Another Supervalu ripoff

tomdublin wrote: »

SoundFella wrote: »

and mark my words people will pay the extra... also supervalue seems to get 90% irish people where as lidl and aldi get 90% foreigners , and im not being racist saying that , same with the people working their .

The suburban Aldi & Lidls seem to get more Irish customers since the beginning of the recession, but it's probably still a miniroty. I don't really understand the mentality here, do the Irish simply not mind being ripped off, and why do many feel embarrassed going to Alid or Lidl? A strange hangup for citizens of a bankrupt country.

The country may have its issues but a large proportion of its people have plenty of cash so for example choose to shop in m&s for higher quality fare and better service etc as they are not price sensitive

Nothing to do with embarrassment, different strokes for different folks/wallet sizes

Ps I do not shop in m&s

tippguy wrote: »

ejmaztec    
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomdublin  
Supervalu, Centra, Superquinn and several other convenience store brands (such as Mace) have the same owner (Musgrave) which means there is no real competition between any of them. Supervalu's strategy seems to be to operate mainly in lower-middle-class-and-upwards areas with no competition in walking distance and to use all its influence over local politicians and the planning process to keep competitors out of the area, taking advantage of poor competition and consumer-protection laws. That gives Supervalu a captive market among the elderly and others without a car who have no choice but to pay its inflated markups. Behind its touchy-feely flag-waving facade it seems to be quite a calculating and cynical operation.
Musgrave generally doesn't own SuperValu, Centra or Mace stores, except in exceptional circumstances i.e. a case up country where a SuperValu store was owned by someone on the verge of going down the crapper due to his other business ventures going bust. Musgrave bought the store to protect its interests. 
 
RGData is the axe that they use to keep out the competition, this being what happened when Tesco tried to get into Listowel.
 
Musgrave's marketing likes pushing the "local" aspect of the franchises, but over 95% of the goods sold in SV, for example, all come from Musgrave central-billing, and these are mostly the same brand names sold by Tesco and Dunns. The franchises are allowed to buy less than 5% of their total purchases from local suppliers, but they give the impression that it is a hell of a lot more. It's effective bullsh1t because most people seem to believe in the "local" myth.

you clearly have a (minor) insight into what your talking about but I stress minor. You see the 'central billing' (supplier bills musgrave who own supervalu, musgrave bills the store) policy can and is adapted by everyone from avonmore milk to the local bread man. You see the likes of barrys bread in cork, staffords bread in wexford, stapletons bread in tipp are all delighted to be paid via 'central billing' so they then have the opportunity to sell into 194 supervalus and 400 centras with no risk of payment or no risk to the stores 95% loyalty with musgrave.

so when you say a store isn't supporting local your forgetting that the stores 'local' suppliers' are been given the opportunity to sell into over 600 shops by simply dealing with one. This is adapted for everyone from the bread men to the milk men to the local supplier of eggs.

The 5% is then used to buy marys apple tarts or jonnys scones, micks spuds who simply will never be in a position to supply more than one store

It looks like Tesco and Dunns are also supporting "local" businesses in the same way, which is what my "minor" insight was saying.

The 5% sham is a set-up to make it look like SuperValu is all about community, as is the tie-up with Tidy Towns etc.

I forgot to mention that I steer clear of any of the Musgrave franchises as much as is humanly possible.

tomdublin wrote: »

Almost all of them

You seem very confident. Seems you must have done what I asked below if you are so sure.

rubadub wrote: »

Have you actually confirmed this on any/many products? ingredients are listed in order of greatest so you can directly compare products. Then there is the nutritional information, the % fat, protein, carbs, carbs which sugar, fibre, sodium, calories per 100g. If the ingredients & this info match you likely have products from the same factory (except stuff like veg oil or sugar).

There was a thread about own brands before and who makes them, was meant to be on the Pat Kenny show
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2056195473

SuperValu have 1,700 own brand products, over 30% of these are Irish.
Who makes SuperValu own brand?
Glenisk – organic yogurts

Glenisk are not listed as making anything for any other supermarkets on that list. And all of the supermarkets you mentioned were on the list

Tesco 58 cents
Lidl: 58 cents
Dunnes: 58 cents
Aldi: 58 cents
Supervalu: 1.35 Euro

a crowd called "irish yogurts" make some for several.

Irish Yogurts (Clonakilty)– Centra luxury yoghurts

Irish Yogurts (Clonakilty, Co Cork)- produce (Superquinn) Essentials yogurts

The naming "luxury" and "essentials" would suggest they are are probably different ingredients, and so would not be an example of what reprazant & I were looking for.

There were more tips on spotting same producers

Another way of checking (for the super-sleuths!)
This only applies to meat and diary products: Irrespective of the brand, the label will have an EU approval number identifying the final processing plant. The Department of Agriculture publishes a list of approved plants for Ireland on its website.
This label identifies only the final stage of processing not the actual origin of the meat or dairy product.
For example, if you’re looking at two cartons of milk or a packet of rashers, one branded, one own brand, look at the origin code on the label (an oval with IE, a number and EC) or on the cap you may find, for instance, the number 1405 on both products. This identifies the production plant as being the same.

ejmaztec wrote: »

It looks like Tesco and Dunns are also supporting "local" businesses in the same way, which is what my "minor" insight was saying.

The 5% sham is a set-up to make it look like SuperValu is all about community, as is the tie-up with Tidy Towns etc.

I forgot to mention that I steer clear of any of the Musgrave franchises as much as is humanly possible.

So your saying that the local bread, egg meat and milk guys aren't actually local just cause they're 'central billing'...kinda makes no sense. Again that's why I stress 'minor'.

I clearly referred to the likes of
Barry's bread - available in cork and Kerry not Donegal
Loughnanes sausages - available in Galway not Kerry
Arabawan milk - available in Tipp & Galway not Dublin

All local suppliers not national but would be central billing

Anyway totally gone off topic here

sandin wrote: »

StudentDad wrote: »

I've never really understood this 'buy irish' nonsense. Why should I take my money and pay over the odds for a product of equal quality with a lower price in another shop that happens to be from a different European country or farther afield? Especially when you consider to my mind anyway - continuously paying over the odds - rewards inefficient/greedy businesses and takes food out of my own familys mouth?

SD

Considering that Ireland is a huge exporter of food product and they are seen as superior in many parts of the world, this has to be one of the stupidest statements on boards for a long time.

Any ineffecient/greedy business that was there is well gone witht he recession and only the good effecient ones have survived - but they have not just survived, many have prospered and the food industry is the one that will get us out of the recession.

Well now that's wonderful. Tell you what though when the 'usual brands' produced in Ireland and running under the 'buy Irish' motto are consistently cheaper and of better quality than the food found in Lidl and Aldi etc etc. Then I'll buy it. Until then good luck to you!

SD

sandin wrote: »

StudentDad wrote: »

Well now that's wonderful. Tell you what though when the 'usual brands' produced in Ireland and running under the 'buy Irish' motto are consistently cheaper and of better quality than the food found in Lidl and Aldi etc etc. Then I'll buy it. Until then good luck to you!

SD

Funny thing is, a lot of the own brand foods in aldi / lidl ARE made in Ireland and therefore you're buying Irish anyway.

Maybe I am. However, I won't buy something just because it has a 'made in Ireland' logo on it. There are far too many products on the market that are to my mind anyway priced far too highly for what they are. Butter as an example - why should I buy Kerrygold when the Tesco own brand is just as good and cheaper. I care about the quality of the product and the price, not where its made. As I said earlier, buying Irish for the sake of it, costs me more, costs my family more and rewards a company 'for being Irish,' rather than rewarding them for producing a good product at a reasonable price.

SD

monkeysnapper wrote: »

I work for aldi and we had a meeting at start of week and it was said that aldi uk/Ireland have made a 30% increase in sales this year, that's massive, and was told that the near by tesco have laid off quite a few temp workers because their all handing in their cv's into aldi ,

I alone have heard loads of people saying that they used to buy just a few things in aldi and do main shop in tesco but over time they realised the products in aldi were mostly as good if not better than the brand names and it's turned on its head their shopping routine.

Now it's mostly aldi and just the few things in tesco. It doesn't take a expert to tell you that you can get a full trolley of everyday items for under or just over 100 .

I'm not pushing the whole aldi thing on people , I done full shops in dunnes and tesco, and I can tell you the products are as good but the savings are massive.Hope I don't get banned now.....

Every little helps folks

Have to agree I can do a fill weeks shopping for the household on an average of 75 euro. There are 3 of us in the house.

People that do their shopping in Supervalu and Centra, I will never understand you.

Why in the name of god are people complaining that different shops charge different prices? Its economics lads and the joys of a free open market, back to school with you!

have to agree, the customers at LIDL are mostly foreign nationals; don't know the taboo associated with the whole ALDI / LIDL shopping -> perhaps we are just not clever enough

tomdublin wrote: »

Who says I shop there? I just drop in on my way back from Aldi to check what it wouldn't have cost had I bought it there instead.

I would have guessed you shop there too, I think it was a reasonable assumption for anybody to make. I have never heard of anybody doing what you do before.

Personally I value my free time pretty highly, so spending time trawling through a shop I know is likely to be more expensive might negate any savings I made. e.g. if my neighbour handed me his receipt of a shop and said "I will pay you €20 to go to supervalu see what these items would have cost there, and work out how much I saved" I would turn down his offer.

People say 'it pays to shop around' but there is a crossover point where it 'costs to shop around'. If I am buying a plasma I might take time to visit 4-5 electrical outlets, for a pack of batteries it is not worth my while.

tomdublin wrote: »

Lidl: 85 cents
Aldi: 85 cents
Tesco (cheapest option): 85 cents
Supervalu (cheapest option): 1.63 Euro

When you say "cheapest option" for supervalu it would infer they had more than one option, i.e. 2 or more supervalu own brand products at significantly different quality/price levels. Is this the case? If not I would be comparing with tescos regular quality level product.

tomdublin wrote: »

so comparing the cheapest options available in each store is fair, the point being that Supervalu simply doesn't give people the cheaper choices that other stores carry.

I don't think it is fair because of the very reason you give. Supervalu do not give people the same choice, this is correct, and why its a different category of shop in my mind. Any supervalu I go to is a smaller shop than say a regular tescos, with a much smaller range. Its a different category of shop in my mind.

Soya milk is an unusual enough product, you might not see it in your local convenience shop at all. I bet if you compared the cheapest pecan nuts or brazil nuts in supervalu Vs tesco then supervalu would be a lot more, I don't think its of any benefit to highlight it though, nobody will be surprised, stating the obvious really. I doubt supervalu have their own brand brazils or pecans.

Soy milk is pretty much a generic product anyway,

I agree, but still tesco charge 85cent or €1.45 for what well could be the same stuff in different packaging.

But quality has to be taken into account on many items.

The main difference between the different options is packaging and price.

And shop size, supervalu may simply not have room to accommodate an own brand. If the shop got larger it would lose the advantage they have, many are willing to pay the bit more to go to a smaller more convenient store.