Supermarket Thread

[Deadlock]

As I am now a husband (hard to believe but there you go) I am now roped into helping, or even doing, the house shopping.

As a result of this I am going round the major supermarkets: ASDA, Tesco, Sainsburys and Morrisons, comparing the positive and negative aspects of each of them.

I invite anyone with input to share their views in this thread :smile: This could include, deals that are current (like 3 for £3 etc), friendliness of staff etc.

Example: Tesco do good deals on chicken breasts and pork loin, but their fruit and veg selection leaves much to be desired.

ASDA are currently doing a brill deal on Carte Noir coffee, 100g jar for £1, which can't be argued at, but their meat isn't as good as Tesco :sad: Staff at Walsgrave Coventry are good though.

So let's hear your good/bad views, and what bargains you can get :smile:

PS I saved £12.30 on my last trip to ASDA, yay!

[MsNerdinator]

Lol, that is adorable!
You sound like my hubby! It's cute watching him get into 'shopping mode'. You two should meet ;)

I feel Tescos and Morrisons have the biggest varieties on goods. One thing I always try to look out for on special offer is Extra Virgin Olive Oil. That stuffs is expensive, but Morrisons always has it in some form.

And how can you not be fond of Tesco's variety of veggies? :( When I go around and compare them, I do think that the quality of their veggies is far better than the other supermarkets (maybe not variety). A lot of their fresh stuff can stay fresh for a long time after you buy it. Same with the other supermarkets too, but I think Tescos quality is better.

I do like ASDA, but I feel my local one isn't as good as our local Tescos. Plus, I do online shopping sometimes, and ASDA doesn't delivery to our area :( I do visit all the big supermarkets, but I tend to go with the one that has most of our 'favourites' on offer. Or if another has something on offer that we really like, and my parents happen to go.. I get them to pick up a few bits and bobs, if we're not looking to do a big bit of shopping.

Oh, and tesco have the bestest Coffee Ice Cream. Ever. <3 Currently on offer :P rofl.

I saved £15.56 on my last Tesco order :D (yup.. we're bargin hunters, heh!)

[Deadlock]

Maybe its just the Tesco we have - its very small and monopolises the town we live in, so the probably don't care about the veg and fruit. We've bought potatos on Friday nights, open them on Sunday to cook and they're going all manky and sprouting. Hence going to ASDA, who also have a big organic range. Morrisons I haven't been to so far, so I can't comment on their stuff as yet, but I might go next week and treat myself lol ...

Oh, Fray Bentos pies (in those big round tins, they overflow out of) were 3 for £3 at ASDA. Woo!

PS Another thing to throw into discussion is stuff like, Tesco Beans v Heinz or HP Beans, can you really tell the difference? We've started trying out own-brand pasta sauces, they're half the price of Dolmio etc, and I'd say about 80% as good.

[BB]

Best baked beans by far are Branston beans. They are the closest in taste to what beans used to be before they removed all the salt, sugar and flavour.

ASDA have the best value for money overall and the best instore bakery bar none including M & S. Their own label products tend to be very good quality and value for money.

Morrisons are bargain basement for quality if not always prices but do have good special offers now and then. You do have to take evasive action to avoid zimmer frames in there too.

Tesco blue stripe cheapest stuff should be marked as inedible. On the whole I find Tesco very poor on the value for money front. They also are ruthless when it comes to overpowering any competition in an area they decide to dominate and have an odd habit of persuading local authorities to grant planning permission in the most unlikely circumstances.:eek:

[TempusFugit]

Excellent thread Deadlock - and congratulations on your promotion to Happy Shopper :razz:

Personally, I find our local Sainsbury's the best Supermarket in my area. I have tried the local ASDA and Tesco (we don't have a Morrisons) and the quality of food in terms of longevity, quality and price - Sainsbury's seems to be the best value for me. I bought chicken from our local ASDA once and despite it having at least four days before its best date - it was off! Again, the quality of fruit and vegetables isn't as good - but this could just be a regional problem and not indicative of ASDA's (or indeed Tesco's) anywhere else.

Our local Sainsburys staff also seem to be the most helpful and pleasant - something that cannot be said for the other stores. There is nothing more annoying then when you are doing a late shop (because that is the only time I really get to do my weekly shopping) then having the aisles clogged up with loads of trolley's full of stock that is being replenished and staff mucking about and running riot... just because the shop isn't as full as it normally is.

I also shop in Waitrose - but never a big shop :eek: And the same can be said for Marks and Spencers - you have just got to love their Chocolate Puddle Pudding :razz:

[Katie.Lemon]

I always liked safeway. why did it close? there own brand bread was nicer than asdas tescos and morrisons (which im my mind isnt worthy of the name supermarket) put together.

btw. top notch thread ;)

[*AJ*]

Why is ASDA spellt in caps? Does it stand for something or are they just shouting the supermarket name at you?

Anyway, I think Tesco is pretty hilarious. Only because dead funny stuff happens when I'm there :razz:
I think I save the most money when I go to Tesco. The big Tesco near us is really good and they have a huuuuge selection on almost everything they sell! Except loo paper O_o

I think ASDA just nick all your money, and it's generally a lot messier and the shelves are very empty whenever I go :|

Morrisons are really good, loads of offers and actually good quality things :o

Re: Offers and deals, Tesco give you a full refund if they accidentally didn't pick up an on offer, e.g, if you got two bananas cos it was BOGOF but they charged you for both bananas they give you all the money back. ASDA on the other hand... well I don't know cos although that did happen to me, I figured it was only 60p so I didn't bother telling the customer services dudes. But I don't like ASDA anyway and I had no idea where the Customer services desk was anyway! Yeah, am dozey, and what? I do know where the desk is now though :)

Re: friendly staff. ASDA sucks. Morrisons are really nice and make me laugh :embarrassed: and Tesco are quite nice too. The nicest anyone ever was, was in Tesco. Went there with my dad and the cashier was chatting to my dad like they were best friends. I was in actual fact embarrassed cos of how well the convo was going and thought it was kinda dorky. Turns out when we got outta there dad turned to me and went "Wow, that man was so nice" and after I explained I thought they knew each other, we figured it was Tesco's "be kind to people policy" thing. I didn't like it though, was very over done and creepy :eek:

Oh and btw, I have no idea where our ASDA puts their fruit and veg cos I've never seen it :/
Lemon: Morrisons bought Safeway, so they took over really. This the same guy owns it or summat, was in the news a couple of years ago innit.

Gosh, I'm 19 and talking about supermarkets like I'm passionate about it :|

/me dashes off

[NoHints]

English teacher 6-7 years ago told me ASDA stands for Associated Dairies, but then I read in a news paper recently that it doesn't actually stand for that and originally stood for something else. Can't remember what though, and a superficial Google search says Associated Dairies.

[Ches]

There was a merger of the Asquith chain and Associated Dairies in 1965. The name ASDA comes from ASquith and DAiries.

I never really thought much about the benefits of various supermarkets. My shopping process consists of.

1. What's closest? Tesco. And its massive. Good.
2. Head to closest.
3. Buy whatever is on special offer. Then buy bread.
4. Get home. Be given list of things I have forgotten by the other half.
5. Return to Tesco grumbling that I should have taken the list in the first place and will definitely remember next time. (But feel happy that the shopping I already have is currently being put away without me having to do any of it :twisted:)

Shopping the Ches way is easy peasy. :o)

[BB]

The history of ASDA can be found here (http://www.asda-corporate.com/about-asda/history.asp) and oddly enough it's quite interesting reading :eek:

If you look at the entry for 2000 you'll see the very first ASDA Walmart in Patchway where I spend most of my shopping hours.

[Saffron]

/flirt Woolworths and it's Frequent Shopper Points :D

[Deadpan]

Cool. I'm American, so it's interesting to hear about other supermarkets! Hm I guess I can't really contribute stuff about UK supermarkets, but...

Supermarket Sweeps! (US version) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y44tyEDb_I)

It's not one of the best shows, but I like how the guy explained everything in the info tab. I've seen the UK version with Dale Winton, and I found that the people were way too calm ;P Should be more like this:

Canadian clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO_tm-C7yfU)

lol... alright, I'll stop spamming this thread with TV =)

[MsNerdinator]

Maybe its just the Tesco we have - its very small and monopolises the town we live in, so the probably don't care about the veg and fruit. We've bought potatos on Friday nights, open them on Sunday to cook and they're going all manky and sprouting.

:o I've got potatoes still hanging around from last week, and they're perfecto :D I guess it really does depend on your local tescos store.

We've started trying out own-brand pasta sauces, they're half the price of Dolmio etc, and I'd say about 80% as good.

Ha! I did the same :D I love Dolmio, but I thought I'd be different and I started buying own brand ones. So far I've tried out tescos and Morrisons (same sort of price too, in both stores), and I absolutely loved the Morrisons one. :) Tescos one is good too, but Morissons is by far better. I even liked it more than Dolmio :o

Of course, I prefer making home made sauces, but the above are great for days when you're feeling ill and don't want to cook (great prices too!) :)
BTW, Deadlocky, have you checked out the ingredients of the Dolmio and compared it to the own-brand ones? There seems to be less added weird things in the own-brand ones. I didn't expect that.

Personally, I find our local Sainsbury's the best Supermarket in my area. I have tried the local ASDA and Tesco (we don't have a Morrisons) and the quality of food in terms of longevity, quality and price - Sainsbury's seems to be the best value for me.

I do like Sainsbury's a lot, but I guess I don't shop there often because the other supermarkets are closer to me. Not only that, but our Sainsbury's is a pretty small one, so it's big trip for a big bit of shopping and then not getting everything you were looking for. I'm naughty though, and when I do online shopping, I compare the prices and offers with Tesco, and see which one is better to shop at (online) for that particular grocery order, heh. So far Tesco has one each time :S I guess their offers are more suited for me so far.

The big Tesco near us is really good and they have a huuuuge selection on almost everything they sell! Except loo paper O_o

LMAO! That had me roffling for ages. It was a funny experience though XD
/me gets flashbacks of trying to look for toilet paper..

I think ASDA just nick all your money, and it's generally a lot messier and the shelves are very empty whenever I go :|

Yeah, I think that's just our ASDA, sis. Heh. Must be our area :P Weird though.. Tesco is the only one that is massive in our area, and the others are tiny. Well, Morrisons is definitely bigger than that Tesco, too. But it takes a good 20-25 minutes to get there sometimes. :eek:

Oh and btw, I have no idea where our ASDA puts their fruit and veg cos I've never seen it :/

I was wondering that the other day, actually. :eek:

Lol @ Supermarket sweep! Great clips, Deadpan! hehe :D

[Sam_I_am]

It is funny to read about Supermarkets in another place.

We only shop for groceries once a month at Wal-mart, it's too far away to go more often. Then for milk and bread and fresh fruits we go to the local store, about 10 miles away. It's definitely not a supermarket!

When we had our exchange student from Germany, she was so excited to see Aldi's (not sure of the exact spelling) when we went back east over Christmas. Apparently, it's a great store in Germany, but a really crappy one in my opinion here. We went into one so she could see and agreed it was much better in Germany.

When we lived in Montana we always shopped at Albertson's where they had great deals, but the regular stuff was much more pricey than Wal-Mart. We liked it a lot better though.

The neatest place to shop is Buehler's in Ohio. After you buy groceries, you are given cards with numbers and then you drive to the pick up place where they put all your groceries into your trunk for you! It is great not to carry groceries and their carts never leave the store, so they are never cold or wet from rain or snow.

[Deadlock]

ASDA are doing Douwe Egberts Coffee (medium or dark roast) 200g for £5.18 ...

or 2 for £6 :razz:

Bargain :biggrin:

You can tell I'm a coffee drinker, eh?

[MsNerdinator]

Lol, Deadlock.

I was sulking.. thinking Tesco's finest ice cream offer was coming to an end. The day after the offer ended, it was back on offer again. Hehe!

So if anyone fancies coffee ice cream, or fudge ice cream, check out tesco's finest XD It's 500mg, usually £2.49 each. Now £1.49. I cannot begin to tell you how awesome this ice cream is.. :eek: I'm not happy about the original price, so I only get it when it's on offer. I'm addicted to the stuff :(

[kermy]

Oooh nice thread....

We used to do our main shop at Sainsburys but ever since Asda opened nearly 3 years ago in our town I've found them alot cheaper. Their bakery is soooo much better and I've never had any probs with their fruit or veg, saying that, the next closest Asda never seem to have availabilty when I want it

Oh did I mention that I work for Asda :P

Re the friendly service, I think its pot luck unfortuntely, alot of the colleagues (never ever call them staff apparently) are kids that only care about being paid and have no pride in their work (and I'm not saying that all teenagers are the same) Plus I can name a few older people who don't care about their job too!!

Did you know that Asda's own brand beans are Cross and Blackwell baked beans too?

[Piggie]

Very interesting to see that some guys do actually take an interest in food shopping! It's one of the most boring tasks for me and I got into the loop of ordering online from Tesco. Originally it was only to do the big shop leading up to Christmas one year but, that winter, I seem to have gone down with the bug commonly diagnosed as "Lazy-itis" and the "one Christmas shop" turned into "oh just one more time" until I justified it by saying I was a single mum and working plus doing voluntary work too so it was easier for Tesco to shop then drop at my doorstep! Yeah ok, I know that if I could throw hard enough I could throw a stone from my front garden into the local Tesco Extra car park but hey lazyitis is a hard disease to recover from!

Anyway, I am now in recovery and, due to the fact that one of my sons works at Asda Wal-mart, Patchway (as mentioned above by Beebs), I now go shopping there. This is mainly due to the fact that I get a 10% discount with the colleague card! Unfortunately, as I usually shop around 7.30 pm on a Saturday evening, not every shelf is stacked full but I seem to manage. Besides which, I can always pop over to Tesco to "top up"!!

I would favour Tesco and their offers plus the bonus of earning clubcard points and money off vouchers but I think this is due to the fact that I've used them for the last 15-20 years and I possibly favour them out of habit and convenience!

I think when you talk about variety and quality of products, it really does depend on when you shop and the size of the shop you use. A busier shop will obviously have a larger and quicker turn around than a smaller shop and this would probably keep the fruit and veg fresher. Another factor is how much the "colleagues" throw the boxes around in the warehouse I suppose!

Funny to read Saffron being a Woolworths fan!! When visiting Australia, I found it quite amusing that Woolworths was a supermarket! Over here they tend to sell clothes, stationery, household goods etc but I'm not sure I've seen one that still does groceries!

Personally, Saffron, I would favour "Franklins" because that's my maiden name!!

[Deadlock]

Hehe .. Woolworths - the major stockists of JML super-duper vegetable slicers ... and pick-n-mix Quality Street. Or maybe that's just the one near me :)

[MsNerdinator]

w00t tescos! I gots an eCoupon for £10 quid off my shopping if I spend £50 online. Nice one.

Oh, and my last order had a few mistakes in it. I swear the shopper didn't read my personal comments! :eek: I didn't receive one thing, and I received 3 other things that I didn't want, as I didn't ask for a substitute on those things. I emailed tesco and got over £4.00 back from them. I didn't expect that.. I thought they'd only refund me for the item that I didn't receive (but paid for).

I gotta say.. I'm pretty impressed by tescos' online communication :)

[Harry_Kewell]

Well I gotta say that Morrisons is by far the best (as I work there) :biggrin: The staff are amazing especially on the tills lol. They have a load of good offers which benefits me, the poor student that I am. The 10% discount card comes in handy too. Although the only problem I have there is the fact that the veg isn't the best of quality(the onions mainly). Stay away from them.

We go sainsbury's for our weekly shop as my mum is extremly picky when it comes to where she shops. They do have good quality food although it is rather expensive compared to everywhere else. Plus the variety of goods isnt as expansive as Morrisons. My mum knows this but still insists on going there every week.

Not fond of asda as a store mainly due to them making me redundant when i worked for Somerfield. Which is a great place to work, not shop.

PS. Anybody who works at morrisons gets a free Fish and chips this week because the old git Ken Morrison has retired. What a special and thoughtful gift...not.

[Atreyu]

In the heartland, where I grew up, there was a little mom & pop supermarket across the street that changed names several times over the years. As I grew older there were 4 major supermarket chains: King Soopers, Safeway, Albertsons, and Grocery Warehouse. We had Wal-Mart(or Wally World as we like to call it), but they were not a place to get groceries at that time. King Soopers had a lot of good specials but I remember going to Safeway more. Safeway was more family like atmosphere. Albertsons was only good for the deals and regular items were more expensive than the others. Grocery warehouse was a shootoff of Albertsons and featured lower prices and a "all-generic" section. I had last heard there were no more Grocery Warehouses. When I moved to the South there was Kroger, Food Lion and
Wal-Mart Supercenter(Saw my 1st Walmart that featured groceries) . Kroger is a sister-store of King Soopers and everything was pretty much the same as far as layout but with a different name and different colour. Food Lion was seemed more family oriented and good for specials. Wal-Mart ultimately got most of my shopping change and still does because of cheaper prices. I moved a little further South, Food Lion remained but Kroger disappeared and I found Lowes Foods, Bi-Lo(out of business) and Harris Teeter(or Hairy Peter as I like to call it). HP has an abundance of different items that you cant find in other supermarkets and a few of the same but the prices are definitely higher unless youre getting those weekly ad's special items. Lowes is also regular supermarket with higher prices, ditto on ads. We have Aldis also which is low prices for off-brand items which about 98% of their store's items consists of. Some of their stuff is pretty good and pretty much same quality as name brand items. I have found a very few items that werent quite right, plus they guarantee quality of their items 200%(they exchange the item AND give you your money back) so they get a lot of my shopping change as well as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is just too good on prices and is more convenient because they have more than just groceries and their produce is relatively nice. You can find almost anything at Wal-mart. A lot of people are saying though that Wal-Mart is driving a lot of mom & pop shops out of business and dont treat their employees well but alot of those people still shop there. Go figure. I also have a tip about Wal-mart: You can take ads from other stores and they will match the items price but they wont do buy one get one or percent off items. They will also not match stores that require a card to get the discount which mostly all of the stores around here, except Aldis, require a card for their discounts. Well thats my Supermarket thread story. Sorry if I wrote a book. Tee hee!