Tesco buy all nine Shoprite supermarkets- Monopoly?

[IOM]

4 hours ago, John Wright said:

It was your interpretation of what @woolley posted that is defective.

Its perfectly possible for two people to shop two different baskets and come up with different results and draw differing conclusions..

Mine was just what I’d already loaded, no, not random, but a weekly shop plus extras I want to top up after 6 weeks away. Yours is deliberately slanted by you to exclude certain items. 

Neither shop allows you to say that 17,000+ items on IoM cost more than in England. That’s your claim. You’ve nothing to back it up. Your methodology is suspect. It always has been. Your sample size is too small.

Ive never disputed that there are ups and downs, variations. That happens across the regions in the UK. 

What you’ve never been able to accept in this debate is shopper behaviour. People do look at prices, and use Club Card and special offers to shape their choice.

If the Pepsi is still £11.50 I’ll delete the day before delivery, and wait for it to be the £6.50 to £7.50 it is on club card special offer. In which case the cost of my shop will be the same here or at Carnforth.

Sorry but your post is factually incorrect.  Firstly I do accept and have never disputed ( go back and check my posts if you don’t believe me ) that people will shop around and buy items in Club card offers or Aldi price match . And so yes I accept that an overall basket may only be around 1-2% higher than a U.K. store . So why on earth you say I don’t accept shopper behaviour is beyond me ! 
What I don’t accept is your view that the vast majority of the 17000 lines or so outside Club card offers or Aldi matched are not inflated because they are .
 

Secondly you say my analysis is slanted when I have already admitted that I only took non offer prices , that was very deliberate because all those I selected would be included in the 17000 or so . You also say my methodology is suspect all I am doing is literally taking an item that is not on offer or Aldi match and comparing it using Tesco’s own website ( i just don’t understand why you cannot see the obvious ) . You say the sample size is too small well yes in this instance I took a small shop because I don’t have the time or inclination to go through 17000 lines but if I did there would be a difference no question.

Thirdly you go on to say there are ups and downs in the regions across the U.K. which is incorrect because all the main retailers will tell you that they all basically operate national grocery pricing ( other than small stores versus large stores ) .
 

 

[Jarndyce]

8 hours ago, IOM said:

I think you are missing the point .

 

7 hours ago, John Wright said:

How do you draw that conclusion from what @woolley posted.

 

7 hours ago, IOM said:

It’s pretty obvious but for the avoidance of doubt 

 

6 hours ago, John Wright said:

Your comprehension of what @woolley posted is defective. 

 

5 hours ago, IOM said:

Sorry but it’s your analysis that is defective

 

5 hours ago, John Wright said:

It was your interpretation of what @woolley posted that is defective.

 

34 minutes ago, IOM said:

Sorry but your post is factually incorrect.
 

 

Oh, get a room, you two!!

[John Wright]

55 minutes ago, IOM said:

What I don’t accept is your view that the vast majority of the 17000 lines or so outside Club card offers or Aldi matched are not inflated because they are .

But you don’t provide any proof, ever. You refer to a basket with a small number of products. 

 

57 minutes ago, IOM said:

yes I accept that an overall basket may only be around 1-2% higher than a U.K. store

At long last a grudging acceptance of the truth.

 

58 minutes ago, IOM said:

you say my analysis is slanted

It’s slanted because it’s neither random nor representative. You can’t draw the conclusions you do.

 

1 hour ago, IOM said:

Thirdly you go on to say there are ups and downs in the regions across the U.K. which is incorrect because all the main retailers will tell you that they all basically operate national grocery pricing ( other than small stores versus large stores )

What I say is absolutely correct.

[woolley]

3 hours ago, IOM said:

Firstly I do accept and have never disputed that people will shop around and buy items in Club card offers or Aldi price match . And so yes I accept that an overall basket may only be around 1-2% higher than a U.K. store . 

What I don’t accept is that the vast majority of the 17000 lines or so outside Club card offers or Aldi matched are not inflated because they are .
 

How many of those 17,000 items are more expensive in IOM is neither here nor there if you think about it. In reality, people are never going to make up a shop exclusively of those items. The remaining 7,500, or whatever, are the most popular, fastest moving lines, so saying 17,000 dearer against 7,500 at par is meaningless.

We have no way of knowing, but say it were the case that the discounted lines (Aldi match, Clubcard offer, or merely the same price as in the UK by whatever means) outsell the lines that aren't by 4 to 1. Not an unreasonable stab, I would suggest. This puts an entirely different complexion on the matter, being 30,000 sales vs 17,000, and it gets you nearer to the 1-2% price variance acknowledged.

There is a cost of shipping stuff over here, as I very well know from many years' experience. I consider the 1-2% above UK across the board, and parity on very many staple items to be perfectly fair and acceptable. Compare it to before Tesco arrived and Shoprite had free rein. That really was the dark ages for choice and value here.

Edited Tuesday at 08:01 PM by woolley

[IOM]

27 minutes ago, woolley said:

How many of those 17,000 items are more expensive in IOM is neither here nor there if you think about it. In reality, people are never going to make up a shop exclusively of those items. The remaining 7,500, or whatever, are the most popular, fastest moving lines, so saying 17,000 dearer against 7,500 at par is meaningless.

We have no way of knowing, but say it were the case that the discounted lines (Aldi match, Clubcard offer, or merely the same price as in the UK by whatever means) outsell the lines that aren't by 4 to 1. Not an unreasonable stab, I would suggest. This puts an entirely different complexion on the matter, being 30,000 sales vs 17,000, and it gets you nearer to the 1-2% price variance acknowledged.

There is a cost of shipping stuff over here, as I very well know from many years' experience. I consider the 1-2% above UK across the board, and parity on very many staple items to be perfectly fair and acceptable. Compare it to before Tesco arrived and Shoprite had free rein. That really was the dark ages for choice and value here.

You are right and despite @John Wright protestations I have always agreed that Aldi price match lines and Club card offers are the same price as across . I also agree and if you look back I have never disputed that on balance the inflationary effect is likely to be 1-2% as a lot of customers will shop the offers - and for the record it’s not grudgingly either there is really no need for him to say that ! 
 

Where we seem to disagree is about everything outside of the two offer mechanics . Personally I don’t think it is meaningless because those items are around 5% more expensive when prior to the buy out they were not in the Lake Road store - a fact that some people don’t want to accept even though it’s their in black and white ! 
 

Think of it like this a year ago a shopper could buy anything of their choice in the store knowing it was the same price as across but now they can’t . I think your point has been well buy the offer but there are lots of brands and products that I choose because I like them and I don’t necessarily want the alternative which is on offer . 
 

As regards your final point yes there are costs for shipping I completely get that but again those costs existed when there was only the Lake Road store presumably Tesco ‘lost’ them in their overall P &L back then . I also think the main beneficiaries from this are Shoprite customers ironically the losers are the old Tesco Lake Road shoppers !

[woolley]

28 minutes ago, IOM said:

You are right and despite @John Wright protestations I have always agreed that Aldi price match lines and Club card offers are the same price as across . I also agree and if you look back I have never disputed that on balance the inflationary effect is likely to be 1-2% as a lot of customers will shop the offers - and for the record it’s not grudgingly either there is really no need for him to say that ! 
 

Where we seem to disagree is about everything outside of the two offer mechanics . Personally I don’t think it is meaningless because those items are around 5% more expensive when prior to the buy out they were not in the Lake Road store - a fact that some people don’t want to accept even though it’s their in black and white ! 
 

Think of it like this a year ago a shopper could buy anything of their choice in the store knowing it was the same price as across but now they can’t . I think your point has been well buy the offer but there are lots of brands and products that I choose because I like them and I don’t necessarily want the alternative which is on offer . 
 

As regards your final point yes there are costs for shipping I completely get that but again those costs existed when there was only the Lake Road store presumably Tesco ‘lost’ them in their overall P &L back then . I also think the main beneficiaries from this are Shoprite customers ironically the losers are the old Tesco Lake Road shoppers !

No, it isn't true to say that everything was the same price here as in the UK a year ago. I agree to the extent that more items were the same then than now, but there were always differentials, mainly on bulky stuff (kitchen rolls etc.), alcohol and some fresh produce (as well as numerous random others). It was never as simple as everything being the same and, incidentally, it had gone through phases of larger and smaller variances over the 20 years Tesco have been here. But yes, if we're splitting hairs, I can agree that the approx 1% uplift that Mrs W deduced from shopping regularly both here and there immediately before the takeover is probably 2% now over the typical basket. So again, I take your point that Lake Road shoppers might be a penny in the pound or so worse off now than before. Perhaps Tesco have taken more heed of the transport cost now that the volume is bigger. Who knows?

Aren't we getting off pretty lightly though? There is no reason for Tesco to do Aldi price match here, but they do. There's no reason for Clubcard offers to be priced the same here as in the UK, but they are. For now. Let's face it. If they were so minded, they could give us quite a roasting.

Of course, if you visit the store for your shopping, you are at liberty to avail of Clubcard Plus and save up to £32.01 per month (on £400 of goods) which would give you better value than most of their UK customers, and it's something else they don't need to offer here.

https://www.tesco.com/clubcard/clubcard-plus

The jury will always be out, but I think up to now they are doing ok by us.

(Takes being reasonable hat off.)

[Gladys]

The nitpicking goes on, and on, and on. 

Despite being called a Tesco cheerleader, I can only compare what we have now with what we had with Shoprite.   Shoprite had its day, probably 40 years ago, under invested in its premises, the range and pricing were poor.  The Vic Road store was never busy, run down and tatty.  It is now always busy, which tells me something.

It is not that I 'hate' Shoprite, or 'love' Tesco, just that Shoprite were a very small player and could not compete.

We have what we have, and overall I am happy with Tesco.  But, I do understand some of the gripes particularly around the Express stores in the likes of Castletown. 

I think the whole thing needs to settle still and would expect that they will fine tune all their stores to maximise the revenue, after all that is what they are about. 

Have to say though that the staff are always pleasant, helpful and seem happy in their job.  That speaks volumes. 

 

 

[Non-Believer]

7 hours ago, Gladys said:

The nitpicking goes on, and on, and on. 

Despite being called a Tesco cheerleader, I can only compare what we have now with what we had with Shoprite.   Shoprite had its day, probably 40 years ago, under invested in its premises, the range and pricing were poor.  The Vic Road store was never busy, run down and tatty.  It is now always busy, which tells me something.

It is not that I 'hate' Shoprite, or 'love' Tesco, just that Shoprite were a very small player and could not compete.

We have what we have, and overall I am happy with Tesco.  But, I do understand some of the gripes particularly around the Express stores in the likes of Castletown. 

I think the whole thing needs to settle still and would expect that they will fine tune all their stores to maximise the revenue, after all that is what they are about. 

Have to say though that the staff are always pleasant, helpful and seem happy in their job.  That speaks volumes. 

Personally, I'm very happy to see that the big Tesco in Ramsey has reopened, IMHO the Co-op has been an expensive experience in comparison with the Tesco/Shoprite before it closed for the refurbishment.

[Tinpot]

I can imagine Tesco social media team reading some of these comments and wondering what sort of backwater they have come to 😂

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/JpRioXTFu3PM3bnC

[IOM]

I went shopping this morning in Tesco . A lot of bare shelves no bananas,  no carrots huge gaps across the bakery and meat aisle - lots of people grumbling! I know the boat has been cancelled but I don’t ever remember shopping being that bad is this what some posters call progress? 

[Vaaish]

32 minutes ago, IOM said:

I went shopping this morning in Tesco . A lot of bare shelves no bananas…

Yes, we have no bananas.

[Frances]

M&S also have empty shelves when the boat is cancelled or late running - Shoprite with 9 shops supplied via a warehouse so possibly a missing delivery didn't immediately result in empty shelves - Lake Road I  understood load shelves from the incoming trailer as do M+S - not sure what happens for the recently acquired Tesco stores which I presume are serviced from the ex-Shoprite warehouse

Edited 10 hours ago by Frances

[Jarndyce]

14 minutes ago, Frances said:

M&S also have empty shelves when the boat is cancelled or late running

Ah, yes: but IOM doesn't care about that - irrelevant to the anti-Tesco agenda!

[Fred the shred]

I was in Victoria Rd at lunchtime bananas and carrots galore you must have just been in before me and missed them.

[CATHYJAY]

Went shopping in Ramsey Tesco today, didn't get half the stuff I would get in the Douglas Tesco store. Even the Tesco Express had more than the "Superstore Tesco" however it is much dearer. I mean what is the point if it means I would be better going to the Tesco in Douglas?