How much is enough?

[Haliotis]

17 minutes ago, davidif said:

Bob, the only change that I can see is a slight REDUCTION in the price of Brent Crude!

Question is, if we were given the true facts behind the variations in fuel prices, would we find it understandable, or would we be more infuriated than we now are?

[davidif]

1 hour ago, Haliotis said:

Question is, if we were given the true facts behind the variations in fuel prices, would we find it understandable, or would we be more infuriated than we now are?

Probably a bit of both!

 

[Haliotis]

Whatever commodity you name, from fuel to food to home essentials, we are governed and manipulated by the money barons.  One of the most cynical practices is that of how “specialists” plan supermarket shelves in such a way as to lure the public into buying to their[the specialists] plan.  This includes moving items to different areas.

I combat this by having a prepared list of items before visiting the supermarket.  But we are t retired and have the time to search - working people who have to grab time between work, collecting the kids from school, etc., are not so lucky.

[Bper]

1 hour ago, Haliotis said:

Whatever commodity you name, from fuel to food to home essentials, we are governed and manipulated by the money barons.  One of the most cynical practices is that of how “specialists” plan supermarket shelves in such a way as to lure the public into buying to their[the specialists] plan.  This includes moving items to different areas.

I combat this by having a prepared list of items before visiting the supermarket.  But we are t retired and have the time to search - working people who have to grab time between work, collecting the kids from school, etc., are not so lucky.

Hi Paul,

Yes very true but the psychology of consumer behavior is studied heavily in supermarkets as well as other retail spaces. Supermarkets often rely on behavior based strategies to encourage shoppers to buy certain foods. 🛒

[Rhymes with Paris]

1 hour ago, Haliotis said:

Whatever commodity you name, from fuel to food to home essentials, we are governed and manipulated by the money barons.  One of the most cynical practices is that of how “specialists” plan supermarket shelves in such a way as to lure the public into buying to their[the specialists] plan.  This includes moving items to different areas.

I combat this by having a prepared list of items before visiting the supermarket.  But we are t retired and have the time to search - working people who have to grab time between work, collecting the kids from school, etc., are not so lucky.

Completely agree Albert, one of the most sigh inducing 🥴 times of the year for me is right now, when the "Christmas" foods make an appearance.

When all I want are my usual basic meals and ingredients, not turkey gravy flavoured mayonnaise, such as I saw in my local M&S food store yesterday, not that I am a fan of mass produced mayonnaise anyway.

And yes, they have moved everything around to accommodate all kinds of nonsense.

Even cynical me succumbed to a jar of cherries in Kirsch, not tried them yet, but feel so manipulated that now I fear I will be buying Cornish brandy cream to go with them .

[dannyboy413]

Going back to my post of 30th October - the pricing mechanism at the garage must be broken - it was still €1.859 when I filled up today. That's the same price as a month ago! 

[Bper]

12 hours ago, dannyboy413 said:

Going back to my post of 30th October - the pricing mechanism at the garage must be broken - it was still €1.859 when I filled up today. That's the same price as a month ago! 

Hi David,

How are prices in other areas where you are, have they changed or remained the same.

[Roy124]

15 hours ago, Bper said:

Hi Paul,

Yes very true but the psychology of consumer behavior is studied heavily in supermarkets as well as other retail spaces. Supermarkets often rely on behavior based strategies to encourage shoppers to buy certain foods. 🛒

But how many times have you traipsed your regular route around the aisles of doom, done your planned shopping, yes added some extras, but on the way out realised you missed the detergent or the vinegar?

Is that part of the plan, get you back into the store for round 2?

[Bper]

It's amazing how we have succumbed to the dominance of the supermarkets and our habitual usage.

They have used both financial power and influence for years to force the smaller retailers out of business and at the same time expanding in both physical size and dictating prices to both suppliers and ultimately us customers. 

The eradication of the smaller retailers was not a coincidence, it was cleverly planned and executed to bring in-house the very same businesses they forced to close. Those that have survived struggle to make a living through loss of footfall and ever increasing overheads.

We only have to look how they ventured into selling petrol, originally selling at lower prices than the traditional petrol retailers. Today raising prices up and down at will regardless of customer objection but firmly focused on driving profit.

The recent pandemic had no effect on their business and did any of us see one of them closed down throughout the whole lockdown period whilst other businesses selling similar products had been forced to close?

Supermarkets are not the only ones, banks, airlines, councils and utility companies have all followed the same path of price hiking, dictatorial policies with zero consumer service.

 

[Rhymes with Paris]

"aisles of doom"

Great description Roy.

 

[Roy124]

@Bper, we are lucky with 3 local towns with butchers, bakers, dairy products etc.

Apart from the superficial supermarket attraction of competitive prices is the corresponding cost of town parking by councils.  Small shops are thus hit by business rates that go to central government and lower footfall  from car driving customers. 

[Haliotis]

Until Covid struck, we spent 6 or 7 weeks in France each year.  Our favourite store was Super U.  Each year that we visited, the store layout remained unchanged - you could head for the same aisles and find everything you wanted in the same place.  Perhaps the French are less likely to tolerate everything being moved around, as happens in the UK.

[Roy124]

Albert, given a choice of supermarkets in UK, which one would you frequent, the magical mystery one or the comfortable glove like one.

I think Aldi and Lidl score as there is sn IKEA like procession around the aisles.  Aldi fail by having a short cut across the store halfway down. 

They also seem ahead of the game with no self-service checkouts. 

[Haliotis]

To be quite honest, Roy, we tend to go to Tesco for general shopping because it is close to us, and normally shop once a week. Lidl is closer, but you cannot rely on your choices being available week after week.  Aldi is fine, but quite a long way from us - the nearest one being a bit “corner-shoppish”.

When we do extra shopping (say for freezer restocking), the M&S Food Hall is usually favoured, and we often go for some luxury treats on these visits.  

For wine, we have preferred choices - we normally only drink three bottles a week, but buy in bulk when the 25% off for six or more bottles is on offer.

[dannyboy413]

9 hours ago, Bper said:

How are prices in other areas where you are, have they changed or remained the same.

To be honest, when I go to my usual place, I do not pass any other petrol stations. The local garage that I sometimes use for 'top ups' can be a few cents dearer than my normal place, occasionally a couple of cents cheaper, although it is only small and just has two pumps, so I presume it does not get a delivery of petrol every week.  When I do go further afield, I can usually see petrol a couple of cents per litre cheaper, but, as I get a 4 cent per litre discount, (🙂), I rarely fill up elsewhere.

[Roy124]

Thing is, we no longer have the time to 'pop across the road' to do the daily shop.  For less readily available items a 10 minute walk to the next collection of shops for, say, dog biscuits once a week. 

Now we can afford a fridge and freezer so no longer need to shop every day.  But to carry the weekly shopping home we now need a car.

Rather than our single woven shopping basket, used every day, year in and year out, we use plastic bags, boxes and whatever.   Of course we no longer return bottles for reuse.

A weekly bin collection for ash and tin cans with newspapers collected, sorted,  and tied up (the than those for the fire) collected separately. 

[Roker]

And insurance in case the car is damaged

[Bper]

16 hours ago, Roy124 said:

Albert, given a choice of supermarkets in UK, which one would you frequent, the magical mystery one or the comfortable glove like one.

I think Aldi and Lidl score as there is sn IKEA like procession around the aisles.  Aldi fail by having a short cut across the store halfway down. 

They also seem ahead of the game with no self-service checkouts. 

We have a Morrisons, Tesco's and Aldi all within a stones throw of each other. Aldi just introduced self checkouts, the Aldi is closing its smaller existing store and building a new superstore next year which will rival the same size as the other two Supermarkets .

[Primus1]

I refuse to use self checkouts, we prefer to have customer interaction with the person on the checkout, although, I once went into Asda wearing a green t shirt and had to cover sandras shift for half a day, 😀

[Bper]

1 hour ago, Primus1 said:

I refuse to use self checkouts, we prefer to have customer interaction with the person on the checkout, although, I once went into Asda wearing a green t shirt and had to cover sandras shift for half a day, 😀

I agree, we prefer to go to a checkout and have a chat with the person behind the till. The problem is many of the supermarkets have adopted self checkouts and in doing so have removed many of the main checkouts to create the space for them.

The staff have concerns about possible job losses. Elderly customers will not go near them and prefer the interaction with a real person.

The only reason we use them is due to the length of the queues. As Christmas is looming it will be interesting to see if this creates shorter or longer waiting periods due to the reductions in the staffed checkouts.

 

[Roy124]

2 minutes ago, Bper said:

we prefer to go to a checkout and have a chat with the person behind the till

Au contraire, I much prefer to go to ASDA Scan and Go, zap the food, zap the gun, pay and go.

If I must go through the tills I often have to go back from the car to find why Mrs 124 has yet to appear.

In part this is because my hearing is poor and my understanding more so.

[Cyker]

I tend to use both - If it's less than a bag's worth I usually use the self-checkouts, but more than that I use the tills.

My local has a horrible new one - They've removed a load of manned tills and put in massive trolley-sized self-service section! I tried it and it's rubbish - You can't use bags as it detects the extra weight and starts flashing the red light of shame, so you have to unload everything onto the bay sans-bag, pay, and then re-load everything back into bags; Such a waste of time!

Went back to using the tills. Also, there is an indian operator lady I try to catch, who I'm now determined to bag the stuff faster than she can scan it; It's turning into a weird high-noon quick-draw-esque competition for me - I always have the bags open and ready in the trolley and just start flinging them in as she starts flinging them down the ramp. One day I will defeat her lighting fast scanning skills!!

 

[Yugguy1970]

Self checkouts are a ballache.

Doesn't recognise an item, need approval for alchohol, thinks you already have a bag in the area?

Where's the shop assistant?  They're down the end, dealing with the rest of the people in the same boat.

[Bper]

Did anyone else know that Aldis have bigger bar codes on their food as it quicker on the checkouts. As Cyker said it's a race to see how quick you can load your shopping into bags. We use the trolley as its easier to take it out to our car and then put it into the the bags. 

Even with the two of us loading stuff into the trolley we haven't beaten the speed of them yet.

[Roy124]

Guy all true, but on the manual queues, all in use, people queuing waiting to unload their trolley,  Doris at the end. having been told the bill is £18 23p gets out purse and counts out the exact change, penny by penny