Despite it being in the most convenient spot in town, with the biggest free car parking area enabling you to walk up into town for other shopping, we have finally forsaken Tesco for grocery shopping for 99% of what we need. OH still gets his lottery ticket there, and occasionally a paper or something we've run out of, but that's it. We made this decision a few months back, when the final straw landed on this camel's back. (I am aware that ethically, we should probably have never shopped there, but convenience does count for something.)
We had divided our shopping needs between Lidl, specific shops in the town and market, and our fruit and veg from the cut-price warehouse at Abergwili for several years now. We had long been aware of the poor quality of the fruit and vegetables in Tesco and stopped buying from there - we could get the same close-to-use-by quality for pence at Abergwili. I recall looking for a cucumber in Tesco once, and the entire stock were soft and bendy, which I pointed out to Customer Service . . . I tried never to buy beanshoots there because they were guaranteed to expire as the clock struck 12 on the use-by day which we always just a couple of days ahead of when you purchased them . . . (I'm the only one who eats them, so a bit pointless sprouting them at home). Broccoli was generally more stalk than head, so weighed heavy.
We tended to try and buy stuff on a sound offer, and didn't have the wool pulled over our eyes by the "special offers" and "reduced from" deals (especially the "half price" wines). Latterly, when given come-on vouchers for "spend £30 and get £4 off" or "spend £40 and get £5 off" we would spend pretty well exactly that amount, buy only what we couldn't get elsewhere or was on offer so we could stock up (tins etc) and that was it.
When I was too busy or unwell to make my own bread last year, we fell into the habit of buying their Spelt and Sunflower loaf at £1.40. I noticed recently that the price has now shot up to £1.80 and the loaf is 2/3 if not HALF of its former size. Do they really think customers are that stupid they don't notice? Mind you that works with reduced Christmas cards. I bought some with cats on, allegedly 40p or something, in January. Got to the counter and they were 70p - "someone" had moved the stock of those beneath the cheaper price as the cheaper cat ones had already sold . . . A wee bit cute that.
For a while they did excellent cooking bacon with ordinary rashers included. They must have sold too well, at the expense of the normal bacon, because one week we turned up to buy some and it had been put through the mincer. Well, that WAS the final straw and we have spent very little in there since, dividing our allegience between Morrisons and Lidl.
Our middle daughter has been staying for a few days this week, and we bought some stuff in there and got given a spent X and get Y off ticket, so we spent that today - the exact amount with just tuppence over, then £5 off as we had a £1 voucher for washing powder. On our way round, I noticed some Sweet Williams for £3. I love them, but I think that was a lot of money for a smallish bunch of flowers. Then I noticed smaller bunches, "going over" for £1.50. They were half the size of the bigger bunches - in other words, exactly the same price for flowers a day away from binning . . . No reduction at all. A lovely big bunch of fresh Sweet Williams was on offer in Morrisons for . . . £1.50, so I bought mine there.
When we used to shop at Morrisons (until a couple of years back), the car park always used to be half empty. Now it is nearly always pretty full . . .
