Supermarkets in Shetland - prices, ethics and experiences

[Roachmill]

"The country’s largest retailer submitted its planning application for the extension to Shetland Islands Council last week after carrying out a ‘retail impact assessment’ at the authority’s request."

 

Eh?!!! So the SIC asked Tesco to carry out their very own assessment on how they'd impact local retail with the extension built? Hopefully I'm missing a vast quantity of grey matter and just being thick... but that sounds bl**dy stupid

 

"About 20 people were randomly invited to a research forum at Lerwick’s Kveldsro Hotel on 18 June. Each one was paid £30 to attend the ‘Customer Question Time’ session during which they were asked their opinion of their shopping experience."

 

So the £30 was apparently for answering questions and not supporting Tesco as someone said previously. Bang goes that damned fine conspiracy theory (unless they bought The Shetland News too /jk)

[JAStewart]

^^ What are you missing? Don't places normally have to do their own assessments of their expected performance? Museum and Mareel to name 2.

[Fifi]

So the £30 was apparently for answering questions and not supporting Tesco as someone said previously. Bang goes that damned fine conspiracy theory (unless they bought The Shetland News too /jk)

Companies using focus groups to get their opinions is quite normal. They often make a payment to participants plus refreshments.

[Roachmill]

^^ What are you missing? Don't places normally have to do their own assessments of their expected performance? Museum and Mareel to name 2.

Performance = impact? Not in my dictionary The first hit on a quick Google appears to agree. A retail impact assesment is defined as "A form of appraisal and forecasting to evaluate the effect of a proposed development on the vitality and viability of town centres". So I don't think I'm missing much JA.

Tesco: We want to double the size of our store within months of it opening. OK with you old chap?

 

SIC: Hang on there just one gosh darned minute Tesco! We have to assess the potential impact on everyone else. You can't come sailing on in here and do what you like with no thought for everyone else!

 

Tesco: That's a no then?

 

SIC: We'll have to asses potential outcomes and decide. So Tesco, do you think it'd have a harmful effect on anyone?

 

Tesco: Why no, definitely not!

 

SIC: Fine. Go ahead.

Asking Tesco what potential impact on LK / Shetland they think they'd have by near doubling in size would be utterly pointless. Same goes for the Museum, Mareel and anywhere else that's got a bias towards the results. Any review should be carried out by a 100% independent body.

[Carlos]

Tesco having to submit an impact assessment is much the same as Tesco having to submit a carpark layout or a structural design, it doesn't mean it gets rubber stamped.

[ianboy1]

funny the carry one a certain mr hodge had getting planning permission, compared to tesco???

 

Perhaps if Mr Hodge had bothered to apply for permissions prior to doing the things he needed permission for and not in 90% of the cases after the event he would have found the process a little less costly and a lot more straight forward would he not !

 

And if he had spent as much time researching the licencing requirements required for his shop as he has moaning how bad everyone is to him he wouldnt have fallen out with the owners of his premises and would probably still have a decent business.

 

All in all Mr Hodge is probably a nice enough guy but im not so convinced by his business skills you would have presumed a man of his business accumen to have researched the requirements of the local authority prior to diving in head first and then realising he needed various permissions and it was for lack of a better term S**t or bust,, unfortunately for him it was the latter !!!

[ianboy1]

If tesco bring their range of electrical goods to the Lerwick shop how many of you think it will have a huge impact on Bolts or the Hydro !!!

 

Say Big Bad Tesco want to sell TVs for instance where can you buy a TV in shetland other than the afore mentioned,, Hydro fair enough reasonable prices with a relatively limited range Bolts well im no going their as i canna afford it ?

 

But I was in a tesco in dundee a cpl a weeks ago and lo n behold their was the 37" Sony Bravia TV I so badly desire (dinna need it) but want one and it was £599 and yea I have looked on the net for weeks read about TVs till I recite them in me sleep and yes I have found it £49 cheaper but the £80 delivery seemed to be a tad excessive. Last time I was in Bolts I was quoted £899 for the same TV (a month ago) bring on the TVs PLEASE Tesco..

 

Anybody fancy opening a TV & stereo shop for mid range mid price electricals,, fill a niche that is sadly forgotten on our rock ! My philosophy is low priced decent brand up to date stock = quick turnover = equal if not better profit than jo bloggs down the road selling the same at inflated prices with slow turnover ! Anybody Interested ?

[JustMe]

Hydro are a national store so no worries about protecting them. Bolts seem to have no desire to offer products at the budgets end of the market so if Tesco do then great!. Anyway I think Bolts have lost any chance to complain about competition now they have started selling furniture which is competing with established local shops.

[breeksy]

Just for the record - Homebase haven't bought anything in Shetland, and I very much doubt if they would have any interest in Shetland.

 

A firm of builders merchants, Buildbase, however, bought Hay & Co as part of a bigger deal - it wasn't a Shetland business, but rather part of John Fleming & Co, a Scottish company.

[breeksy]

And just to be clear - this thread was started a LONG time ago, before Tesco has a place here, but were looking at the possibilities.

 

I wouldn't have bothered starting a thread about a done deal. Like the Buildbase deal was once I heard about it. And to be fair, I haven't heard any issues about Buildbase's business practices, unlike Tesco.

 

Heres a new question for you if B & Q or Wickes wanted to build a store would we have a 18 page thread protecting our local builders merchants !! oh hold on Homebase bought a local company and came in that way thats ok how about poor leslie at LBC or poor Clarence at Brae I dont think I see a thread protecting them local boys we local businesses

[Pooks]

Anybody fancy opening a TV & stereo shop for mid range mid price electricals,, fill a niche that is sadly forgotten on our rock ! My philosophy is low priced decent brand up to date stock = quick turnover = equal if not better profit than jo bloggs down the road selling the same at inflated prices with slow turnover ! Anybody Interested ?

 

I am sure that plenty of people would love to do it. The quick turnover has almost nothing to do with it. To run a shop in Lerwick you need to pay for the astronomical cost of the premises, then the rates, then staff the place, then think about all the little odds and ends (electricity, furnishings, advertising, insurance).

 

The only way to compete is to buy in bulk. A population the size of Shetland will never sell the bulk and that is why it is cheaper to buy from the internet or from a national chain.

 

In Tesco's case, they could easily offload the old stock from bigger stores south to Shetland. The prices will still be far cheaper than anywhere else and it saves them bunging it all to a discount warehouse somewhere for pennies.

 

The only reason that Tesco's is so powerful as it is now is because of its buying power. They can negotiate deals that most can't compete with because they are shifting so much stock at the end of the day.

 

Think about it. If you were a manufacturer, and a company approached you saying that it could buy one or two TV's a week, but they would sell instantly or a company that offered to buy all your end of line goods in truckload quantities...which would you choose?

 

The small retailer has no chance. Customer service, reputation and warranty are about the only things keeping some of these guys going. The world is a constantly changing place and this is certainly nothing new. Think of all the butchers/bakers/grocery/fishmongers that used to exist. They have been dwindling away for the past 50 years.

 

Wake up and smell the (tesco value) coffee, the UK is in a poor state. Most people are struggling to get by with what they have. The situation is deteriorating on a daily basis. When people need to find cheap food to survive then they will hunt for it. If that means shopping at Tesco's then so be it. The UK is heading for a major recession sometime soon and I don't want to be here to see it.

[greenman]

i just hope that the quality of tesco's fruit and veg is better than that of the co op, we bought a punnet of peaches at 1700 hours on wednesday, we had to dump then yesterday as they were all gren hairy mouldy

[MJ]

don't know if it's the travel up or just the fact that things sit all day in crates or maybe both, but the produce at the moment is showing signs of extremes of temperature. the salads seem to have gone between far too cold a temp to too warm a temp which causes a soup like consistency. The raspberries have been kept too warm, causing early mould, and the strawberries too cold, with what looks like frost damage on the last ones brought home.

Unfortunately I don't get to do the family shop often, desperately trying to teach my family that when stock is sooo badly handled BB dates don't count for anything.

Use your eyes, nose and common sense. Unfortunately people are too reliant on date codes and people have forgotten the skill our ancestors learnt long before mr lipton (godfather of the modern supermarket).

With peaches if they smell too sweet they're rotting, says she with a peach skin phobia.

[ianboy1]

Just for the record - Homebase haven't bought anything in Shetland, and I very much doubt if they would have any interest in Shetland.

 

A firm of builders merchants, Buildbase, however, bought Hay & Co as part of a bigger deal - it wasn't a Shetland business, but rather part of John Fleming & Co, a Scottish company.

 

So sorry breeksy Buildbase then and "just for the record" it makes no difference who it is be it Tesco Buildbase Homebase B & Q or anyone else the point is the bulk of the household budget is spent on groceries to keep the family alive give them the strength to go out and work to pay for next week/months shopping trip so in your belief Tesco are an un ethical company ? If they can lower the cost of our existence good on them.

 

So their unethical so you say in my humble opinion many local companies are guilty of daylight robbery on a daily basis Sorry is that Ethical or is it ok as they are locally owned !

 

And to be fair I havent heard any bad reports about Buildbase either But I have shopped at Tesco several times on the mainland and found their stores Clean Well stocked and Reasonably price Friendly Staff who can chat and scan I was always offered to have someone pack my goods be it a basket or trolley other than the frequent bag packers raising money I have yet to have this happen in Shetland.

 

All im saying is give them a chance they might just turn out to be the big bad wolf or maybe just save us a few quid at the end o a bad month when we need it most ! No takin into account the higher wages I hear their payin their staff lets see I think that meens more money coming into the community but maybe im wrang about that asweel ???

[Ghostrider]

Say Big Bad Tesco want to sell TVs for instance where can you buy a TV in shetland other than the afore mentioned,, Hydro fair enough reasonable prices with a relatively limited range Bolts well im no going their as i canna afford it ?

 

I don't know about Bolts business practices these days, but not all that many years ago it was no wonder their stuff was expensive, a great deal if not all of it was shipped in as air freight on the scheduled flights. Yet despite that they seemed to shift a serious amount of stock for such a population size, I can't guarantee the accuracy of my memory, but GMR's old VW LT van heading north crammed entirely full, virtually all of it either audio or video products, on average at least once a week is what I seem to recall going on. Granted this was before the internet really became established, but even so, ordering up gear from sooth has always been the way to go with many folk.

 

For some bizarre reason it seems to work for them though, they're still there, and assumedly have made and continue to make money. They've outlived just about every other retailer in the sector, both long established and more recent start ups.