Sophie Puss - contemplating her navel.
For several years I have burbled along doing my weekly shop at my local Tesco store using it as a convenient one stop shop on my way home from work on a Friday night. A man of habit getting most of my fruit and veges and other groceries there as well as a selection of meat and fish. I like a glass or two of red wine at the weekend so Tesco's wine racks were attacked as well. So for a while all was well except that gradually I became aware of the insiduous increase in the Tesco brands that replaced the brand names that were my favorites.
I came to terms with the changes and showed mild annoyance at the 2 for 1 deals on products where to buy one was good but two meant waste. I liked to buy my meat from the meat counter but the prices of meat when sky high and so I resorted to the packaged stuff which was cheaper. As I shopped for dairy products, tea and coffee I began to be aware of brand names disappearing in favor of Tesco's own and that disturbed me. The cost of a cheap bottle of wine rose by a pound and that annoyed me.
But the thing that gave me a wake up call against the company was when my local branch discontinued a most excellent cat litter product that not only absorbed smells but was light and easy to dispense and dispose of, they replaced it with an inferior product. I went to the customer service desk to complain as any grumpy old man would to discover the stock reply that it was a head office decision.
To date I have had no reply to my emails and was fobbed off with a customer feedback card which was not what I wanted. .
Result: I am now becoming aware of the way Tesco's operates and will no longer let them control what I do as a customer.
Niggles: The way they follow my buying patterns and offer me extra points on what I buy as if there is a camera looking over my shoulder. The way Tesco's own brands are taking over the shelves. The 2 for 1 and 4 for 3 deals that could be otherwise offered as genuine discounts. The quality of the out of season produce - like the vegetables sold they are bland and uninteresting to taste - rot quickly and lead to waste. The steady increase in cheap non-grocery goods many of which are so shoddy as to give no value for money.
Loyalty to Tesco's is loyalty to their high profits and the opression of the primary producer - not loyalty to the customer.
Rant over.
ok