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Tesco: 22% price reduction a sham

Rebelheart

Is anybody listening to Philip Boucher Hayes on RTÉ Radio 1 Drivetime at the moment (16.35-1645, Thursday 14 May)?

It is truly fascinating, and is bound to be politically explosive.

Some of the main points are:

* Tesco's actual price decrease is 8%, not 22% as claimed by Tesco's chief executive, Tony Keohane, several times (he played the interviews with Tony Keohane).

* That 8% decrease is in fact only a decrease on Tesco's 10% plus price increase in its stores since Christmas.

* Tesco has now approached all Irish suppliers demanding a 20% decrease in their prices.

* While Tesco has claimed Irish suppliers would not be affected by the "decrease", all Irish suppliers have reported that almost overnight Tesco has reduced the shelf space for Irish produce

* In 1997 when Tesco entered the Irish market, Richard Bruton, who was minister for Enterprise, signed an agreement with Tesco whereby Tesco committed themselves to purchasing a huge amount of Irish products. There was no attempt by the Irish government to renew this agreement in 2002. This is certainly going to be called for now.

* Tesco refused to respond to any of the report or defend its position.

Paul Cullen's article in today Irish Times covers all of this more fully: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0514/1224246463054.html

This is one of the best pieces of investigative journalism in years. Well done, RTÉ and The Irish Times. We need much more on this.

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Fratton Fred

Are they sourcing British products, or sourcing through their UK supply chain?

OPENROAD

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Are they sourcing British products, or sourcing through their UK supply chain?

Sourcing through their UK supply chain as far as I know.

Overheal

phasers wrote: »

Tesco are treating the Irish people like they're complete morons.

Tesco is simply exploiting the fact that you all are as complacent as sin.

Prove me wrong.

kraggy

sillyputty wrote: »

I'm actually okay with Tesco, earlier today i bought some feminine products and dropped my money on the ground and found 20c so not only did i save about €1.50 on said feminine products i made some money just by shopping as Tesco.
Still shop in Newry or Dunnes for normal weekly shop though.

Aww..So you had a free period today?

Blush_01

I much prefer to shop around, but it all depends on the time I have. I have grown to really dislike Tescos over the past year or two. The one thing that I really despise is their intention to squeeze their suppliers to the brink of breaking point while raising prices for consumers. Their fresh produce is a joke by comparison to Super Valu or Dunnes, and even the chemical-pumped giganto-veggies in Lidl or Aldi are better quality. I really see Tesco as a last resort these days.

Fratton Fred

OPENROAD wrote: »

Sourcing through their UK supply chain as far as I know.

Which is a bit different to supply UK produced goods. There isn't much food produced in the UK and Tesco ceetainly have no loyalty to UK suppliers. They have squeezed them every bit as much as they have the Irish ones, the difference being there was no agreement in place with the UK government to dedicate a certain amount of shelf space to Irish suppliers.

Blush_01 wrote: »

I much prefer to shop around, but it all depends on the time I have. I have grown to really dislike Tescos over the past year or two. The one thing that I really despise is their intention to squeeze their suppliers to the brink of breaking point while raising prices for consumers. Their fresh produce is a joke by comparison to Super Valu or Dunnes, and even the chemical-pumped giganto-veggies in Lidl or Aldi are better quality. I really see Tesco as a last resort these days.

And how much Irish produced goods are there in Lidls or Aldis? if everyone started shopping there it would probably cost even more irish jobs, because pretty much everything comes in from europe.

As was said earlier, welcome to the EU guys.

lucylu

Tesco have made record profits last year in their Irish Market and they have announced that they are going to make 140 staff redundant.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0513/breaking65.htm

They will not be getting my business.

Fratton Fred

lucylu wrote: »

Tesco have made record profits last year in their Irish Market and they have announced that they are going to make 140 staff redundant.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0513/breaking65.htm

They will not be getting my business.

That's right, go to Dunnes instead.

Although you might want to take a look at how many people they have made redundant this year and ask yourslef why, considering they are probably making more of a profit in Ireland than Tesco are.

http://www.mandate.ie/news/newsitem.aspx?Nid=90&pr=true&NType=0

lucylu

Dunnes from that article are looking for Voluntary Rendundancies
Tesco are not and are turfing 140 people out.

To hell with Tesco

Fratton Fred

lucylu wrote: »

Dunnes from that article are looking for Voluntary Rendundancies
Tesco are not and are turfing 140 people out.

To hell with Tesco

The UK-owned multiple told staff today it would be seeking voluntary redundancies, mostly in its Dun Laoghaire head office.

It says all affected staff will be offered the opportunity of redeployment and retraining for jobs elsewhere in Tesco, either in Ireland or abroad.

Sounds pretty reasonable to me. If they are moving the supply chain from Ireland to the UK what else are they going to do with these people, they're not eircom:D

The_Conductor

Its a business model, and a successful business model at that. Our household net take home pay is down almost 400 a month on where we were last year- we can't afford to be complacent in the way we were previously- so we shop around......

What people need to do- instead of bitching- is sit down and figure what shopping they are getting- where.

I have a wander into Dunnes on a Thursday and Centra, Tesco, Superquinn and a few others on a Saturday morning (The wife likes shopping). We know what we need to buy, and what we would like to buy (two totally seperate things). We note any offers and make the most of them.

We do go North the odd time- but its more for Sainsbury's than for anything else- and its to Lisburn, keeping the hell away from Newry and the border areas. Its a little further of a drive- but its very pleasant- and the prices are mind boggling.

Its time for people to stop bitching- use their heads and shop around. Bollox to the politicians for calling those of us who periodically go north for groceries 'unpatriotic'. Its a case of how are we going to live. Are you willing to pay an extra couple of hundred a month for the sake of keeping a politician happy? In my house we're already down 400-500 a month because of those incompetents, I don't see why we should pay even more.......

Funkyspunkball

I read the other day that some of the suppliers Tesco have shoved are offering Dunnes better deals than they were givin Tesco. Its za proper price war

Lidl is def the way to go imo

Biggins

Metro this morning.

Gummy Panda

Biggins wrote: »

Metro this morning.

Finally the price wars begin..

Bendihorse

A woman at work here did her weekly shop in tesco in Carrick on Shannon where the 22% reduction was supposidly rolled out. She went into tesco in Roscommon the next day to do a price comparison and there was no difference in the 4 or 5 items she checked.

This was all an elaborate PR/marketing exercise by Tesco. I dont shop in tesco, i find their produce inferior to SuperValue and no cheaper. They buy in bigger bulk than smaller supermarket chains therefore the produce is longer sitting around in store rooms and cold rooms. Their 'fresh' produce is rarely fresh and their meat... well, i wouldn't feed it to the dog.

My boyfriend works as a truck driver and he will tell you the amount of produce coming in from england in refrigerated units to tesco is hugely played down. His sister also works in a management roll with tesco and will tell you that 99% of their produce is sourced through UK wholesalers and suppliers.

Ok, you'll say to me that they can buy it cheaper from the uk supplier so why should they pay higher prices to Irish wholesalers? But, are they passing that saving on to you the consumer? In a word, No.

I take exception to the way tesco do business in Ireland and also to the people who shop with them simply because of their branding and presuming that 'because they are a uk based and one of the biggest chains they must be better'. Boo to you.

The_Conductor

Bendihorse wrote: »

I take exception to the way tesco do business in Ireland and also to the people who shop with them simply because of their branding and presuming that 'because they are a uk based and one of the biggest chains they must be better'. Boo to you.

Fools and their money.......

If people are not educating themselves in the current climate- they are not going to get any sympathy from me.

Corruptedmorals

OPENROAD wrote: »

Could you provide actual figures so we can compare the two.

Well when Dunnes Grafton Street closed, their staff and management were sent to other stores. I don't know about the other Dunnes that closed- Wexford etc but I doubt that they all lost their jobs. They are currently reviewing people on 3 month contracts, in January they got rid of people on probation, they did not keep on any Christmas staff in my store. This is really only occurring in drapery though, as it's doing really bad, unlike grocery. I don't think job losses in Dunnes are on a massive scale at all.

Ann22

snubbleste wrote: »

They are normally €2.99
Dunnes had them on 33% off offer last week

Well...dip me in sugar and call me a doughnut! Them's the robbers!!! Sainsburys had them for 2 boxes for £3 the other week.

Heyes

Bendihorse wrote: »

A woman at work here did her weekly shop in tesco in Carrick on Shannon where the 22% reduction was supposidly rolled out. She went into tesco in Roscommon the next day to do a price comparison and there was no difference in the 4 or 5 items she checked.

.

It was only in certain BORDER stores not all.

Heyes

Fratton Fred wrote: »

Are they sourcing British products, or sourcing through their UK supply chain?

They are doing both, the product range for irish products has been reduced considerable.

Elle Victorine

I prefer aldi and lidl to tesco but still shop there. Still manage to keep a very low food budget anyway because of it so I'm not going to complain especially since I'm on a students budget of about 20/25 euro for food a week. Would never buy meat there though it's obscenely overpriced.