Charles
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The irritating aspects of super market shopping
3:41pm 7th Dec 2007
Our local Asda has gone through the usual refit cycle all this has entailed is moving out into a separate building the George clothes range and spreading out the rest of the shelves, not I hasten to add giving wider aisles but lots more fridges and freezer cabinets, the layout defies logic
1. There is a fridge cabinet containing natural, and fruit flavoured yoghurt, plus a motley assortment of humus, taramaslata, etc I wanted to buy Benicol yoghurt which I would have thought would be in the same cabinet, oh no its right the other end of the store opposite the fresh milk, when I challenged the 'manager' (who did not have on a name tag and told me it was unnecessary to give me her name), for an explanation, she tried to glibly tell me yoghurt is a milk product, when I suggested that all the contents of the first fridge cabinet should be with the milk products, she told me that it was unnecessary, as most customers liked the new layout.
2. They have a large serve over area with all sorts of delicatessen meats ready to be weighed and sold if you want to queue (see also point 3 below) I dislike this because I don't know how long this food has sat in the serve over with the normal process of skin falling off assistants and customers onto this food, so I always buy the pre packed meats etc. I suppose it would be rash of me to think that these cooked meats should be adjacent to the deli counter, Sorry no try again, think the way they do - yes you have got it its up the other end of the store near the major yoghurt area.
3. I have argued with a succession of managers over the years about the wrapping paper that is put on the scale before weighing any cooked meats, we are paying for that at approx £8 per kilo (the average price of cooked meats), when I challenge on this I am told it hardly weighs anything, but what about the five tons of immediate wrapping that they buy at about £1 a kilo and sell to the customers for nearer £8 - nice profits.
4. Let us all ban carrier bags they are destroying the planet - we use ours in our kitchen waste bin and double bag it as our local council suggests. Yes but instead of getting them for free I will shortly have to buy pedal bin bags once a month for 70p, how is that helping the planet? But it sure helps the stores profits.
5. The just in time system, sorry please translate what this means is Oops we regularly run out of items because there has been an unusual demand, like they don't know half the country would have bought beer, crisps etc. to watch football when a big match occurs. Yes I accept but I have been given the same story for shredded wheat outage I don't know anybody who dips shredded wheat in their beer when watching football.
6. Whenever something is not right in the store I ask for the manager they are normally called at least 3 times over the loud speaker, before they come down from their office, or worse yet the manager is on holiday, or off shift, or has gone home ill, so where is his/her deputy. Eventually someone is found to talk to me. I always ask them their name and position in the company, I always state my name and give then my business card with my home address, phone number, email, and mobile number, and state my complaint. I will not be fobbed off, especially when some school leaver starts telling me a load of garbage. I then always say to them never loose sight of the fact that when I walk out the door without my (say) shredded wheat, they have lost a sale, or are they suggesting that next week when I do my shopping I will buy two packets to make up for the one I did not have last week, alternatively I may go to another store and buy it there, which could mean I never return to their store for anything.
7. The new improved store. Stock control is very easy to understand 20% of the inventory accounts for 80% of the total sales. Further a different 20% is responsible for 80% of the costs. The ethos seems to be ha! if I find out what percentage of the second rule does not fit into the first rule we need only stock the low cost quick turn over items, so lets build an enormous store, stack it up with vast quantities of this last rule and let the customer walk miles up and down the aisles looking for an item that drops outside the magic rule only to find its not stocked. We already do half the stores job by filling up the trolley, moving it onto the conveyor belt, pack it up return to trolley, and then out of trolley into car, and then home out of car into kitchen. I am of an age when I used to be able to drop a list into the local shop Friday night, and have it delivered on Saturday morning to my kitchen table. Okay it was not as cheap as the supermarket but by the time you factor in the fuel to get to shop, and time it takes, the small independent wins hands down, especially if he knows your likes and dislikes. I know the obvious is online shopping but then they give quite a wide band of time slots when you have to wait for it to arrive.
8. Better signage over the aisles, why would Jif lemon juice be found on the cake making area, surely it could go with cordials and fizzy drinks. Likewise Matzos appear under the banner 'international foods' they should be with cream crackers or water biscuits.
