they are repurposing our local grocery store as an Aldi's - anybody have any good or bad

@FreddieUK I suppose it depends how much you spend anyway, but I don't use the costlier ones like Sainsbury's - anyway my nearest branch of that is some miles away beyond the town. (Aldi and Lidl each about two miles away from home.)

I know the Tesco's card-carriers are given a discount, because there are signs in the shops saying so; but "loyalty cards" are much more for the shop's benefit than ours. If they can run these schemes why don't they simply apply single-level prices and be done with the cards and attendant administration?

@ArishMell It's because they think they can persuade me to spend my money with them rather than their rivals. I have a rule: I never look at what's on offer before I go to the shop and ignore their marketing blandishments. Tesco is a two minute drive so I would go there anyway for my main shop, unless I'm visiting my friend when I will go to Sainsbury's. I buy what I need and if has a discount, that's good, I get the advantage.

@FreddieUK Oh, I never fall for "offers" unless they really will help, which is not often. Nor do I fall for tricks like fresh bread or coffee scents, the stuff they display next to the till queues, etc.

My nearest Tesco is a small branch, so its range is not very great, but the supermarkets generally tend to work on large ranges with limited choices in many of those anyway. While their buying policy denies local management any choice, and is designed to wipe out local food producers.

I buy food generally little and often, with the occasional expedition to Aldi or Lidl, but about the only shop I can be said loyal to is the independant. local baker's shop not far from home..



As for the idiotic "piped music"...

The Head Office picked, totally pointless, naff music and self-advertisements pouring out of the ceiling make we want to shop and leave as quickly as possible. It must cost them quite a bit in royalties, though they include that in the goods prices anyway.

I aim the same criticism at the grasping owners of the motorway services, too. I use those only for the loos, in which the awful piped music is even louder; and I can't be doing with all services' shops, video machines, American junk-food chains and general tat. Though some have attractive grounds in which you can stroll well away from all the crowded gimmicks.

What pointless counting-house clerks imagine they must inflict endless streams of their own choices of nowt but old pop hits on everyone - staff and customers - in service-areas and supermarkets, and why?

@ArishMell I learnt something today! I didn't know that Nisa was part of the Co-op.

@ninalanyon I didn't until my local Co-op branch was going to close, and a member of the staff told me it would become Nisa - and explained it's the same company. It's basically some sort of pensions or tax wheeze. It changed again and is now a "Premier" branch.

The Co-op went through a very rapacious phase of opening branches as close as they could to existing franchise shops like Premier and Central, to force them out of business. In Yeovil it bought two pubs at each end of the same road, barely a mile apart; converted one, completely demolished the other and built their shop on the site. A local resident told me one of those pubs had been profitable, too.

I think it's lost some of its shine now, though.

@ArishMell Do Co-op members benefit from Nisa?

@ScreamingFox I saw a YouTube video that some of the things aren't cheaper - they only compete on food prices - so meds and personal products can even be more expensive

@Pretzel I always shop around anyway but I love a 50¢ mango lol

@ScreamingFox as one does :)

@FoxyGoddess Plus, the place is somehow depressing. Quality and price aside, that whole place just screams "Generic!"

@HoeBag And not in a good way either.

@FoxyGoddess Plus the food packaging is just sorry. I know, we should not judge products or anything on packaging, BUT we ARE conditioned in a way that we expect it to look enticing ya know.

Only worse thing I have seen is when we were kids and Kroger had "cost cutter" items with packaging that was, well, remember this look?

Walk down the non-food area and it is completely useless CR4P! Stuff that we would be embarrassed to give at a gift exchange at our jobs.

It's like whatever is the next step down from "Generic" is what Aldi often carries. 😄

@NerdyPotato ahh

I mean we recycle our plastic bag - when we clean the cat box :)

@NerdyPotato It's the same at Lidl. I don't understand the reason when they do not provide self-checkout. Almost as though they want to limit what you buy.

@SunshineGirl I read that WalMart was losing a ton of money on self-checkouts - so much so that they are increasing the number of cashiers

@sstronaut In the UK you get the coin back when you return the trolley to a trolley store in the car park.

@FreddieUK I know, but it's more about the annoyance of having to do that.