Tesco’s are charging me premium prices for being Scottish!
Shopping in my local Tesco’s the other day I noticed a disturbing detail in the chicken aisle - Scottish chicken is being served up at premium prices - much more expensive than German and Dutch poultry.
I wouldn’t mind except for the fact that I am a Scot, living in Scotland!
German and Dutch chicken breasts were being sold for £2.72 per pound whilst Scottish chicken breast was being sold at £3.42 (ish). That’s 70p per pound more expensive!
Why? Is Scottish produce that much better quality than German and Dutch chicken? If it is, get the Dutch and German stuff off the shelves. If it is of comparable quality, why is Scottish chicken being sold at a much higher price than its European counterpart?
The argument could be put forth that poultry reared in Scotland is more expensive to produce. That argument could be made, I guess - except the Scottish poultry industry competes in a world market and ships to Europe by the lorryload, so it would be nonsense.
When faced with the option to buy British produce given similar or identical products, my preferred choice is to opt for the UK version because I want to support UK industry, particularly farming which has been hit by a devastating series of disasters over the last fifteen years but I refuse to pay inflated prices for poultry reared in my own country.
To rub salt into these gastronomic wounds, this ‘Scottish chicken’ may well have been reared on one of the local farms that dot this area of the country - some only a stone’s throw from my house and processed in the poultry processing plant (one of the country’s largest) just five miles away.
Now tell me what part of this makes any sense?
Poultry from Germany or Holland can be sold at £2.72 per pound in Scotland yet chicken quite possibly reared and processed within five miles of Tesco’s store costs £3.42 per pound.
The only reason I can think of is that Tesco’s are using the word, ‘Scottish,’ to inflate the price of chicken in much the same way as other products, such as bottled water, bearing the word ‘Scottish,’ can have their prices hiked thanks to the location of production.
Which really ticks me off because it would mean I am effectively being penalised for my nationality.
January 30th, 2007
Tesco’s are dropping the ball.
They are failing to realise in their rush to become a global superpower that their ‘bread and butter’ is groceries. Food. Decent food. Food that doesn’t go out of date before you get it home from the supermarket!
“Check the dates! Check the dates!”
That’s what you hear from shoppers when you are shopping at my local Tesco store. No doubt from people who have had the misfortune to buy something without realising it was on the verge of expiry. I know I have. Waaay too many times now.
“Mmmmm, yummy cakes.”
“Argh! Pffrrt! Yuk.”
Three WEEKS out of date! Sorry Mr Kipling but your cakes are shite when they are past the use by date.
Now at the time I put this down to the fact it was a new Tesco store and there had been a mix up with disposing of out of date stock during the move from the old one. Y’see? That’s customer loyalty at work. The goodwill was still there. It isn’t any longer, I can assure you of that!
Every time I go into that bloody shop (See? Now it’s ‘that bloody shop’) I have to check the dates on absolutely everything I buy - and I’m not alone - people are being forced to rifle through the grocery packaging just to be able to buy something that won’t go out of date the following day. Either that or they visit the store every day to get fresh-ish produce.
If I wanted to be a hunter-gatherer I would go live in the wilderness, catch small animals, eat berries and drink out of streams - I do not want to be forced into visiting Tesco’s every day!!
I visited that bloody shop only last week and had store staff remove an entire batch of lamb from the refrigerator - they didn’t take much convincing - it was green. Astonishingly enough, it was not beyond it’s sell-by-date. It was however, spoiled.
Now the only reason Tesco’s are able to supply goods such as electricals (your toastie-makers are crap, btw. Mine went to toastie-maker heaven in a fizz of fuse-blowing three weeks after I bought it) is because they have the people visiting their stores to buy groceries. Without the grocery buying there is no ‘other goods’ sales.
So what’s going wrong?
Simple. Delivery. They have it all wrong, in my opinion.
It’s my understanding that one store can reload a lorry with goods they haven’t sold and ship them to other stores the lorry may be delivering to later.
If this is indeed the delivery system all I can say is ‘talk about ripe for abuse!’
Let’s say Store ‘A’ has a batch of almost out of date meat they don’t want on their books as being over-ordered and spoiled. Store ‘A’ sticks it on the delivery lorry for the next store that has ordered it, for example, Store ‘C’. Store ‘C’ takes delivery of the meat they had ordered - except it isn’t what they ordered - store ‘A’ did a switch. Store ‘C’ is actually taking delivery of meat that is on the verge of expiry.
If this is the case, this would mean that all over the country, food is being shipped from store to store, with those stores further along the delivery chain getting food that is of a much lower standard.
Now let’s say for example that Tesco’s are delivering from a central warehouse in England (I don’t actually know) - this means that Tesco’s would be delivering lower quality food to it’s Scottish stores. Anyone want to throw the ‘racism’ word in yet?
Which brings me to my next point - Tesco’s are ALSO really irritating me.
January 28th, 2007
