Tesco Poleberry

Anon0000

Have heard a few rumours including staff from the shop that Tesco in Poleberry is planning on closing its doors? Anybody shed some light on this?

ziedth

I used to work in the grocery side of retail and i heard a number of years ago that the place hasn't really turned over a profit since it opened they only keep it going with a skeleton staff so a competitor won't go into such a prime location and rob business from other tescos.

Could be wrong but makes sense to me.

Sully

I thought there was a plan to knock and re-build?

Anon0000

Thats what i heard first about the plan to rebuild but have been told in the last few days that the workers were planning strike action apparently about the cut in hours but are now afraid to do so because they are afraid they will just close the doors behind them if they do???

Cabaal

Sully wrote: »

I thought there was a plan to knock and re-build?

They've had planning permission up for this since Storm Cinema opened,

gobo99

Staff will be going on strike within the next few weeks in a dispute over the cutting of hours below those negotiated in workers contracts. They balloted this week and the result was hugely in favour of a strike. Dispute effects 21 tesco stores including Polberry, but not ardkeen, lisdugan or Tramore.

Typhoon.

All the stores should have a walk out .. theres strength in numbers....its polebery this week..ardkeen next week...if the staff dont stand up for themselves they'l get boxed into a corner ..... AND maybe tesco will think about bringing their peices into line with the stores they have along the border if they loose customers for a few weeks!

Sully

Typhoon. wrote: »

AND maybe tesco will think about bringing their peices into line with the stores they have along the border if they loose customers for a few weeks!

To be fair, Tesco often works out cheaper then other big supermarkets such as Super Value. Afaik, the issue with prices is their suppliers here. They move suppliers, and you see protests from farmers at Tesco meetings as a result.

wmpdd3

ziedth wrote: »

I used to work in the grocery side of retail and i heard a number of years ago that the place hasn't really turned over a profit since it opened they only keep it going with a skeleton staff so a competitor won't go into such a prime location and rob business from other tescos.

Could be wrong but makes sense to me.

I don't know if that is true about the store not turning a profit, but if they did go out on strike would they close down the store?

It's possible.....

I always shopped in poleberry, it's the closest Tesco to me, really like the store.

It would be a shame if it did close it's so close to town.

Why are the hours cut below contracted hours in only those stores?

ziedth

wmpdd3 wrote: »

I don't know if that is true about the store not turning a profit, but if they did go out on strike would they close down the store?

It's possible.....

I always shopped in poleberry, it's the closest Tesco to me, really like the store.

It would be a shame if it did close it's so close to town.

Why are the hours cut below contracted hours in only those stores?

Ya now I could be wrong but it was word on "the street" if you will,

AKAIK is the strike action over the opening hours being changed again?

wmpdd3

Typhoon. wrote: »

All the stores should have a walk out .. theres strength in numbers....its polebery this week..ardkeen next week...if the staff dont stand up for themselves they'l get boxed into a corner ..... AND maybe tesco will think about bringing their peices into line with the stores they have along the border if they loose customers for a few weeks!

With 400,000 unemployed in the country how long do you think they would have to wait before they find staff willing to cross the picket?

Kotek Besar

Typhoon. wrote: »

AND maybe tesco will think about bringing their peices into line with the stores they have along the border if they loose customers for a few weeks!

Sorry for going a bit off topic, and I know this is old news, but it's kinda unfair that they've cut prices in ROI stores up near the border, but not in the rest of the country.

mike65

They are "rolling out" the reductions, so the peninsulas of west Cork and Kerry should be the last to benefit

Dr. Baltar

Mod Edit - Post Edited
Less of the smart remarks

If you have nothing constructive to add,don't bother adding anything at all

Typhoon.

the strike action is because Tesco want to cut hours

the full time staff wouldn't agree to drop an hour.. they said it was breaking their contract, they(fulltimers) want the part time staff to drop 3 hours.... so they called a ballot...

Dr. Baltar

My apologies.
I didn't mean to offend. I thought it was a harmless joke.

Typhoon.

wmpdd3 wrote: »

With 400,000 unemployed in the country how long do you think they would have to wait before they find staff willing to cross the picket?

IMHO they can find as many "scabby" staff as they like....if they have no customers to shop in tthe place it wont do them any good

I wont be passing a picket !

wmpdd3

If they have no customers may as well close.

Typhoon.

thats why they need every store to support them.... they cant close them all

MrLuke

Tesco in Poleberry is the worst supermarket on the planet, I know people who will not shop there and can only assume that many others are the same.

Unfortunatly I have lived near it off and on for the best part of seven years and it is nothing short of a joke. Friends have theories that the worst staff end up working in that Tesco to keep them all in one place. The fresh fruit and veg is rarely fresh, eg. I dont think i have ever bought a loose onion in that place that wasnt rotten. They must buy them in rotten to be so consistently rotten each and every time

Before 10am theres no staff on the shop floor. The staff that are there have a constant expression of contempt, (with a dash of hatred). Don't dare ask them for something 'out of the ordinary'. One day I was in bit of a rush and I trying to buy the paper and some blaa's. These two simple items are stocked seperatly, in the newsagent part at the front and in the main store. I picked up the paper and walked towards the main store and my god was I never so embarrased when the girl working in the shop called me back as if I was trying to rob the paper. I explained I was in a rush and all i wanted was a paper and two blaa's, would it be possible for me not have to queue for each item individually. All i got was a big ignorant NO and you can say 'NO' in many ways but to bite my head off?

I have been asked for ID in that place by staff, not when I was in my 20's but when i was 32, yes 32. Didnt have it on either occasion and in order to get the drink I had to go home and get ID (although on the second occasion they apologised). In 1996 I worked there as a merchandiser for another company and my god, the backroom staff, one person in particular, I have never witnessed an individual with such a 'God' like complex. All he did was count the items going into the store to make sure it matched what was being invoiced. But he was so aggressive, like he was going to physically assault you in the process. When i realised that this guy was permanently like that (and had to deal with him 6 days a week) I used look for ways to wind him up.

Thats off the top of my head. I'm sure I have more 'worst supermarket in the world' stories from the last 7 years of living beside it. I had hoped they would rip the place apart and rebuild it, start afresh, in doing so erase seven years of terrible customer service from my mind.

I understand staff have off days, I understand that there are circumstances that are beyond all our control that can explain bad customer service. However to be so consistently terrible on each and every occasion I shop there really takes some beating. I do also know the nice staff in there, but I can literally point her out from the rest.

Them going on strike removes the one and only thing they had going for them - ease of use.

Tesco Poleberry - good riddance.

MrLuke

Typhoon. wrote: »

thats why they need every store to support them.... they cant close them all

But TBH it seems like an internal issue - full timers versus part timers. Why should every store support them? Who's sticking up for the part timers? Nobody.

ziedth

MrLuke wrote: »

But TBH it seems like an internal issue - full timers versus part timers. Why should every store support them? Who's sticking up for the part timers? Nobody.

I don't want to take this too much off topic but am i to understand that the full timers want the part timers to take the cut in hours and they stay on 39?

How many hours are they loosing?

wmpdd3

If they are pre 1996 they have 39 hr contract rather than 35-39 hour contracts so they would be taking new contracts. The part timers would be 20-25 hr contracts so if they got cut to 20 hrs they would have the same contracts.

If sales have fallen and they have a had a cut in hours wouldn't they be better off trying to make more sales rather than driving customers away?

ziedth

i know of another large retailer in town thag have cut their hours down to 35 each now rightly they are not happy about it but they didn't try and screw over the part time staff in their.

That would annoy me tbh. If i'm wrong i apologise in advance.

Anon0000

MrLuke wrote: »

Tesco in Poleberry is the worst supermarket on the planet, I know people who will not shop there and can only assume that many others are the same.

Unfortunatly I have lived near it off and on for the best part of seven years and it is nothing short of a joke. Friends have theories that the worst staff end up working in that Tesco to keep them all in one place. The fresh fruit and veg is rarely fresh, eg. I dont think i have ever bought a loose onion in that place that wasnt rotten. They must buy them in rotten to be so consistently rotten each and every time

Before 10am theres no staff on the shop floor. The staff that are there have a constant expression of contempt, (with a dash of hatred). Don't dare ask them for something 'out of the ordinary'. One day I was in bit of a rush and I trying to buy the paper and some blaa's. These two simple items are stocked seperatly, in the newsagent part at the front and in the main store. I picked up the paper and walked towards the main store and my god was I never so embarrased when the girl working in the shop called me back as if I was trying to rob the paper. I explained I was in a rush and all i wanted was a paper and two blaa's, would it be possible for me not have to queue for each item individually. All i got was a big ignorant NO and you can say 'NO' in many ways but to bite my head off?

I have been asked for ID in that place by staff, not when I was in my 20's but when i was 32, yes 32. Didnt have it on either occasion and in order to get the drink I had to go home and get ID (although on the second occasion they apologised). In 1996 I worked there as a merchandiser for another company and my god, the backroom staff, one person in particular, I have never witnessed an individual with such a 'God' like complex. All he did was count the items going into the store to make sure it matched what was being invoiced. But he was so aggressive, like he was going to physically assault you in the process. When i realised that this guy was permanently like that (and had to deal with him 6 days a week) I used look for ways to wind him up.

Thats off the top of my head. I'm sure I have more 'worst supermarket in the world' stories from the last 7 years of living beside it. I had hoped they would rip the place apart and rebuild it, start afresh, in doing so erase seven years of terrible customer service from my mind.

I understand staff have off days, I understand that there are circumstances that are beyond all our control that can explain bad customer service. However to be so consistently terrible on each and every occasion I shop there really takes some beating. I do also know the nice staff in there, but I can literally point her out from the rest.

Them going on strike removes the one and only thing they had going for them - ease of use.

Tesco Poleberry - good riddance.

Well said.To be honest out of all the supermarkets in town it is probably the one id stay away from-very dirty looking and the whole place seems to be falling apart

Cabaal

MrLuke wrote: »

Before 10am theres no staff on the shop floor. The staff that are there have a constant expression of contempt, (with a dash of hatred). Don't dare ask them for something 'out of the ordinary'. One day I was in bit of a rush and I trying to buy the paper and some blaa's.

These two simple items are stocked seperatly, in the newsagent part at the front and in the main store. I picked up the paper and walked towards the main store and my god was I never so embarrased when the girl working in the shop called me back as if I was trying to rob the paper. I explained I was in a rush and all i wanted was a paper and two blaa's, would it be possible for me not have to queue for each item individually. All i got was a big ignorant NO and you can say 'NO' in many ways but to bite my head off?

Thats nothing to do with staff thats the way its setup in the store which is down to Tesco as company, either way I can understand why she thought you were robbing the paper.

Perhaps you should have asked first before walking away with it, it might have stopped any misunderstanding before hand

I have been asked for ID in that place by staff, not when I was in my 20's but when i was 32, yes 32. Didnt have it on either occasion and in order to get the drink I had to go home and get ID (although on the second occasion they apologised).

They are entitled to by law to ask for ID, they are doing nothing wrong here.

tsunam

they are only 5 or 6 full time staff working in poleberry i dont think them loosing an hour would help the part timers. tesco are only on the gravy train. but if everyone stick together with this strike maybe the part timers will get there hours back

wmpdd3

Well hours have been cut in our store too but were bustin our asses trying to increase sales so we can get thouse hours back.

paddy smith

Sully wrote: »

I thought there was a plan to knock and re-build?

thats what they should do,
tesco poleberry is a disgrace and the car park is filthy

iseegirls

I heard it's doing a small bit better now that Penneys are across from them for the few months. I haven't seen that fella who monitors the parking in there for a while - maybe Tesco welcome in ppl to park in their car park to shop in Penneys and then go into Tesco.

Aside from that - yes it's an absolute tip. Are lifestyle Sports going to stay in there? Was passing today and it seemed really empty.

ziedth

i saw ya man in there maybe 2 weeks ago. First time i ever saw him in there in point of fact.

Anon0000

iseegirls wrote: »

I heard it's doing a small bit better now that Penneys are across from them for the few months. I haven't seen that fella who monitors the parking in there for a while - maybe Tesco welcome in ppl to park in their car park to shop in Penneys and then go into Tesco.

Aside from that - yes it's an absolute tip. Are lifestyle Sports going to stay in there? Was passing today and it seemed really empty.

yeah penneys paid tesco bout 10k for the use of the car park for there customers apparently

Anon0000

ziedth wrote: »

i saw ya man in there maybe 2 weeks ago. First time i ever saw him in there in point of fact.

he's only ever in there weds to saturday so if you want free parking go in there sun-tuesday

paddy smith

Anon0000 wrote: »

he's only ever in there weds to saturday so if you want free parking go in there sun-tuesday

or slip him a fiver and park there whenever you want :cool:

gobo99

An update on the strike situation here

Tesco faces strike action over cuts in working hours

TRADE UNION Mandate is to serve strike notice on 19 Tesco Ireland stores in a dispute over cuts in working hours for staff.
The strike action will initially take place on July 2nd, followed by two further days on July 9th and 10th. The union said further strikes could follow. However, Mandate also said that it was available to meet the company in an effort to resolve the dispute.
Mandate said the row centred around the company breaching an agreement made in 2006 on workers’ hours. It also maintained that Tesco was using the recession as a means to reduce the living standards of workers in the pursuit of extravagant profit margins.
Linda Tanham of Mandate said the cutbacks to hours mean some members are losing out on up to €100 per week.
The Tesco stores involved in the threatened strike action are: Arklow, Ashbourne, Bloomfield, Carlow, Crumlin, Gorey, Greystones, Killarney New Street, Longford, Naas, Navan, Newbridge, Omni (Santry, Dublin), Poleberry, Rathfarnham, Roscrea, Roxboro, Tralee Manor and Wicklow.

and here

Also i was talking to some of the lads in there today and the store will be getting a refit. It will be completed before the end of the summer.

MrLuke

Cabaal wrote: »

Thats nothing to do with staff thats the way its setup in the store which is down to Tesco as company, either way I can understand why she thought you were robbing the paper.

Perhaps you should have asked first before walking away with it, it might have stopped any misunderstanding before hand



They are entitled to by law to ask for ID, they are doing nothing wrong here.

My point was the ignorance of the staff in there. Hide it behind 'Tesco company policy' or 'the law', you still have to admit the staff are fairly bad in there. Many ways to tell someone 'no' without biting their head off! I'm probably one of the few people who shops there regularly due to circumstances and not out of choice. As you might notice its a fairly dead supermarket (although it has picked up in recent months - is this due to more aggressive pricing policy or Pennys moving or a mix of both?). The fact Tesco are looking for cuts in hours, leading to this strike, would also point to the store being one of the less busy Tesco's in the country. Why isn't Tesco in Poleberry busy? It is in the city centre, it has ample parking and much larger than its closeest city centre rival Dunnes. Is it because there's many more annoyed customers out there who share my opinion but have the means to shop elsewhere?

Kotek Besar

I tried to take a TV back there once. It was faulty, less than a year old. Didn't have the receipt, didn't have the box. Did have my credit card statement showing the purchase.

Staff wouldn't have it though - insisted I needed the receipt as "the receipt is your guarantee", AND they insisted I had the box.

Asked for the manager, manager wasn't there. Was told he'd ring me the next day, he never did.

Ended up taking the TV to Ardkeen, staff there swapped it for a new one, there and then. I've never been back to Tesco Poleberry since.

wmpdd3

Seems like everybody I know has had a cut in pay or hours or increased hours for no pay, no strikes there, they know if they don't agree they will lose their job how are these guys different?

Are they expecting all other Tesco employees to go on strike too. or is the threat just a threat?

Twice they say they are open to negation with Tesco in the union link above.

kilkennycat2004

MrLuke wrote: »

Friends have theories that the worst staff end up working in that Tesco to keep them all in one place. .

If theres a more ignorant person than the 50 year old lady (APPROX) , who is responsible for check out training & hiring staff I would not like to meet him/her.

I too lived nearby & this one is a total ignoramous.:eek:

renraw

looks like the first stirke is due next week. I for one won't be crossing any picket line. The majority of the staff in there are sound out and Tesco's record profits for the last quarter is just them being greedy and wanting more for their shareholders. looks like Dunnes in City Square or Lidl! Its going to be a repeat of the glass factory! and i hope the staff get what they want and truly deserve! coz they are hard workers and having to put up with any power tripping manager is hard!

wmpdd3

I like the staff too but if the store isn't making enough sales to pay the current payroll bill, where do you want the money to come from?

From the more profitable stores?

If they strike that will effect sales and they payroll budget will be even less next year.

gobo99

Strike has been cancelled apparently after talks yesterday. A Labour Court hearing has been mentioned.

wmpdd3

Looks like it was a threat than, as a trip to the LRC was on the cards all along.

I'd say they have a good chance of getting a favorable decision in the LRC, but this probably means they will be getting the lion's share of payroll bills so no pay increases for all other members of staff while this goes on.

Jayeire

Shop is an utter disgrace. Pure waste of space. Fridges stocked with crisps.... and an appalling lack customer service. If you want you goods f**ked down the checkout then this is the supermarket to go to. :mad:
Gone are the days when it used to be among the best supermarkets we had.
All we are left with it a scruffy reminder of times gone by......

j2009

Their pay and display parking system is turning customers away. They should allow free parking for a period of time long enough to get your shopping.

Kotek Besar

j2009 wrote: »

Their pay and display parking system is turning customers away. They should allow free parking for a period of time long enough to get your shopping.

Are you thinking of another supermarket? Parking at Tesco Poleberry is free for customers for 2 hours iirc.

ziedth

ya i thought that too, free all day if you pick the right days

j2009

benifa wrote: »

Are you thinking of another supermarket? Parking at Tesco Poleberry is free for customers for 2 hours iirc.

No, that's the one I was thinking of. Maybe they changed it or maybe I didn't read it right. I don't go there much at all anymore.

Cabaal

j2009 wrote: »

No, that's the one I was thinking of. Maybe they changed it or maybe I didn't read it right. I don't go there much at all anymore.

Tesco Poleberry has been free like this for years, still is

Sully

Cabaal wrote: »

Tesco Poleberry has been free like this for years, still is

Yup.. They have a parking company managing it but they dont charge, just issue clamps if you overstay your welcome basically. None of the other Tescos in Tramore/Waterford do this.

Cabaal

Sully wrote: »

Yup.. They have a parking company managing it but they dont charge, just issue clamps if you overstay your welcome basically. None of the other Tescos in Tramore/Waterford do this.

Yeah the parking company simply enforce the rules and rightly so, I was in there on day and planned on going across the road to do something and then pick a few things up in Tesco's.

The parking lad shouted after me saying if I leave the car without first buying something in Tesco my car could be clamped when I came back, fair enough they don't want people abusing the free parking.

I simply went in to Tesco's and bought something for 50c and he was happy that I was then a paying customer