Tesco Tiger Bread Gone?!

dazzlemoo

I absolutely adore the tiger bread from Tesco and because I hadn't had it in a while, I sent the OH down to our local Tesco in The Square, Tallaght, for some.
He called me from the shop and said they weren't selling tiger bread at the moment because of some kind of dispute?
That's all I know.
Has anyone else seen tiger bread on sale? Or know what the dispute is?
And don't tell me to buy tiger bread from other stores..it's a well known fact Tesco's one is the best!

diddlybit

Is the dispute with a three-year old over its name? Is she taking on Tesco's now? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9053800/Sainsburys-changes-Tiger-Bread-to-Giraffe-Bread-following-advice-from-3-year-old.html :pac:

No, in seriousness, I was just thinking the other day that I haven't seen it on the shelves in a while. Pity, it was tasty.

johnnyskeleton

Tiger bread is probably the tastiest bread in the world.

Jenroche

They're selling it in Aldi now. You're welcome.

Mrs Fox

diddlybit wrote: »

Is the dispute with a three-year old over its name? Is she taking on Tesco's now? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9053800/Sainsburys-changes-Tiger-Bread-to-Giraffe-Bread-following-advice-from-3-year-old.html :pac:

No, in seriousness, I was just thinking the other day that I haven't seen it on the shelves in a while. Pity, it was tasty.

A stinking £3 complimentary gift card??!


Darn, now I'm sorry I've never bothered buying tiger bread before, had I known it's that good.

dazzlemoo

Jenroche wrote: »

They're selling it in Aldi now. You're welcome.

I know, I saw it there but it's not the same..it's much softer, whereas the Tesco one is crispier.

Cardinal Richelieu

What did Tesco say OP when you called there Customer Service number?

psychward

Mrs Fox wrote: »

A stinking £3 complimentary gift card??!

My thoughts exactly. wtf .

Namlub

She's three years old, it's a nice gesture!

psychward

Namlub wrote: »

She's three years old, it's a nice gesture!

Enough to buy e.g a Hello Kitty doll might have been a nice gesture but 3 pounds just seems wrong. They could have rounded it up to 5 pounds .

the beer revolu

If I was her, I'd be thrilled - she got a result - they agreed to change the name and made her famous for 5 minutes in internetland.
The gift voucher, while paltry, is hardly the point.
Still, it does seem a silly PR mistake on behalf of Tesco.

Cardinal Richelieu

the beer revolu wrote: »

If I was her, I'd be thrilled - she got a result - they agreed to change the name and made her famous for 5 minutes in internetland.
The gift voucher, while paltry, is hardly the point.
Still, it does seem a silly PR mistake on behalf of Tesco.

I don't want to burst anyone bubble here but that article is all about Sainsbury giving the kid a £3 voucher for suggesting it should be renamed Giraffe bread not Tesco so how can it be a PR mistake by Tesco? Did she write to them as well? Sainsbury received massive coverage online and on the world service about changing the name, all for £3. A win win!

the beer revolu

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

I don't want to burst anyone bubble here but that article is all about Sainsbury giving the kid a £3 voucher for suggesting it should be renamed Giraffe bread not Tesco so how can it be a PR mistake by Tesco? Did she write to them as well? Sainsbury received massive coverage online and on the world service about changing the name, all for £3. A win win!

I hang my head in shame:o:o

Cardinal Richelieu

the beer revolu wrote: »

I hang my head in shame:o:o

Disgraceful! Only scanning a thread! I never seen that here before:D

yellowtrout

OK, I emailed Tesco and this their reply (which doesn't mention anything about there being a dispute and no sign of it returning):

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to learn that you have experienced difficulties purchasing Tiger Bread from the Tallaght store. I can appreciate how annoying this must have been for you, especially as you have found a product which you like.

We always try our hardest to provide our customer with the best service possible and we really do try to stock as many products as we can. However, space is limited due to the number of products on the market we can’t stock every product in every store. To ensure that we are offering a wide and varied range for as many of our customers as possible, there are times like this where we have to stop selling some of our less popular lines.

I appreciate that this will be frustrating for you as I know myself how very annoying it is when you can no longer buy a product you particularly enjoy. I’ve fully logged your comments on your system although I can’t say if the item will be stock again in the future, I can assure you that it will be reviewed.

I'm sorry that I can't help you further on this occasion, but I hope this helps to explain why we've stopped selling Tiger Bread.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to ask me about this and I hope that despite your disappointment you will find an alternative product in our stores that you like just as much

Kind regards,

Samantha Attwell

Tesco Customer Services (Ireland)

Cardinal Richelieu

yellowtrout wrote: »

OK, I emailed Tesco and this their reply (which doesn't mention anything about there being a dispute and no sign of it returning):

Thank you for your email.

I am sorry to learn that you have experienced difficulties purchasing Tiger Bread from the Tallaght store. I can appreciate how annoying this must have been for you, especially as you have found a product which you like.

We always try our hardest to provide our customer with the best service possible and we really do try to stock as many products as we can. However, space is limited due to the number of products on the market we can’t stock every product in every store. To ensure that we are offering a wide and varied range for as many of our customers as possible, there are times like this where we have to stop selling some of our less popular lines.

I appreciate that this will be frustrating for you as I know myself how very annoying it is when you can no longer buy a product you particularly enjoy. I’ve fully logged your comments on your system although I can’t say if the item will be stock again in the future, I can assure you that it will be reviewed.

I'm sorry that I can't help you further on this occasion, but I hope this helps to explain why we've stopped selling Tiger Bread.

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to ask me about this and I hope that despite your disappointment you will find an alternative product in our stores that you like just as much

Kind regards,

Samantha Attwell

Tesco Customer Services (Ireland)

It might be worth your while emailing the UK again to point out that less than a year ago Tesco Ireland was pushing this product as one of there main instore bakery products. Have sells declined so much that its now a "less popular line"? Sounds like a fob off and please do not disturb me mail IMHO.

Monkey61

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

It might be worth your while emailing the UK again to point out that less than a year ago Tesco Ireland was pushing this product as one of there main instore bakery products. Have sells declined so much that its now a "less popular line"? Sounds like a fob off and please do not disturb me mail IMHO.

Having spent a year working in retail customer services (not for a supermarket though), I would advise against this. It's not so much a fob off etc, as a "this is the only answer we can give you". If you email again, the same person is basically going to have to waste her time and yours, rewording the exact same email to you...again.

The best thing would probably be to ask the manager in the square why they aren't selling it anymore, as if anyone can give you a more detailed reason - they can. Not a customer service person who can only give you the standard reason for any product being removed from a particular store. Head office staff are tied to what they can say - particularly as it is written in an email, and, in cases such as this, customers have a tendency to publish their names on the internet! Whereas if you really need more details, a manager in store might be able to say "oh X amount less people are buying Tiger Bread here, so we wanted to give up the space to "X particular product" instead to see if it takes off" .

God knows basically. Also, if you want something back in store, the manager is going to have the ability to influence that kind of decision for the particular shop, not the customer service person.

Cardinal Richelieu

Monkey61 wrote: »

Having spent a year working in retail customer services (not for a supermarket though), I would advise against this. It's not so much a fob off etc, as a "this is the only answer we can give you". If you email again, the same person is basically going to have to waste her time and yours, rewording the exact same email to you...again.

The best thing would probably be to ask the manager in the square why they aren't selling it anymore, as if anyone can give you a more detailed reason - they can. Not a customer service person who can only give you the standard reason for any product being removed from a particular store. Head office staff are tied to what they can say - particularly as it is written in an email, and, in cases such as this, customers have a tendency to publish their names on the internet! Whereas if you really need more details, a manager in store might be able to say "oh X amount less people are buying Tiger Bread here, so we wanted to give up the space to "X particular product" instead to see if it takes off" .

God knows basically. Also, if you want something back in store, the manager is going to have the ability to influence that kind of decision for the particular shop, not the customer service person.

But is there not interaction between commercial and customer service? Its a bit dumb having a customer service that doesn't have a communication channel into a commercial team. Otherwise your never going to get an answer just the general email above. The store manager route sounds a little long when you consider the chain before it hits the commercial teams desk.

psychward

yellowtrout wrote: »

I appreciate that this will be frustrating for you as I know myself how very annoying it is when you can no longer buy a product you particularly enjoy.


.....
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Kind regards,

Samantha Attwell

Tesco Customer Services (Ireland)[/B]

Has a trend arrived here from the US of companies using stock templates which pretend to have a personal ''beyond the call of duty'' touch from an employee ?

e.g I too know the horror of vaginal itchiness/spontaneous diarrhoea in social situations/ constipation/flatuence etc. In contact with American companies, I have had too many similar responses for these to be personal instead of generic especially when the rest of the company response is obviously generic.

Monkey61

Cardinal Richelieu wrote: »

But is there not interaction between commercial and customer service? Its a bit dumb having a customer service that doesn't have a communication channel into a commercial team. Otherwise your never going to get an answer just the general email above. The store manager route sounds a little long when you consider the chain before it hits the commercial teams desk.

Oh there is interaction of course, but generic as responses sometimes seem - that might be the actual answer. A particular Tesco can't stock every product in every store and thus will remove less popular lines from certain locations. That is actually a genuine reason. And from a commercial perspective, that is a good enough region to not stock something.

In my old company, we removed a particular product from sale because it was doing terribly and so it didn't make sense to give up the shelf space to it. So some people inevitably complained and complained bitterly because they wanted this product and weren't we awful to make a decision purely motivated by money and won't somebody please think of the children etc.

But y'know, at the end of the day, in an official email that I am sending in a professional capacity, all I can do is pass on the official message as to why it has been removed and apologise. Once I have done that, and you send me further emails demanding more explanations - there is nothing else I can say. Of course I will pass on your complaint to the necessary department, but if a decision has been made that makes commercial sense, it isn't going to be reversed on a companywide level because 5 people are upset.

However a shop manager is going to have more power in deciding what products he wants to sell and will know his own customer base a lot better than a commercial team who see figures and regions etc. If the product was one of many removed from sale to make space for something else, he may be swayed by speaking to a few customers and might at a later date when something else isn't doing so well think "Oh lets get the tiger bread back and heavily advertise it again, put it somewhere more prominent etc."

Individual store managers do have a lot more sway than customer services, because they actually work in the shops and if they want something back they will be able to successfully make a case for it much better than somebody from the "complaints department". Also, a shop manager, in conversation is going to be able to speak a lot more freely than a head office staff member who has to choose there words carefully if they are writing as "The official word from Tesco".

Although to be fair, I have no idea how Tesco work, and that was all specific to the type of retail I was in...so it may not be the same at all!

Cardinal Richelieu

Monkey61 wrote: »

Oh there is interaction of course, but generic as responses sometimes seem - that might be the actual answer. A particular Tesco can't stock every product in every store and thus will remove less popular lines from certain locations. That is actually a genuine reason. And from a commercial perspective, that is a good enough region to not stock something.

In my old company, we removed a particular product from sale because it was doing terribly and so it didn't make sense to give up the shelf space to it. So some people inevitably complained and complained bitterly because they wanted this product and weren't we awful to make a decision purely motivated by money and won't somebody please think of the children etc.

But y'know, at the end of the day, in an official email that I am sending in a professional capacity, all I can do is pass on the official message as to why it has been removed and apologise. Once I have done that, and you send me further emails demanding more explanations - there is nothing else I can say. Of course I will pass on your complaint to the necessary department, but if a decision has been made that makes commercial sense, it isn't going to be reversed on a companywide level because 5 people are upset.

However a shop manager is going to have more power in deciding what products he wants to sell and will know his own customer base a lot better than a commercial team who see figures and regions etc. If the product was one of many removed from sale to make space for something else, he may be swayed by speaking to a few customers and might at a later date when something else isn't doing so well think "Oh lets get the tiger bread back and heavily advertise it again, put it somewhere more prominent etc."

Individual store managers do have a lot more sway than customer services, because they actually work in the shops and if they want something back they will be able to successfully make a case for it much better than somebody from the "complaints department". Also, a shop manager, in conversation is going to be able to speak a lot more freely than a head office staff member who has to choose there words carefully if they are writing as "The official word from Tesco".

Although to be fair, I have no idea how Tesco work, and that was all specific to the type of retail I was in...so it may not be the same at all!

The only problem is that Tiger Bread isn't a slow selling line or a shelf dust gathering product as the Tesco Customer Service response basically said. Up until recently Tiger bread was on Tesco pull out advertisements in the national newspapers, you couldn't walk in the door of Tesco without bumping into a bread table/stand of Tiger Bread. Slow selling lines never get such an important impulse location. Its like saying that store doesn't sell Diet Coke because of no demand. Secondly the Square is a decent enough size store so should have the space to carry a decent range of instore bakery lines, a store of its size would be under orders to carry certain corelines particularly recently heavily promoted lines as they should have built up a regular customer demand.