I'm finished with Tesco

grenache

Not an issue of very high importance by any means, but i've had enough of Tesco. I generally find their stores, regardless of location, to be untidy at best, certainly Dunnes, Super Valu and Superquinn are much better appearance wise. The price of a cotton t-shirt i saw in their Wilton store yesterday £3 or €4.50 (the current exchange rate is 89p for €1) was the last straw for me. They simply don't warrant me spending my money in their stores anymore.

First we had their disgraceful treatment of staff in their Douglas store in Cork.............

http://www.ireland.com/stayingin/Tesco_workers_strike_Co_Cork/maxi/fast/news/irnews/229279


then we had them succumbing to pressure from bigots in the North...............

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=60048481


and now we see that they've been ripping us off for a long time, so much so that they make the most profits per capita, in this country.....

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2009/0511/1224246256045.html

Tails142

€4.50 for a t-shirt, the devils!

wmpdd3

Are you for real. In Tesco you pay the sterling so the t-shirt is €3.

Can you get that anywhere else?

grenache

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Are you for real. In Tesco you pay the sterling so the t-shirt is €3.

Can you get that anywhere else?

This t-shirt was cleary marked '£3/€4.50'. I asked a sales assistant just to make sure and she said this was the correct price. So much for their new price reductions!

mp3guy

It's a private company, they can set their prices as they wish, if you don't want to shop there, don't.

No need to inform a message board.

mags16

In my local tesco, those t-shirts were €3

dahamsta

mp3guy wrote: »

It's a private company, they can set their prices as they wish, if you don't want to shop there, don't.

No need to inform a message board.

It's a public forum, anyone can post, if you don't want to read posts, don't.

No need to inform a message board.

Euro_Kraut

mp3guy wrote: »

It's a private company, they can set their prices as they wish, if you don't want to shop there, don't.

No need to inform a message board.

In which case we do any of us on this site bother informing anyone else of our opinions?

Pretty stupid response. The OP has decided not to shop there anymore because she does not like the company and you come along and advise her not to shop there anymore??

You say Tesco are a private company. Where has the OP stated otherwise?

You say Tesco can set their prices as they wish. Where has the OP stated otherwise?

The OP is a private person, she can set what ever opinions as she wishes, if you dont want to read them than dont read bother reading them anymore.

There was no need for you to inform a message board about this.;)

grenache

Euro_Kraut wrote: »

In which case we do any of us on this site bother informing anyone else of our opinions?

Pretty stupid response. The OP has decided not to shop there anymore because she does not like the company and you come along and advise her not to shop there anymore??

You say Tesco are a private company. Where has the OP stated otherwise?

You say Tesco can set their prices as they wish. Where has the OP stated otherwise?

The OP is a private person, she can set what ever opinions as she wishes, if you dont want to read them than dont read bother reading them anymore.

There was no need for you to inform a message board about this.;)

Thank you for coming to my defence against what was a pretty silly comment. But this she is a he

dudara

I will say that the Tesco shop assistant was incorrect. They introduced Euro/Sterling parity on clothing a while back (unless some stores are not participating).

Cabaal

dudara wrote: »

I will say that the Tesco shop assistant was incorrect. They introduced Euro/Sterling parity on clothing a while back (unless some stores are not participating).

Was just about to say they same, I know for a fact that Tesco Waterford will sell an item for 4e if its priced at £4.

I can't find anything on their website just now but it def sounds like the sales assist was incorrect.

[EDIT]
http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/independent-woman/fashion-beauty/summer-fashion-at-euro-prices-1724089.html

And you won't have to head North for the bargains because they are matching the euro price of every item to the sterling price tag.

fatboypee

I've had experience of Tesco as botha consumer and as a customer of the company I used to work for.

Firstly I welcome Tesco to this marketplace and wish -to- the Gods that Asda, Sainsburys etc would follow them here! I find this debate and angst on profits and rip offs remarkably amusing really. Nobody is asking if Dunnes (The difference is, we're BLAND ) are ripping us off, or for that matter, Superquinn, or SuperValu, yet, we all seem amazingly irritated that one of, if not THE lowest priced supermarket is actually making a healthy (nee exporbitant) 50% profit ? If this is so, WTF are the others making ? As surely people shopping in Tesco's do so for low prices ? Therefore indicating that Dunnes (The difference is, We don't do CHOICE in OUR stores ) ...

I welcome Tesco etc here because the have brought variety and choice and competition, more of it I say !

Yet, on the other hand, their tactics in the field of business I personally found abhorrent, not just of late with the staff but in the way I saw them drive the hardest possible prices from their suppliers. I cannot go into specifics on this board but suffice to say it turned my stomach...

Sothere are 2 sides to the coin of Tesco's for me, but I honestly think they could operate both ethically and morally and STILL make a profit here.

Yet i'm hipocritical for one reason in my continuing to shop there, I cannot abide the lack of product choice in the other domestic supermarkets. It is irritating and in modern Ireland, utterly ridiculous, I therefore avoid Dunnes (the difference is, We're BORING ) for food shopping at every opportunity..

Just my 2p..

FBP.

kmick

I have shopped in Dunnes and Tesco and prefer Dunnes. Tesco is dirty, the shelves tend to be empty more and their fruit and veg is woeful. Dunnes have come a long way in the last 10 years and even their smaller stores say e.g. Rathmines are quite good now. Tesco by their own stats are 0.5% more expensive then Dunnes - who would have guessed. Plus Dunnes is owned by an Irish family. tesco recently asked their suppliers to take a 20% pay cut in ireland. Imagine how many jobs will be lost because of that. You cant say no either they just de-list you. I love superquinn as well but it is just too expensive. Funny thing is in the UK Tesco is the supermarket for poor people -it is the worst of the bunch over there.

dahamsta

kmick wrote: »

Tesco is dirty, the shelves tend to be empty more and their fruit and veg is woeful.

I hate to sound like the constant defender of Tesco, but this is very definitely a localised thing and not a fair criticism to make across the board. Ditto the "sh1tty meat" complaint regularly levelled on Boards. I shop regularly in 2 stores in Cork (Midleton & Mahon) and 3 others irregularly (Youghal, Wilton & Douglas) and these complaints simply don't apply to any of them. The veg is fine, if occasionally decimated; the meat is very good in my experience; and the stores are kept neat and tidy bar a bit of clutter when restocking.

I can't speak for the poster above, but I'm convinced many complainants have gone into one store, once, not seen what they liked, and bitched about it ever since.

Jip

mags16 wrote: »

In my local tesco, those t-shirts were €3

Ah, but it's so much easier to complain on the interweb than actually doing anything to resolve the issue in store with a manager.

kmick wrote:

Funny thing is in the UK Tesco is the supermarket for poor people -it is the worst of the bunch over there.

Look down much ?
Recent surveys from Watchdog say otherwise.


I'm going to echo what Dahamsta has said above, I also hate to sould like a constant defender of them but sometimes you have to wonder what goes through some peoples head and do they go out of their way to put themselves in a position where they have something to complain about.

Irish farmers should be more upset with people on boards than with Tesco due to people sayng how bad their meat is. Simple fact is that it's no worse than any other supermarket.

Cabaal

dahamsta wrote: »

I hate to sound like the constant defender of Tesco, but this is very definitely a localised thing and not a fair criticism to make across the board. Ditto the "sh1tty meat" complaint regularly levelled on Boards. I shop regularly in 2 stores in Cork (Midleton & Mahon) and 3 others irregularly (Youghal, Wilton & Douglas) and these complaints simply don't apply to any of them. The veg is fine, if occasionally decimated; the meat is very good in my experience; and the stores are kept neat and tidy bar a bit of clutter when restocking.

I can't speak for the poster above, but I'm convinced many complainants have gone into one store, once, not seen what they liked, and bitched about it ever since.

I';d have to agree with all of the above, just because one or two stores are messy etc does not mean they all are.

For example there are three stores in Waterford city, two are perfectly fine with good stock etc but one is very poor stock etc....doesn't mean they all are.

dlambirl

grenache wrote: »

This t-shirt was cleary marked '£3/€4.50'. I asked a sales assistant just to make sure and she said this was the correct price. So much for their new price reductions!

Those t-shirts were marked before Tesco introduced the changes so even though it was marked with a euro price you pay the sterling price.

I have to say I did my weekly shop there on saturday and i found good value. So much so that I will be heading to Tesco this saturday for my weekly shop. I'm sick of going to Super Valu and getting the stuff on special offer to find on my reciept that i was charged full price :mad:

Xterminator

well, there a re 3 tescos near me and the big 2 are fine, though the smaller store is less than great.

then again i noticed dunnes stores are the same, standards vary from shop to shop. and superquinn in finglas is badly in need of as refurbish.

bladespin

£ = € in Navan and Drogheda

It's only a shop, why the big drama???

jor el

Instead of a mickey mouse promotion like £ = € on clothing, I'd much prefer they drop their grocery prices, to bring them into line with their UK profit margin.

Having said that, I do my shopping in Tesco, Dunnes, Lidl and Aldi, so I'm a grocery-whore.

ch750536

Local butchers = loads cheaper and way better quality.

O'Sullivans Tralee,

5lb good beef mince, €8 (local)
10 steak burgers (1 is a meal) €6 (local)
2 large chickens €14 (local, does not shrink)
Pale Back Bacon 4lbs €10 (really good stuff)

Enough meat there for 9 meals for a family of 4 plus snacks - €38

Veg, local grocers doing pinks for 50c kilo.
Carrots, cabbage etc, cheap as chips.

works out at around €1 per head per meal.

Try to beat that at Tesco (take into account the quality of the produce)

kmick

I have had experience in tesco Phibsboro, Rathmines, Rathfarnam. I have also been in Paul Street Cork so I am not talking about one store here. Their fruit and Veg is acknowledged by all who have shopped around to be the worst of any of the supermarkets. I buy meat in the butcher because it is cheaper then the supermarket. Also I buy lots of products in Aldi and Lidl so I dont look down on people as suggested earlier. Its all my opinion I dont mind where you shop to be honest.

GreeBo

Jip wrote: »

Irish farmers should be more upset with people on boards than with Tesco due to people sayng how bad their meat is. Simple fact is that it's no worse than any other supermarket.

The meat argument makes no sense to me. Meat is not meat. There is a huge variance in quality of meat and the prices reflect this. If you are paying a pittance you will get crappy meat, same as if u pay pennies for silk, you get ****ty silk.

For products like mince, burgers, sausages etc there is huge difference between "Good" and "Bad", both in butchers and in stores.

dahamsta

ch750536 wrote: »

Local butchers = loads cheaper and way better quality.

I don't have a problem with Tesco quality so I don't see a difference there, and if anything my experience with prices is that they tend to be higher locally, but that doesn't stop me shopping locally some of the time. Supporting local businesses and producers directly would be the primary factor for me.

kmick wrote: »

Their fruit and Veg is acknowledged by all who have shopped around to be the worst of any of the supermarkets.

All? Have you interviewed them "all" individually? I've certainly shopped around, and I haven't been presented with your survey. I look forward to completing it.

GreeBo wrote: »

For products like mince, burgers, sausages etc there is huge difference between "Good" and "Bad", both in butchers and in stores.

Absolutely, and in most shops - multiple and local - you can take your pick. Mince in particular is a great example, since different types of mince suit different types of meals -- in Tesco and most local butchers you can usually get at least two different qualities of mince, and often 3 or more.

(OT: I got scary stuff last week for burgers; I usually get the cheapest because it's has the most flavour, but I overstepped the mark. The fat I poured off the frying pan blocked the drain! Ewww! Never again!)

ch750536

Really simple test here, drain minced beef with boiling water, see how much it costs to get a kilo after draining all the fat.

Bet anyone €100 that Tesco is more expensive than my local butcher.

Tesco don't have butchers, they have service assistants. I can find 4 time served quality butchers in town who know how to cut, treat & care for the food.

Think a Tesco employee is going to give a damn?

calex71

dahamsta wrote: »

(OT: I got scary stuff last week for burgers; I usually get the cheapest because it's has the most flavour, but I overstepped the mark. The fat I poured off the frying pan blocked the drain! Ewww! Never again!)

Was it the tesco value stuff??? I made spag-bol with it recently, had the same near drain blockage, and the leftovers in the fridge had great big solid lumps of fat in it :eek:

grenache

dahamsta wrote: »

The fat I poured off the frying pan blocked the drain! Ewww! Never again!)[/I]

What were you thinking pouring frying pan fat down a drain? No wonder it got blocked.

dahamsta

calex71 wrote: »

Was it the tesco value stuff??? I made spag-bol with it recently, had the same near drain blockage, and the leftovers in the fridge had great big solid lumps of fat in it :eek:

I don't think it was, but it was the cheapest stuff. I'll get the middle stuff in future. The lean stuff has no flavour to it.

grenache wrote: »

What were you thinking pouring frying pan fat down a drain? No wonder it got blocked.

I don't use fat in my frying pan, I use vegetable oil. The fat was from the mince, and this is the first time I've ever had mince that fatty. And mind your own business.

Sir Oxman

"What were you thinking pouring frying pan fat down a drain? No wonder it got blocked."


"I don't use fat in my frying pan, I use vegetable oil. The fat was from the mince, and this is the first time I've ever had mince that fatty. And mind your own business"


LOL!

grenache

dahamsta wrote: »

I don't use fat in my frying pan, I use vegetable oil. The fat was from the mince, and this is the first time I've ever had mince that fatty. And mind your own business.

Firstly, dont post what you did on a public boards if you dont want people to comment on it. Secondly, anyone with their wits about them knows not to pour oil or fatty substances down a sink's drain.

partyatmygaff

grenache wrote: »

Firstly, dont post what you did on a public boards if you dont want people to comment on it. Secondly, anyone with their wits about them knows not to pour oil or fatty substances down a sink's drain.

The trick is to not use any oil at all, the fat that comes out will make up for it and +1 on the boiling water tip.

foggy_lad

fatboypee wrote: »

Just my 2p..

euro pound parity?

Jip wrote: »

Ah, but it's so much easier to complain on the interweb than actually doing anything to resolve the issue in store with a manager.

the managers dont care at all they just want complaining customers to shut the hell up and get out of the store!

wmpdd3

grenache wrote: »

This t-shirt was cleary marked '£3/€4.50'. I asked a sales assistant just to make sure and she said this was the correct price. So much for their new price reductions!

It was the right price!

Did you ask her if you would be paying €4.50?

The store in Wilton had 26 red white banners over each section in clothing saying 'pay the sterling price in euro' last time I was there. (weekend before last)

seaner

I'm inclined to agree with the OP. I'm getting tired of Tesco. I shop there most weekends, because its the largest supermarket in my area. I'm always on the look out for special offers, and especially now I'm down to a three day week I have to watch my pennies.

What annoys me is that while Tesco from time to time has great offers, and you can make a good saving, the basics that people require are ALWAYS higher than the equivalent product in the likes of Lidl etc.

I'm starting to do more shopping in Lidl, and I'm also beginning to buy my meat from my local butchers. And I do agree with another poster here that I can spend the same in the butchers (or most likley less) and get WAY more stuff, and the quality isn't even comparable to the crap that tesco has.

I wouldn't touch Tesco Value meat. Its muck. Seriously bad...

I'd love to see the likes of Sainsburys etc come to Ireland. Tesco has no real competitor. My nearest Dunnes is a 30 min drive. The only 'low cost' supermarket we have in my area, is a small sized Lidl. As I said we I do some of my shopping in Lidl, but the choice of product isn't great.

It just gets depressing when I've got a half full shopping trolley (having tried to buy the cheapest of the cheap when it comes to essentials like toilet paper / shampoos / black sacks / bread / butter etc) and its still pushing nearly €100.

dahamsta

ch750536 wrote: »

Bet anyone €100 that Tesco is more expensive than my local butcher.

Where does your local butcher's meat come from? I'm not refuting your claim outright, but economies of scale make it very hard to believe, unless he's using imported meat.

grenache wrote: »

Secondly, anyone with their wits about them knows not to pour oil or fatty substances down a sink's drain.

Anyone with a brain in their head would have read the post they're replying to before commenting on it.

seaner wrote: »

I wouldn't touch Tesco Value meat. Its muck. Seriously bad.

Define bad please. What bad meat did you get? How many times? How many stores did you go to?

wmpdd3

Hey if this guy thinks the meat is muck maybe he should advise Tesco to source their meat outside Ireland.

grenache

dahamsta wrote: »

Anyone with a brain in their head would have read the post they're replying to before commenting on it.

Perhaps you'd wish to extrapolate on that for me?? The irony of that post isn't lost on me, considering you poured oil down your sink ;-)

kmick

dahamsta wrote: »

Where does your local butcher's meat come from? I'm not refuting your claim outright, but economies of scale make it very hard to believe, unless he's using imported meat.QUOTE]

You obviously have not been in a butchers recently? Local butchers are cheaper for the last 2-3 years. Also local fruit and veg shops tend to be cheaper on spuds, carrots i.e. non imported stuff. Lidl and Aldi is cheaper on stuff like washing powder, black bags, i.e. non food items. Tesco's own figures show they are 0.5% more expensive than Dunnes. So if you are saying that tesco is cheaper it just does not stack up.

seaner

dahamsta wrote: »

Define bad please. What bad meat did you get? How many times? How many stores did you go to?

Well I mean that the cheapest ranges that Tesco have, that is, their Tesco Value range, in my opinion is of a much lower standard compared to similarly priced meat products from my butchers.

I've had experience with their mince, chickens (whole and fillets) and especially their steaks.

With the mince, its mostly fat. You can see it even in its raw state and its more evident upon cooking. I used it once for a spag bol and the amount of meat I started out with had halved by the time it was finished cooking, because most of the meat was made up of fat. The mince that did remain was swimming in a pan full of fat. Not particularly a nice sight. And don't worry I didn't drain this down my sink!

The chickens (tesco value chicken breasts) are nice and plump and appear to be of decent quality in their raw state. But when they are cooked they are stringy, tasteless and probably pumped full of something to make them look a lot more succulent than they actually are.

Their steaks...well I can't even compare a Tesco steak to my local butchers steak. Honestly...there's a world of difference. I like fillet steak, although from time to time I'll have striploin. The steaks I can purchase from my local butchers are mouth-watering and delicious. Any tesco steaks I've had (now remember i'm comparing like with like when it comes to price...i'm sure their Tesco Finest range is nice enough) are streaky with fat throughout the entire steak and like i said...are muck!

I'm giving this opinion on my own experience within my local Tesco. I'm certainly not saying that EVERY Tesco store in the whole of Ireland has similar standards. However I think for me to report my experiences from my local Tesco is reasonable and fair. And even if I were to find that a Tesco further from my local, has much higher standards when it comes to their meat products, why should I have to travel afar to get decent meat? ?

dudara

Posters, no more discussion on Adam's pipes, please!

dudara

dh0661

You obviously have not been in a butchers recently? Local butchers are cheaper for the last 2-3 years. Also local fruit and veg shops tend to be cheaper on spuds, carrots i.e.

New season locally grown queens in local greengrocer (Tralee) @ €5-50kg
expensive yes, but well worth it IMO, yummy.

I also shop in local butchers, where 90% of their meat and poultry is sourced locally. I do find vacumed packed corned beef from Dunnes quiet good.

eth0_

dahamsta wrote: »

Where does your local butcher's meat come from? I'm not refuting your claim outright, but economies of scale make it very hard to believe, unless he's using imported meat.

Agreed - no way is tesco more expensive than a local butchers.
The reason? Because Tesco ACTIVELY SUPPORT ANIMAL CRUELTY - intensive farming, battery farming etc. A chicken selling for 3-4 euro is not a chicken that has had a good life and therefore will taste like crap, just like all of Tesco's produce.

My local Tesco in Edinburgh was selling roast chickens for £1.99 the other day. Under two pounds! When you take into account how much "value add" they're taking from the actual cooking of the chicken, you can guarantee the farmer received under £1 for that poor, pathetic bird.

Jip

Is this another wild claim just because you suspect something without actually having any hard evidence to back it up ? I'm not saying it's not true but I think any allegation like this should be fully backed up with proof and evidence.

newman10

Jip wrote: »

Is this another wild claim just because you suspect something without actually having any hard evidence to back it up ? I'm not saying it's not true but I think any allegation like this should be fully backed up with proof and evidence.

Big TV series done on Channell 4 last Autumn showing how Tesco/Morrissons/ASDA chickens were reared. It was not a pretty sight

run_Forrest_run

newman10 wrote: »

Big TV series done on Channell 4 last Autumn showing how Tesco/Morrissons/ASDA chickens were reared. It was not a pretty sight

I saw that show alright, nasty stuff but surely that sort of thing isn't confined to the above mentioned stores?

Jip

Saw that, wasn't that Tesco UK ? Whereas the chicken in Ireland comes from both the republic and the north ? That's not including ready meals though.

ch750536

dahamsta wrote: »

Where does your local butcher's meat come from? I'm not refuting your claim outright, but economies of scale make it very hard to believe, unless he's using imported meat.

I posted a link, with all the sources.
www.sulmeat.com

newman10

I'm not quiet sure but if you change the makeup of imported chicken and dose it with breadcrumbs and garlic you can put an iriish sticker on the package. I stand to be corrected.

Another matter here is that with the demand for cheaper food prices the producer ie farmer or co-op is going to be squeezed and we will end up in an UK situation whereby the Supermarket is able to dictate and what is "good for the Supermarket is good for the public"

Then Standards will fall and we will have become another Shire :eek:

Dont know if its not too late and no I am not in any way attatched to the Food Business

ch750536

eth0_ wrote: »

Agreed - no way is tesco more expensive than a local butchers.
The reason? Because Tesco ACTIVELY SUPPORT ANIMAL CRUELTY - intensive farming, battery farming e....

Yes, sorry. I only buy free range chickens. Tesco ones are more expensive than my local butcher.

Also, www.sulmeat.com for the organic low fat pork sausages, hand made from Dingle. ftw.

Jip

newman10 wrote: »

I'm not quiet sure but if you change the makeup of imported chicken and dose it with breadcrumbs and garlic you can put an iriish sticker on the package. I stand to be corrected.

It applies to any product someway processed in any EU country, once it's processed it can then be said to be a product of that country. A change to this has been resisted in Europe. However I did say the chicken comes from Ireland and Northern Ireland, i.e. sourced, not processed in Ireland.

eth0_

Jip wrote: »

Saw that, wasn't that Tesco UK ? Whereas the chicken in Ireland comes from both the republic and the north ? That's not including ready meals though.

If you saw the laughable amount Tesco force their suppliers to accept, you wouldn't be at all surprised to see intensive/cruel farming happening in Ireland too.

And even if their suppliers in Ireland are ok, I wouldn't buy a thing off them because they still actively support and encourage animal cruelty in the UK with their £1.99 chickens and cheap meat.