Supermarkets discussion

[Brent Goose]

The instore bakery at the above mentioned Asda were still making hot cross buns which were not reduced in price.

A while back the Sainsburys next to Nine Elms station had a gin advent calendar which was slowly being reduced as we went into December, some colleagues were keeping an eye out for when it became cheaper than buying gin the normal fashion which I don’t think it ever did.

 

[Kite159]

I've had a few from Tesco and Sainsbury's. Half normal price, a bit less than half-price if they were on offer for part of the period leading up to Easter. For example Sainsbury's Swiss chocolate mini eggs: full price £4.75, on/off offer £4.25, now £2.37.

In the past I'm sure Tesco just cleared the shelves and did not have them on offer by the time they re-opened Monday or Tuesday. Perhaps I looked in the wrong place. Sainsbury had similar discounts last year.

Likewise, no sign of anything Easter related in Tesco when I looked, maybe they donated the eggs to a Food Bank or other charity?

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As for reductions, I always have a little laugh when I see products being reduced to clear due to nearing it's "Use By/Best Before" date which is more expensive than what you would pay normally, as it's a product on promotion as a "Loyalty Card Price". Why would someone want to pay £2.50 for a Ready Meal going out of date that night then they can pay £2.20 for one which lasts a few more days (unless they haven't got a loyalty card and hence would normally be paying £3.50 or so)

 

[hexagon789]

As for reductions, I always have a little laugh when I see products being reduced to clear due to nearing it's "Use By/Best Before" date which is more expensive than what you would pay normally, as it's a product on promotion as a "Loyalty Card Price". Why would someone want to pay £2.50 for a Ready Meal going out of date that night then they can pay £2.20 for one which lasts a few more days (unless they haven't got a loyalty card and hence would normally be paying £3.50 or so)

Early in the day maybe, but end of day reductions are usually 70 or 75% off depending on supermarket, so that £2.50 meal becomes 62p.

 

[SuspectUsual]

Likewise, no sign of anything Easter related in Tesco when I looked, maybe they donated the eggs to a Food Bank or other charity?

Tesco are very hot on clearing the shelves after Easter, as they’ll need the shelf space for whatever is coming next.

Store stock most likely to local charities or foodbanks, any warehouse stock likely jobbed off at 15/20/25p in the pound

 

[takno]

Early in the day maybe, but end of day reductions are usually 70 or 75% off depending on supermarket, so that £2.50 meal becomes 62p.

That's pretty rare these days. I almost never see Tesco go above 50% off, and if they do then it's because they have a shelf full. Certainly Tesco do reduce early and lightly, but a combination of that and being willing to see the leftovers go to charity mean that they don't need to do really deep discounting.

I tend to have a strike price of less than 2.50 for ready meals, but excluding the ones which are 2.20 on a clubcard deal. The main thing is just buying enough to fill the freezer if they do get to a decent price.

 

[hexagon789]

That's pretty rare these days. I almost never see Tesco go above 50% off, and if they do then it's because they have a shelf full. Certainly Tesco do reduce early and lightly, but a combination of that and being willing to see the leftovers go to charity mean that they don't need to do really deep discounting.

I tend to have a strike price of less than 2.50 for ready meals, but excluding the ones which are 2.20 on a clubcard deal. The main thing is just buying enough to fill the freezer if they do get to a decent price.

Must be my local Extra then, but 75% after 7pm is standard and even today still almost a full aisle of Easter eggs (and associated confectionery/cakes) most marked on the SELs as reduced to clear by typically 50% on the non-Clubcard price.

The morning reductions are typically only about 20-30% first thing and then to about 33-50% early afternoon.

 

[Bald Rick]

Yesterday, Waitrose were selling Lindt easter bunnies and bags offor about 1/3 of their normal price, - much better chocolate than the UK mass produced stuff. Best before dates:. May 25!

I just discovered some chocolate eggs I hid to give to my kids some time after Easter; I had forgotten I had done that.

In 2022.

(BBE July 2022, and they were fine).

 

[Peter Sarf]

That's pretty rare these days. I almost never see Tesco go above 50% off, and if they do then it's because they have a shelf full. Certainly Tesco do reduce early and lightly, but a combination of that and being willing to see the leftovers go to charity mean that they don't need to do really deep discounting.

I tend to have a strike price of less than 2.50 for ready meals, but excluding the ones which are 2.20 on a clubcard deal. The main thing is just buying enough to fill the freezer if they do get to a decent price.

My local supermarkets are
Morrisons 75% off at 17:00
Sainsburys 75% off at about 16:00

I just discovered some chocolate eggs I hid to give to my kids some time after Easter; I had forgotten I had done that.

In 2022.

(BBE July 2022, and they were fine).

"they were fine" - is that the eggs or the kids .

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Tesco are very hot on clearing the shelves after Easter, as they’ll need the shelf space for whatever is coming next.

Halloween stock probably, just over 6 months to go.

 

[DelW]

Halloween stock probably, just over 6 months to go.

Before that there'll be the "back to school" stuff, which appears on the first day of the school summer holidays.

 

[Harpo]

The suggested warm spell will be giving BBQ stock managers the jitters.

 

[AM9]

It's a 'best before' not a 'use by' date and it's next month. Whether that is a problem depends on how many dozen you bought!

For two of us they are just treats and gifts to family children.. They do keep longest in a wine cooler, about 12C.

 

[SuspectUsual]

The suggested warm spell will be giving BBQ stock managers the jitters.

Supply chain analysts in head offices panicking and ordering 20x more burgers than last week

 

[Silver Cobra]

Before that there'll be the "back to school" stuff, which appears on the first day of the school summer holidays.

Back to School now starts appearing during the last week of the school summer term, so they don't even wait for the current school year to finish before putting it out. At least that seems to be the case with Asda.

I also expect the first Christmas items to be hitting the shelves by the middle of August.

 

[DannyMich2018]

Supply chain analysts in head offices panicking and ordering 20x more burgers than last week

I work in a supermarket and yesterday I sold plenty of BBQ stuff such as various meats/burgers, charcoal and cold drinks.

 

[PeterC]

The suggested warm spell will be giving BBQ stock managers the jitters.

The worrying time is a late hot spell. I remember a supermarket warehouseman complaining that the algorithm restocked BbQs and charcoal just at the end of the summer weather leaving him short of storage for Christmas.

 

[SuspectUsual]

I work in a supermarket and yesterday I sold plenty of BBQ stuff such as various meats/burgers, charcoal and cold drinks.

I spent a long time managing logistics for a cash & carry, and the bane of my life was the carnage caused by the knee-jerk reactions of supply chain people when they looked out of the window and saw the big yellow thing in the sky

 

[takno]

I spent a long time managing logistics for a cash & carry, and the bane of my life was the carnage caused by the knee-jerk reactions of supply chain people when they looked out of the window and saw the big yellow thing in the sky

I love it when the weather turns just in time for the weekend and everybody decides not to have a barbeque after all - perfect time to fill the freezer with meat to last me the next few months

 

[Peter Sarf]

I love it when the weather turns just in time for the weekend and everybody decides not to have a barbeque after all - perfect time to fill the freezer with meat to last me the next few months

Yup, thats me.
There are plenty of end of season bargains. Tents going cheap at the end of summer etc.

 

[GusB]

The suggested warm spell will be giving BBQ stock managers the jitters.

Supply chain analysts in head offices panicking and ordering 20x more burgers than last week

Ah, memories of my time at the Co-op!

One year we had an unusual spell of hot weather in late April or early May and we were more or less wiped out. I can't remember the exact year - 2010, maybe? It was the same year that we were promised a barbecue summer. It wasn't just stuff that you could shove on a barbecue, though; salad stuff and soft drinks disappeared out of the door and we were left with some huge gaps on the shelves.

I'd only been there for a couple of months and was still finding my feet but it was then that I realised that the the whole store was profiled with a minimum shelf level of 2 units... *

* Jargon buster - minimum shelf is the number of products that you need to have in stock before the system will order more, so if the inventory shows that you have 3 in stock, it won't order any more

 

[Harpo]

* Jargon buster - minimum shelf is the number of products that you need to have in stock before the system will order more, so if the inventory shows that you have 3 in stock, it won't order any more

When I worked for Sainsburys as a student, over-ordering was common. An unexpected senior visit caused panic and loads of high value items had to disappear into managers’ car boots. I’m not sure everything made it back….

 

[dgl]

With M&S' woes one thing I've noticed was the lack of reduced items/yellow stickers in our local food hall (weymouth) and only in the last few days (first noticed yesterday) having seen any reduced items.
Today when I brought some items that were reduces I noticed that they came up as a generic item reduction and the actual item was not mentioned.
I guess the IT woes are to blame and they simply haven't been able to do any reduced items and what they now can reduce the systems are not talking to each other so the system does not know what item is being reduced. This must be a right pain for stock control.

 

[Bald Rick]

M&S St Albans tonight seemed to be rather short of stock in the food hall.

 

[dgl]

Going by what the BBC are hearing it seems to be shops are either getting too much stock, and it's going to waste, or they aren't getting enough.
The smallish food hall in Weymouth M&S seemed to be stocked mainly ok this morning, but that was within 10 mins of opening.
Dread to think what this attack is costing them, though possibly still less than paying the hackers.

 

[takno]

Going by what the BBC are hearing it seems to be shops are either getting too much stock, and it's going to waste, or they aren't getting enough.
The smallish food hall in Weymouth M&S seemed to be stocked mainly ok this morning, but that was within 10 mins of opening.
Dread to think what this attack is costing them, though possibly still less than paying the hackers.

Paying the hackers isn't actually a solution. If data has been encrypted then often a decrypt key won't actually be available, and in any case the data won't be trustworthy once decrypted, and if customer data is being held to ransom then there's very little chance the attackers will delete it just because they get paid.

In any case much of what they will be doing is locking down the systems so that attackers can't just get straight back in, and trying to figure out what data has been accessed and what might have been altered

 

[Peter Sarf]

Paying the hackers isn't actually a solution. If data has been encrypted then often a decrypt key won't actually be available, and in any case the data won't be trustworthy once decrypted, and if customer data is being held to ransom then there's very little chance the attackers will delete it just because they get paid.

In any case much of what they will be doing is locking down the systems so that attackers can't just get straight back in, and trying to figure out what data has been accessed and what might have been altered

Yes. Once the damage is done it is paramount to stop further damage and try to determine what information has been stolen.

I agree NEVER NEVER give in to blackmail. This only encourages them to do it again to other businesses.

 

[philthetube]

It always strikes me with these systems that they are far more interlinked than they ever need to be.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Ah, memories of my time at the Co-op!

One year we had an unusual spell of hot weather in late April or early May and we were more or less wiped out. I can't remember the exact year - 2010, maybe? It was the same year that we were promised a barbecue summer. It wasn't just stuff that you could shove on a barbecue, though; salad stuff and soft drinks disappeared out of the door and we were left with some huge gaps on the shelves.

I'd only been there for a couple of months and was still finding my feet but it was then that I realised that the the whole store was profiled with a minimum shelf level of 2 units... *

* Jargon buster - minimum shelf is the number of products that you need to have in stock before the system will order more, so if the inventory shows that you have 3 in stock, it won't order any more

Think it was '11 - the year of Wills and Kate's nuptials.

 

[DoubleLemon]

Noticed this on the fruit and veg scales at Asda earlier. Most of the items start with the word “Asda” meaning that, when you sort by A-Z, most things are in the A section.

 

[jon0844]

Noticed this on the fruit and veg scales at Asda earlier. Most of the items start with the word “Asda” meaning that, when you sort by A-Z, most things are in the A section.

Not only is that stupid, but the text 'ASDA' also stopped them being able to write out all the important words (i.e. what it is) in full.