see the local councils *really* test their new (and reportedly underused) 'wellbeing powers' and see how much red tape and bureaucracy could be removed from the process of getting Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys etc removed/downsized in their area for good in order to address the problems of money being syphoned off out of the local economy, decent quality jobs being replaced with sh** minimum wage slave positions etc etc... I've had this rant a million times before but one of the most simple things *anyone* can do with regards to action about peak oil / climate change / general social deterioration / runaway capitalism ... is to make sure as little of their money goes to people like tesco, asda etc who are destroying the very things we are going to need to fall back on in the coming years, i.e. well knit local economies formed from symbiotic producers and small scale retailer relationships. It doesn't take that much effort. Even if it's a small 'good with food - good with doorless refrigerators' co-op it's a million times better than tesco!


Seriously, go to www.bigbarn.co.uk I am sure they'll be able to locate at least some local producers / outlets in your area.


Then give

http://www.tescopoly.org/index.php?opti ... Itemid=176

a cursory perusal.

[Papillon]

YAY! A fellow kefir and kombucha fan! I just started with these two in October and love both. Kefir on cereal every morning - delicious! (Although the rest of the family are skeptical of that one... ) I also use it to make soda bread.

Yay! High-five mate! I would love to try that soda bread! Keep it up! If it seems too time consuming, let me know, I've come up with (I think) an efficient way of doing it (it takes me a few minutes at most).

The kombucha is better liked so I brew 6 - 12 litres in each batch (I bought two 7 litre glass containers and run either one or two each time.) I've considerably reduced my coffee intake since starting to drink kombucha.

Brilliant! I've quit somking 4 months into my kombucha brewing "career", and haven't looked back since (it's been about a year and a half now ). I did use patches, admittedly, for only three weeks though and I am convinced that one of the crucial factors in the success was the kombucha.

[Keela]

Anyone wondering what we are talking about? Look here:
KEFIR - http://www.kefir.biz/whatis_.htm
KOMBUCHA - http://www.kombu.de/anleit-e.htm
Yoghurt is another easily produced fermented product - just one that is more often produced commercially than these two.

On the subject of Tescos again... I no longer shop there.

There was a programme on TV recently that gave me the nudge and I stopped. I use the local Musgraves (cash & carry), a Lidl near work, and the local corner shop.. Also rear our own pigs (and have sources for beef & lamb which we buy and freeze) and keep our own hens.

I don't buy crisps or fizz and I buy chocolate only rarely. Just look next time you are shopping - it is amazing how much of these things some folk buy!