Tuesday 17 April 2012

Shopping should not be frustrating and depressive

When our second child was born we switched to Sainsburys because it felt a lot more relaxed a shopping experience. Wider isles, quieter,  brighter, shorter queues at the checkout etc. OK it was probably a little more expensive and we certainly bought more items because we weren't in a rush to get out.

Today we went shopping for the first time in a fortnight after a holiday and we see new freezers.. You know? The kind that short people can't reach the top shelf of and that applies to so many of the elderly. It's a great way to frustrate them - and a lot of their customers are elderly. I'm not tall and I'm not short either and I have to stretch!

Apart from that some of the things on top of the freezers have been moved to shelves so... more shelves... so narrower isles... one of the reasons we switched. The number of near collisions today was frustrating and being hit with a trolley today was a first for me! The store now feels darker and less welcoming.

Couple this with a slower checkout process than when we started using Sainsburys and the reasons for continuing to shop there start to disappear.

Now... a year ago they had a 'Basics' swiss roll for 13p, it's now 45p - that's a 346% increase. What is inflation running at please someone? And apples get more expensive every week! Hang on... we've all heard how the big supermarkets tell the farmers what they will pay for this years crop and that was decided ages ago so how come... OF COURSE! They need to make X amount of profit in fruit and veg and so with less stock they need to increase their profit margin! By the way that is accountancy speak for 'fleece the punter'. These increases are typical and get worse every week.

A couple of years ago there was a shortage of tomatoes and so many prices went up. After a couple of good seasons the price has managed to stay up. Well done Sainsburys.

Enough is Enough.. we are walking!

PS  A facebook friend has just pointed out another cunning price increase method... The number of slices of ham and such like drops periodically while the price stays about the same. Drop a six pack to five and see the size of the price increase. Or cut the slices thinner... another one. Not just meats though... elsewhere in store too. 

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