Aldi in Callan

foxcoverteddy

I was asked what if any had Aldi had on Callan, my first instinct was none, we have not lost any shops, however Callan was never a mecca for shopping.
However thinking about it more, Aldi has made shopping for food more viable than when we only had Supervalu, one does not have to go to Clonmel or Kilkenny for the freedom of choice.
I am not saying Aldi is any better than Supervalu, I like many people shop in both stores, there is no doubt Aldi is cheaper but it, despite the advert's lacks well known brands, though I feel many of Aldi's products come from the well know companies, but like it or not Supervalu have the edge on choice.
Both stores play the very stupid game of short dated stock mixed with long dated goods which makes one check the sell by date of products especially dairy and bread, in truth a lack of customer care.
More people come into Callan now but whether the small shops benefit; it is difficult to tell, at least they are still there.
One hopes our Supervalu will expand before too long, it is much overdue the shop just isn't large enough, we no longer live in the dark ages.
Perhaps there are those who do not agree?
Bye for now, Foxy

Cabaal

In short,
Aldi forced Supervalue to up its game.
Supervalue have had to increase the amount of offers they have, up until Aldi they had a monopoly easy and they knew it.

robjones1981

Supervalue is Callan is a very poor offering in my opinion

The place is never tidy looking, the staff are in no way helpful, they regularly run out of essentials ((milk, eggs etc)) as well as non essentials, you will always find stock past its best before date on the shelves

As Supervalue's generally go, it is awful

Aldi in my experience never run out, seem to have a decent choice for most goods, staff are more or less always friendly and pleasant and are obviously lower in price across the board

Callanutd

I know they are very different stores but the Supervalu in Callan is not a patch on Loughboy. Not just the size but the staff in Callan need to seriously up their game. They can have a full on chat across the tills while people queue down the aisles.
Many times ive had to wait a considerable time to get served. Loughboy on the other hand is so efficent.

robjones1981

Agree fully with the CallanUtd post above

If I am shopping in Callan 9 times out of 10 I will go to Aldi

If I am in Kilkenny, 10 times out of 10 I will go to Supervalue Market Cross or Loughboy

foxcoverteddy

Oh dear, poor SV Callan, one can understand why they did not want Aldi. Any staff related problems is down to the management, the retail trade demands customer care, even Aldi staff will help unload trolley's and carry heavy goods out to the car.
Mentioning other SV's, if you are south of Callan, Carrick has a fine example with the largest car park, and Carrick is a delightful town to walk round, if you are a shoe person, you will love the large shoe stores, the town also has Aldi and Lidl, so one is spoilt for choice.
I do enjoy going to Dunnes in Clonmel, they have some very good offers now, Lidl is next door, easy parking and free, without dropping names there is also the banned from Kilkenny supermarket and of course M&S.
I just love their Pork Pies, why do we not produce such delights?
So SV Callan is really turning custom away when they could easily do the opposite, come on SV staff make your store the best in the County.
Foxy

Callanutd

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

Oh dear, poor SV Callan, one can understand why they did not want Aldi. Any staff related problems is down to the management, the retail trade demands customer care, even Aldi staff will help unload trolley's and carry heavy goods out to the car.
Mentioning other SV's, if you are south of Callan, Carrick has a fine example with the largest car park, and Carrick is a delightful town to walk round, if you are a shoe person, you will love the large shoe stores, the town also has Aldi and Lidl, so one is spoilt for choice.
I do enjoy going to Dunnes in Clonmel, they have some very good offers now, Lidl is next door, easy parking and free, without dropping names there is also the banned from Kilkenny supermarket and of course M&S.
I just love their Pork Pies, why do we not produce such delights?
So SV Callan is really turning custom away when they could easily do the opposite, come on SV staff make your store the best in the County.
Foxy

Great post. There is an opportunity there to create a great mid size supermarket. Like you I enjoy taking the trip to clonmel and getting certain treats in M&S and Tesco. Obviously I wouldnt expect the same choice level but maybe items such as pork pies, scotch eggs etc would go down a treat in Callan. My main gripe though is the staff and the poor service level. Lovely people, they just dont seem overly enthusiastic about giving a good customer experience.

miece16

i work in the sv loughboy. its great to hear people having good things to say about it. we really do put a lot of effort into helping the customers and trying to give a pleasant experience.

Help!!!!

miece16 wrote: »

i work in the sv loughboy. its great to hear people having good things to say about it. we really do put a lot of effort into helping the customers and trying to give a pleasant experience.

Maybe you could get someone to have a word with the SV in Callan

foxcoverteddy

S V is a part of Callan, it is scruffy and so is the parking area, but just look at Callan town, scruffy.
In truth SV is not that bad, it sells a lot of things you cannot get in Aldi, price wise it might be a few cents dearer on some items but overall it is very close.
SV is a very old store, it is time to build a new shop, shoppers demand more from these outlets, what was acceptable ten, fifteen years ago, is not today.
Yes, you can complain about the staff, how do you think they feel working in old world store which is drab, even the checkouts almost qualify for antique status.
Loughboy has had money spent on it, the staff are proud to work there.
I will always support SV, and of course go to Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes, M&S and maybe Tesco.
We can but hope someone at Callan will get the message.
Foxy.

foxcoverteddy

At least we have a choice without the need to go to one of the major towns nearby, though having Aldi which is kept spic and spam when compared to SV.
There are similar products, however I still prefer to buy certain items with a brand name I know, equally Aldi do not stock quite a few items one can get at SV, Lidl manage to sell branded groceries as well as their own label.
One is led to believe shopping in Aldi is cheaper, probably but it isn't if you get lumbered with short dated items, especially if you do a weekly shop.
I hate having to check sell by dates, I understand the shop needs to get rid of unsold items, but why not sell them at discount so at least one has a chance of buying or not buying such items.
Do we need more choice in Callan?
Foxy

miece16

miece16 wrote: »

i work in the sv loughboy. its great to hear people having good things to say about it. we really do put a lot of effort into helping the customers and trying to give a pleasant experience.

My favourite supermarket! I've tried the others but always come back there. And a lot of that is down to the lovely staff:).

Help!!!!

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

At least we have a choice without the need to go to one of the major towns nearby

Do we need more choice in Callan?
Foxy

Its great a small town having 2 supermarkets but another would probably
help
Aldi tries to get you in & out in super quick time ( sometimes too quick )
SV don't want to let you back out

Sky King

miece16 wrote: »

i work in the sv loughboy. its great to hear people having good things to say about it. we really do put a lot of effort into helping the customers and trying to give a pleasant experience.

I avoid it due to
The car park being a nightmare
The fact that it invariably takes way longer in the queue there
The items charged often don't match their advertised price

These are not conducive to a pleasant experience, despite the staff's best efforts!!

foxcoverteddy

Have you seen a supermarket in Kilkenny with a reasonable entrance and exit, go to Carrick on Suir a superb example of a decent car park with an equally enticing SV.
Yesterday it took more than 10 minutes to get out of Market Cross, a brilliant example of town planning.
But at least Supervalu has an abundant choice of brands, maybe some items are not as cheap as Aldi.

foxcoverteddy

What Aldi did for Callan was to give it a choice that was not there before, it has made SV up their game, after one year and a couple of months you could not call it mind boggling. Though SV keep on about their prices being the same as Aldi, they miss the point, I shop for choice, SV has a brilliant choice of products, well known brands that have been tried and trusted for years.
Whilst Aldi do sell similar items, yes cheaper, though I would think this continued mixing of sell by dates sort of defeats the exercise if you have to throw out food which has passed it's sell by date.
At this time you have to accept SV is like a large village store, if you crave slick impersonal service you go elsewhere.
Foxy

robjones1981

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

Have you seen a supermarket in Kilkenny with a reasonable entrance and exit, go to Carrick on Suir a superb example of a decent car park with an equally enticing SV.
Yesterday it took more than 10 minutes to get out of Market Cross, a brilliant example of town planning.
But at least Supervalu has an abundant choice of brands, maybe some items are not as cheap as Aldi.

I like Market Cross a lot actually, but shame it closes a lot earlier than Loughboy

foxcoverteddy

I would agree with you in respect to Market Cross, yes pity it closes early and is so far from Callan.
Back to Aldi, apart from the dodgy dating of bread, yogurts, I now list milk, well the fortified low fat litres, yesterday there was three different dates on the shelf,why?
I have always rated SV to be superior to Aldi for fruit and veg, dispite the ridiculous low price on certain special items, however being a cherry lover I went for a packet of cherries, which normally are fine, not yesterday, by this morning they had developed mold, in the bin they went.
I know it seems stupid having got Aldi; wishing for Lidl, but was in Loughboy this morning, oh what a difference, so much that I am considering going to Loughboy to shop.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

A bit light hearted this one, went to Dunnes and purchased their special bacon, I do like Dunnes some good offers and plenty of choice of brands.
Any way on the wrapper it said we go to the country village of Callan for our Irish bacon, we are now a village, yes?
Wouldn't like to swear on oath if it is actually Irish bacon, but it was good.
The nearly out of date bread saga still rages, if they do not change their attitude to short dated stock I can see myself going into Kilkenny.
I throw this in, we went to Arts Week exhibitions during the week, my opinion is what a load of rubbish, though we did buy a painting, any way we went into a place in College Road, look everyone needs to use a toilet, I am no different so off I trot, well given this is a showpiece exhibition, the toilet was the most evil smelling place one could imagine, there were no other occupants, I guess toilets don't figure too high on the list.
Foxy

earlytobed

Callan bacon isn't necessarily Irish. When we had the scare and ban on Irish pork a few years age, Callan were knocking out bacon goodo as it was Danish

foxcoverteddy

Aha, yes indeed Danish, but the advertising said Irish, but perhaps Irish is only the factory from whence the jolly rashers popped out of, probably the porkers could have come across the North sea, in any case I always enjoyed Danish Bacon.
By the way talking of Pork, I like many others enjoy a good pork pie, but alas I cannot seem to lay my hands on one other than going to M&S or Tesco, of which we have neither in Kilkenny.
Does anyone have an inkling of where one might get Pork Pies, surely we make everything else, why not the Pork Pie, with some Pickles ah go down nicely.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

Well it rather looks like another trek down the road to Clonmel for me pork pies, Kilkenny loses out again, but in fairness it is quicker to Clonmel.
Aldi have an advert regarding so many prefer their food to the branded version.
Unfortunately SV have gone to great lengths to tell us our prices on a lot of items is the same as Aldi, would not disagree; however what SV and Dunnes seem to be ignoring is the choice one gets in SV and Dunnes, I think this is an important point lost, I can buy SV's own brand or I can purchase many items from multiple suppliers.
Yes there are observations about our Callan store but in fairness it is not a modern building and SV are trying; very well actually, to stock as many lines as possible.
Okay I shop in both stores, however I enjoy having choice, if you go to Dunnes, M&S and Tesco you will appreciate my meaning, which is not against Aldi because they have done wonders for us in Callan.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

Happy is Foxy, went to M&S, ho ho Scotch eggs and Pork Pies, lovely jubbly.
SV seem to have sort of cleaned the shop up, but they seem to lack something, yesterday I was looking at jam, there is a display as you go in, fine, but get to the shelves oh dear it can only be described as en effing disaster, surely surely the two managers must look and think that cannot be left like that, they need to make sure the place is up to scratch,it can be done, go to Loughboy the shelves are seldom if ever in such an untidy state.
A member of staff need to continuously check, please do something to help yourselves.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

As a store, sorry Supervalu wins hands down for choice and staff, also it has an instore bakery, so you can get really fresh bread, the hot deli serves some real tasty bits. Okay Aldi might win on price of some items and it has a better adverftising campaign than SV.
So do you compromise on price or choice, if Aldi have not got what you want it is back to dear old SV.
I get the feeling in Aldi when they are stacking that I am in the way, not so in SV.
The jury is still out Foxy

Odyssey 2005

Swing bleeding swong.

foxcoverteddy

Sorry, but could you explain what you are saying please, perhaps I am a bit thick, thanks Foxy

Autosport

Foxy could you also tell the people of Callan to look both ways when crossing the road. Kinda puts me off travelling through the centre when people just appear on the road from behind cars/lorries and walk straight out in front of you. Tesco for Callan

foxcoverteddy

It is nice to get a post from Autosport, well I hope you have all read it. Of course there is a very simple answer- the people of Callan are so happy now they have a choice of shops, that they walk around without a care in the world, this of course leads to silly things like crossing the road without looking usually to greet friends.
Callan people walk around with smiling faces and are happy to stop and chat, sometimes in the middle of the road, as Callan people we understand this strange phenomenon, this seldom happens elsewhere, people from other counties have very serious faces no doubt plotting how to beat Kilkenny hurling.
However please do take care and we thank Autosport for her comments, there is one serious thing, the Cross it can be quite dangerous at the best of times, both for pedestrians and motorists, please take care.
Well have a super weekend, we will have another look at our two supermarkets next week, by the way I honestly cannot see any problem with people going in the "Way Out" it is wide enough and saves turning right at the junction, this of course shows our Councils complete lack of ability in respect to car parks.
Thanks Autosport, Foxy

foxcoverteddy

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

Callan people walk around with smiling faces and are happy to stop and chat, sometimes in the middle of the road, as Callan people we understand this strange phenomenon, this seldom happens elsewhere, people from other counties have very serious faces no doubt plotting how to beat Kilkenny hurling.
.
Thanks Autosport, Foxy

I feel like I want to go and live in Callan!

sillymoo

SV market cross would be my go to supermarket apart from Aldi in Callan, would go to SV in Callan as a last resort if I had to. I find SV Callan so messy and frustrating with a very poor selection. Mind you it took me 20mins to get out of the car park in market cross this afternoon!

foxcoverteddy

Market Cross SV is a fine shop equally Loughboy and Carrick on Suir offer superb shopping facilities, okay they are not really as cheap as Aldi or Lidl if you want branded goods; however our little SV in Callan competes very well with Aldi.
Yes it is difficult to find some things, but you must realise it is a relatively small shop compared with the others, though you would be hard pushed not to find what you are looking for, comparing like for like SV sells more lines than Aldi, and to be honest without SV one would have to make the journey into Kilkenny or Clonmel.
It would be nice to see the SV store extended, enlarged to save having the higgaldy piggaldy situation.
You can't buy fresh baked bread in Aldi, nor can you get hot food or even a cup of coffee, they do not have an ATM nor do they offer cash back and you do not gets rewards points; but you do get low cost shopping, staff wise sorry but SV are more affable, and I don't feel I am being pushed out.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

Some one stopped me the other day and said what a great store Aldi is, having just come out with a few bits and pieces, the dear soul looked offended when I said well no I prefer Supervalu.
Why she asked, well I cannot get custard powder here but SV sell it, you could buy ready made, hmm, I then listed a whole range of branded products, which of course Aldi do not sell, the ad says they sell the same but cheaper.
I like HP sauce's and Heinz pickles and such things as Oxo and Bisto, Mc donalds curry sauce, there are some products which are or appear identical like yogurts, many stores sell West Cork yogurt under differing brand names, this is easily checked by looking at the packaging code ie 1098.
We need both stores in Callan, maybe Lidl would pull even more shoppers.
Foxy

foxcoverteddy

One would have thought a store like Aldi would be well stocked by mid-day, oh dear not so I went in for bits and pieces actually chicken wings and oddments, nope nothing, so round to SV at least the store was well stocked and they had a live butcher.
I think it scary one cannot get simple easy to cook things from a large store.
If they continue to sell short date items, be it on their head shoppers do have choice.

Odyssey 2005

Aldi are no different to any supermarket in the country. They are a working shop. You complain about short dated items,then you complain that the stock is sold. At least the next batch of stock will have a decent amount of date on it.

foxcoverteddy

We have all experienced the change in shopping in Callan since the arrival of Aldi; however is the retailer all it is cracked up to be?
If you are a fish lover then it is a very limited choice, best stock up on a Friday when Norman arrives outside the AIB, however SV does show a much more enticing display than Aldi.
However I enjoy a nice salad, Aldi have a reasonable pre-packed display of add on's like coleslaw etc, then we pop over to SV with it's open display and fill your own carton, yes very nice, but there is no sell by date and one relies on the store making sure the contents are fresh, you say yes of course they do.
I am concerned, the other day I went to buy a salad bag from the cold display, a nice variety of lettuce, as I do I check the sell by date, the bag I had was two days out of date, the lad stocking the veggy did not seem overly concerned, if that occurs with dated stock what happens with the undated salad bar.
Yes SV is far superior to Aldi for shopping, they have a greater variety, that no one can deny, however in this day and age you cannot try and pass off out of date stock by mixing it with current dated items, either we are talking bad management practices or poor staff.
I do not find it funny getting home with items that are so short dated they need using straight away, yes; my fault for not checking, or is it down to the store to make sure.
One of my cribs is bread, check the date and other loaves from the same batch, yes the stores frequently mix sell by dates, always remember it is your money.
Yoghurt, why on earth would anyone buy a six pack with only a day to go on the use buy, what a waste of money, many of us cannot afford to play the game.
SV at market cross had someone sorting the produce who had no idea of the date, sound management, at least this doesn't seem to happen at Loughboy, they must have a better system of stock control.
To be honest I am wondering whether or not to abandon Callan for shopping of dated food and going back to Loughboy.
It is no fun getting home to find you should have eaten the fresh food yesterday, where is consumer protection?

foxcoverteddy

Well here is another good one, roughly 10% of the population is left handed, in case someone queries this I did a survey for nearly two years and the results were consistent, so it is not a figure plucked out of nowhere.
Aldi have their checkouts designed so that you put the trolley in one way, this was done by right handed people, fair enough, however I put my trolley in cross ways as it suits my purpose, alas some of Aldi staff do not appreciate this, one turned the trolley round.
Unfortunately for him I decided it was my shopping; I was paying for it and there was no notice to say you will put your trolley so, had there been I would not have shopped there or in fact any store that tries to impose such restrictions, I have no problem in Supervalu or Dunnes or Lidl.
I guess that the other stores do not pressure you to get out as they do in Aldi, which only works if you allow them to do it.
I insist on packing my baq at the checkout, though as I now seldom go there is a mute point.
Whilst talking shopping, this sell by date or use by date is one that all supermarkets should comply with, it is not rocket science, staff should be trained to look out for short dated stock or past the date, I have no problems if it is being sold off cheap, then it is the customers choice.
My visits to Loughboy are a delight as one seldom if ever finds any stock problems and the staff are helpful and friendly, nothing is too much bother, take note Aldi.
Have you ever watched the staff in Aldi, actually just watching makes me tired.
Have a nice shopping day, ps tried buying left handed can openers or scissors?