There's a big M&S a mile from the house, I'll have to have a look round, if for no other reason a bit of professional curiosity as to what different retailers are doing differently. It's next door to a flagship Asda, both are in a reasonably affluent if not exactly rich area.
Shrinking grocery items
- Thread starter JezmondTutu
- Start date
Ponty
pfm Member
No pork in the car park?!
Ok, good to know the staff aren't being taken advantage of, and that it's likely an intentional management decision to reduce costs. We have been using their delivery service through lockdown and slowly got back into the habit of actually visiting the stores, and things have certainly changed since before. Of course, it might just be that it's been changing for years and being absent for a while has made the change more obvious.
As for Waitrose margins, that's good to know, and helps justify not going there.
Barrymagrec
pfm Member
I believe Waitrose has to support the rest of the ailing John Lewis empire so don`t expect price cuts anytime soon.
(Or decent sprouts in their Banstead branch)
(Or decent sprouts in their Banstead branch)
These places are like everywhere else. Aldi make a living by selling a restricted range of me-too goods in high volume and by riding in on the coat-tails of the other retailers. They have no R&D spend, little food safety spend, so it goes on. Compare and contrast Tesco, with a dedicated team of inspectors going around the suppliers, kicking arse every day of the week, raising standards hugely, writing and publishing a huge and detailed manual, the TFMS (Tesco Food Safety Manufacturing Standard), to which you WILL adhere otherwise God help you, one of their technologists will be asking you which way round you want to wear your bollocks as earrings.
Waitrose sell some specialist stuff that will sell at low volume and high margins. They still have to employ staff and pay rent or build shops. They don't have the luxury of selling 25 metric tonnes of soap powder and nappies every day, and they can't afford to be as ruthless as Aldi on slow moving items. They do have to stock slow moving stock. Aldi don't stock speciality French cheeses and so on, while Waitrose do and the only way to pay for that is via the price of the groceries. You get a better range and nicer surroundings, but you'll have to pay for it. It's only like taking your car for a service. You can go to the main dealer, you get the nice showroom, comfortable seating and a pretty receptionist fetching you free coffee and pastries while you wait for the chap in the minibus to take you back to work while your car is getting repaired. Or you can go to a local specialist who charges half as much an hour but he might not have all the latest kit, the coffee is from a vending machine at 20p a go and you are walking back to work. You choose, but we all know that the receptionist and the minibus driver at the fancy dealers don't work for free.
monkfish
pfm Member
There is no comparison if you use vouchers.
gintonic
50 shades of grey pussy cats
At pork the minibus is a Macan or Cayenne 
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
There is for me.
monkfish
pfm Member
Can you vouch for that?
Anh
Naim ghetto blaster
I go to Waitrose (or more recently shop online) as its a more relaxed shopping experience, M&S can be a bit aggressive at times on-par with the larger supermarkets like Tesco/Sainsbury. Those leaning on the left be prepared for middle aged / retired shoppers a plenty with copies of Daily Mail slapped on the checkout conveyor for both Waitrose & M&S...
The usual tinned / preserved / processed, cleaning & commercial beer stuff I go to Sainsburys or Morbinsons as pricing is more competitive, I know they stock plenty of it so my visits are quick.
When it comes to fresh produce, my experience of M&S vs Waitrose is that
I would suggest registering an online account with Waitrose and try ordering your groceries from there, there are regular offers on wine, meat, baked beans etc etc and if you shop right the bill is not far off the other supermarkets. If they don't have what you ordered at packing stage, they substitute it for something better at no extra charge.
The usual tinned / preserved / processed, cleaning & commercial beer stuff I go to Sainsburys or Morbinsons as pricing is more competitive, I know they stock plenty of it so my visits are quick.
When it comes to fresh produce, my experience of M&S vs Waitrose is that
Vegetables / Fruit are equal
Dairy / Cheese equal (slight edge to Waitrose if you want more specialised cheeses)
Red meat goes to M&S if they are vac packed variety. Waitrose has a meat counter if you want the really good stuff.
Poultry equal
Seafood equal
Deli / Antipasti are comparable and no doubt comes from the same oligopoly of Italian / French / Spanish based suppliers.
Bakery ... branch dependent and can go either way.
Wine & Spirits ... I'd say Waitrose has a more varied choice of wines, and they stock own brand £25 Cognac that pisses all over any other supermarket branded offering.
Dairy / Cheese equal (slight edge to Waitrose if you want more specialised cheeses)
Red meat goes to M&S if they are vac packed variety. Waitrose has a meat counter if you want the really good stuff.
Poultry equal
Seafood equal
Deli / Antipasti are comparable and no doubt comes from the same oligopoly of Italian / French / Spanish based suppliers.
Bakery ... branch dependent and can go either way.
Wine & Spirits ... I'd say Waitrose has a more varied choice of wines, and they stock own brand £25 Cognac that pisses all over any other supermarket branded offering.
I would suggest registering an online account with Waitrose and try ordering your groceries from there, there are regular offers on wine, meat, baked beans etc etc and if you shop right the bill is not far off the other supermarkets. If they don't have what you ordered at packing stage, they substitute it for something better at no extra charge.
gintonic
50 shades of grey pussy cats
After Ocado sold out to M&S and ditched Waitrose we tried Waitrose online - what an appallingly unreliable service. We ditched them quickly.
We now buy less but higher quality meat from a specialist online butcher, and have tried buying smoked fish directly from a smokehouse in Scotland - bloody amazing
we are going to try an online fish monger next (some nice sushi grade tuna and salmon)
Anh
Naim ghetto blaster
I cannot legislate for that ...
MikeMA
pfm Member
Agreed, and cheap shoes are getting smaller and narrower, especially those made in China. I will only buy European made shoes now.
Good point. GAP t-shirts went the same way. I still have three that I bought in the mid 90s. The cotton is still thick and opaque when held up to the light. They fit me perfectly, which is great because I hate having to go around shops trying to find another brand that fits me correctly. So when my T-shirt fleet needed some new additions about 10 years later I ordered 2 from GAP's online shop safe in the knowledge the fit and quality would be good.
The new GAP T-shirts are made from cotton about 1/4 the thickness of the old ones. I am not exaggerating, one quarter!
And although I ordered medium to match my perfectly fitting originals the fit has been changed too. Overlaying an old and new T-shirt shows the new one to have a bell bottomed lower half compared to the original. I suppose this indictive of how the shape of T-shirt buying UK Brits has changed. On a positive note at least I was getting some extra cloth in the garment, albeit in thinned out spec!
Will the new GAP T-shirts still be looking good in 25 years time like their forefathers? Yes, they are so crap I don't wear them.
anubisgrau
pfm Member
I gave up on GAP many years ago, after I was addicted as from early 90s.
I discovered Uniqlo during my travels in Asia in early 2010s and was really happy, but now I notice difference too. Still you can find great items but it seems they are going the same way, reducing quality, design and materials to keep competitive.
I discovered Uniqlo during my travels in Asia in early 2010s and was really happy, but now I notice difference too. Still you can find great items but it seems they are going the same way, reducing quality, design and materials to keep competitive.
Part of this is just a change in the shape of clothing fashion over the years. Have you noticed the trend for fitted shirts? Great on young and or thin men. Bigger men? The front bulges like an overstuffed mattress, with pale flesh bulging out.
The cost of making a shoe is in assembly, not the materials, and that doesn’t change much from size to size.
Width is very much a decision of the manufacturer, but the small sizing could be due to the factory using US-sized soles, and then the shoes are mis-converted from US sizes. In men’s shoes, a US 10 is a UK 9, but it’s not simply “subtract one”, because a US 11 is a UK 9.5. I generally use European sizes when I buy shoes, as there’s far less ambiguity involved, but even then my 45 could be a 44.5 or 45.5 depending on brand.
Shoes cannot be bought online with any kind of success - sizing is too variable, and it’s the one thing where you need a proper fit.
For me it's the opposite, my feet have changed shape over the years and I'm now a standard size 7, mail order or even supermarket shoes are fine. This never used to be the case. Long may it continue.