Are the supermarkets taking us for a ride ?

[Amadeus]

9 minutes ago, Kopek said:

...........but the cheapest  'decent  loaf' is £1.20.

Define decent. A proper decent bread for me is a sourdough Bauernbrot from a real bakery. Maybe Noa has that here but the bread aisle in any supermarket likely won’t and still makes my German heart bleed. 
 

[Kopek]

Define 'decent'?

Well, a seeded, non spongy, cottonwooly, stay fresh for a year and a day bread that can be moulded into shapes like a lump of Plasticine?

Oh and not so crusty that I can't get my poor old teeth through!

[Andy Onchan]

On 10/1/2023 at 10:01 PM, Amadeus said:

This topic reminded me to restart the price check thing I did last year. Very unscientific and for information / entertainment only but here's a google sheet with the prices of various items. Meant for a video but good to share it here too to get some feedback. It's really only a rough guide to how much stuff costs in the different stores and how prices have developed over the last year (Sept 22 to latest check done today). For example, the cheapest bread in town is still Tesco. Used to be 39p, now 45p. Clearly a loss leader and full with stuff that's hard to pronounce but still cheap. #

Also, we often think of M&S as expensive but on some things they are actually cheaper than others. What concerns me is that Spar to me still seems to be the most expensive when these stores are often in areas where people with less buying power live. So if you don't have a car to do a big shop at Tesco once a week, it seems you have to pay more for the 'convenience' of a small store nearby. 

On balance, and only my opinion, it feels as if Tesco is cheapest especially if you add the clubcard prices and points (not included in this price comparison). 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fQ0aIY-jw_ycJvyH_hFEH2xQ0JsQhakkbdQV_p2T3AQ/edit?usp=sharing 

 

How much of a say, if at all, does Shopshite have on the prices of Robinsons fruit & veg?

[The Phantom]

14 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

How much of a say, if at all, does Shopshite have on the prices of Robinsons fruit & veg?

None I'd imagine if Robbies are selling them in their own shops. 

They'll sell them to Shopshite at trade price, so they could cut their own margin if they wanted to.  Although, this might make it cheaper to buy Robbies veggis at Shopshite than in their own stores. 

For the avoidance of doubt, when they sold loads of Polish stuff, they were Robskis.  Now however it's mostly Asian, so I call them Wobbisaaaaans. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by The Phantom

[Banker]

29 minutes ago, Andy Onchan said:

How much of a say, if at all, does Shopshite have on the prices of Robinsons fruit & veg?

It’s slightly cheaper up at Robinsons ballapaddag but not by much so probably not a lot of leeway 

[quilp]

18 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

... it's mostly Asian, so I call them Wobbisaaaaans. 

Oo-oh! Careful now, you'll have @manxman1980 imagining that's "arguably" racist... 

[Gladys]

34 minutes ago, The Phantom said:

None I'd imagine if Robbies are selling them in their own shops. 

They'll sell them to Shopshite at trade price, so they could cut their own margin if they wanted to.  Although, this might make it cheaper to buy Robbies veggis at Shopshite than in their own stores. 

For the avoidance of doubt, when they sold loads of Polish stuff, they were Robskis.  Now however it's mostly Asian, so I call them Wobbisaaaaans. 

Perhaps Robinson's 'rents' the space?   The re-stocking is done by Robinson's staff and the reduced area is within the veg area. 

[manxman1980]

2 hours ago, quilp said:

Oo-oh! Careful now, you'll have @manxman1980 imagining that's "arguably" racist... 

I don't need to say anything.  

[woolley]

4 hours ago, Gladys said:

Perhaps Robinson's 'rents' the space?   The re-stocking is done by Robinson's staff and the reduced area is within the veg area. 

I've wondered about that in the past. It would get Shoprite off the hook for handling all of that nasty perishable stuff, but the arrangement goes way back to before retail systems were cute enough to segregate discrete income streams, so I somehow doubt it. Perhaps the prices Shoprite pays for the produce simply includes the restocking service?

[The Voice of Reason]

6 hours ago, Gladys said:

Perhaps Robinson's 'rents' the space?   The re-stocking is done by Robinson's staff and the reduced area is within the veg area. 

Yes and they always get in your way. At least in the Ramsey store, especially in the overpriced fruit section.

Perhaps not quite as bad as the Co op staff in Ramsey in the fruit and veg section at the entrance to the store. Where it’s bloody freezing. They won’t shift at all totally blocking your way, while sorting the stock out , much less apologise for being in the way. 
 

That said once both Shoprite and co op staff exit those areas they are as nice as pie. Different people. ( except for the packaged cold meat section in the co op).

We are lucky to have them

[Gladys]

5 hours ago, woolley said:

I've wondered about that in the past. It would get Shoprite off the hook for handling all of that nasty perishable stuff, but the arrangement goes way back to before retail systems were cute enough to segregate discrete income streams, so I somehow doubt it. Perhaps the prices Shoprite pays for the produce simply includes the restocking service?

Not so sure about the retail systems being unable to cope, some of the old electronic tills had an amazing array of buttons, even back in the 70s. The book-keeping would have been quite manual, however.  

[woolley]

7 hours ago, Gladys said:

Not so sure about the retail systems being unable to cope, some of the old electronic tills had an amazing array of buttons, even back in the 70s. The book-keeping would have been quite manual, however.  

I suppose it is possible.  I always thought the fruit and veg let Shoprite down. Truly grim, some of it.

[Gladys]

9 minutes ago, woolley said:

I suppose it is possible.  I always thought the fruit and veg let Shoprite down. Truly grim, some of it.

Thinking about it, I worked in a fancy goods shop in 1975 and 1976.  They sold a lot of TT badges and the till was an electronic one which has a button we had to press before putting the price in if it was a badge.  It was a way of the owner keeping track of whether the badges were a good seller, I suppose.  It was quite renowned at that time. 

As for the quality of Robinson's stuff, I don't think it is too bad really.  Their veg soup mix and other prepared stuff is pretty good.  With all fresh produce it requires turnover to keep it fresh, maybe the smaller Shoprites don't have that volume. 

[John Wright]

20 minutes ago, woolley said:

I suppose it is possible.  I always thought the fruit and veg let Shoprite down. Truly grim, some of it.

Electronic, even manual,  tills were able to be manually entered for different concessionaires or licensees or departments or products from the early 20th century.

There were a bank of buttons on one side. You pushed the appropriate one before entering the price. So you got a gross running total and sub totals.

It was department stores that originally required this.

It became ubiquitous in 1973 with VAT and items being charged at standard and zero.

in those early days Tinkers supplied and staffed the meat counters and Robinsons the fruit & veg. My ( probably faulty ) recollection is that the labelling, possibly colour; acted as a prompt to the till operator.