I estimate that our weekly bill at the Co-op has increased by 30-50% over the last year.This is way over any rise in inflation and way over the general increase in food prices. Since the re-organisation there is also considerably less choice and customers are now often only offered a more expensive version of a product.
The Co-op website is about the only supermarket site that does not list all its products and prices nationally. Maybe I'm too cynical,but I strongly suspect this is so they can vary their prices according to the location of each supermarket.
Supermarkets like Asda and Tesco are now much, much cheaper than the Co-op to the point where I can understand why more people seem to be getting their groceries home delivered by them.I support the Co-op for its ethical stance, but I am beginning to feel that we're being exploited because of our location.
I wonder if anyone else feels like this.
Posted by Anonymous to swanageview at 1:25 PM
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I agree 100% plus you have the miserable bloke as manager.
Um...yes. This has been stated in previous posts on this blog.
I will say that the Co-op is cleaner than Budgens. Neither store would survive for long if a Tesco Express or Asda supermarket were located nearby. The Coop and Budgens run on the premise that they have a captive clientele, and price accordingly.
Personally I would like to see one of them fail to be replaced by an Aldi.
Ah, the joys of the free market!
If you're a member of the Co-op then you get discounts and as their profits are rising presumably some divi at some point.
Personally I'd rather see both close and replaced by a Waitrose and a Lidl, but Aldi'll do!
Sadly, the Co-Op is generally a rip off wherever it is located, but Swanage is often well over the top on prices. Beware hidden bargain prices, especially on fruit, as there is regularly a sting in the tail as, for example, the oranges which are foul unless they are navels or the occasional satsuma.
Totally agree about some check-out staff and the man in charge. We got a bo11ocking from an old chappy at the cigarette/Lottery counter because our dozen items were in a small trolley and not a basket! Many are nice people though, just the occasional grump.
Budgens, on the other hand, haven't a clue, we just go to check out the few bargains. Costcutters and the other corner shops, never seem to have any stock of their offers.
On the whole, Sainsburys at Wareham is the only localish supermarket with half an idea. Trouble is, use it or lose it in town.
Paul.
"The Co-op website is about the only supermarket site that does not list all its products and prices nationally."
Are you certain you are seeing national prices? The chains always had regional pricing in the past and the north-east was a good bit cheaper than down here. There is no problem in doing this with a website. If you have logged in to your account or entered a postcode it knows where you are and can fetch prices from the appropriate database for your location.
A few years ago Swanage co-op prices were lower than in the Wareham branch for some things.
A number of things annoy me about the co-op. Firstly some of the staff behave as though they owned the customers who, if they are members, own the shop ad no the other way round. The disappearance of lots of useful and cheap lines is bad and the pretence that "international" food consists of rows of jars of gunge is a bad joke. Even Tesco do better on that one. Lastly I might mention the amount of water that comes out of some of the meat when it is cooked.
Its quite amazing how bad Budgens is though. On the bright side the smell of decay has abated.
When I was promoted to a senior post with a fat rise in salary, and we had to relocate to a town with a nice Sainsburys, my wife's sole reaction to this good news was:
"Thank @#*! - no more having to shop at Budgen's!"
That was 25 years ago. Image her 'delight' when Somerfields/Swanage became a Budgens!
'Personally I'd rather see both close and replaced by a Waitrose and a Lidl, but Aldi'll do!'
A nice juxtaposition of market sectors in the supermarket industry - the trouble at the moment is that the Coop and Budgens are more or less the same - overpriced, poor in qulaity and poor in range - and an unpleasant experience for the shopper, to boot.
I'd like to see the pep talk these managers give the staff when these posts become knowledge. Do you think they will? Or do you think they don't give a monkeys?
Both shops have been a ripoff for a long time and its why i like many others shop online with asda and get it delivered as i cant drive to asda poole for less than the £5 it cost to deliver but because of there offers i can usually save that and more.
On the issue of staff in budgens/Coop staff to be honest its like the rest of the shops in the town they are ran by greedy owners who offer little or no customer service and to be honest they could not care less about the local as they have a steady stream of visitors who will put up with it.
I make a list of everything i need and once a month i take myself off to Poole.
If you want great service and fantastic produce then use the Purbeck Produce Days - 2nd Sat of month at the middle school, 4th at Holme nurseries.
My only connection with them is that I'm a very satisfied customer!
Purbeck Producers are great, friendly, and you get local meat,fish, cheese and fish.
Co op suits me fine too, good,money back parking, helpful staff, fair trade, good ethical shopping and banking.
Some people are never happy.
3:49 - I suppose some other people are easily pleased
I'm the original poster and personally, I have no problem with the staff or many of the products.I do have a problem with their prices though and also with the reduced range since their re-organisation.
And as good as Purbeck Produce is it is expensive and only once a month so a lot of their lovely fresh produce goes straight in the freezer. Oh, and they don't actually sell toilet rolls,tinned tomatoes,cereals or tea.
Doesn't anybody love Budgens??
**sniff**
yep the chopped tomatoes, why don't they do the ones with herbs in anymore? There area perhaps two acceptable cheeses and similar number of just OK wines. The meat would turn you vegetarian (the worst sirloin steak ever).Moreover so many items out of stock (sorry no lentils, they should of been on the lorry -they were ordered).Why can't they get the shelves stacked before they open, there are usually more staff putting goods out than on the tills. Prices mad.
But worse the hiding behind fair trade crap and ethical issues as a marketing tool. Take the plastic bag thing. You are discouraged from having any at the tills, but if you have home delivery or use the robot you have to have the bags.
Waitrose, Lidl, Aldi ???? You'll be wanting Marks and Spencers, John Lewis, a fast train to London and an international airport next ... Lets get real, part of the appeal of Swanage is its 'time stands still' and relatively 1950s inaccessible air. The big boys wont be interested in spending a fortune on a store here, forking out extra miles to bring the produce and then experience only tiny profits. The Co-op and Budgens are all part of the living in Swanage deal. You need to live in a big town with better transport links for much else. Lets keep Swanahge as it is - no 'progress' of that nature required - Co-op and Budgens rule OK.
"use the robot you have to have the bags."
You can of course take your groceries out of the co-op bags and put them in your own bag after the machine has coughed up your change.
Is it too much to ask that posters like the last one actually read the original post? My question was, does anyone else feel that prices in the co-op have risen far beyond the rate of inflation in the last year or so? Comments about keeping a "1950's" feel in Swanage have no bearing on the price we are now being asked to pay for goods, nor on my observation that the co-op's product range has shrunk.
I have worked for supermarkets in the past and if anyone genuinely imagines that any supermarket has to pay out significant ammounts of extra money to transport their goods here then I think they're naive. Is it really that much more expensive to come to Swanage rather than Dorchester?How about Devon and Cornwall - they must be paying ten times more than we are given how much further away they are.
I'm not knocking Swanage so there's no need to defend it.It's a great town, but that doesn't mean that we should have to pay through the nose to live here.I like the co-op and I prefer a lot of their food range to places like Tesco or Sainsbury, but maybe we should get out our bank statements and see how much more we're paying now to a year or so ago.
Might this be related to the non-competition offered by Budgens? Somerfield was cheap if not particularly cheerful.
I certainly agree about the way useful things have vanished. Passata went some time ago, followed by dried dates and now gluten free chocolate biscuits seem to be slated for oblivion. Meanwhile the range of products consisting of water, colour and something to give the appearance of substance has never been greater. Where do you suggest for palatable wine at an acceptable price?
Ferment your own from a variety of free natural products,recommended oak leaf, dandelion, hawthorn, elderflower, the list is endless and its cheap and often very strong, lovely tasting and full bodied.
More spending power in Dorchester = greater profits for the Tescos and Sainsburys. Same in the larger towns of Cornwall and Wales. Out of the way, lower spending communities like ours will always end up with more expensive and lower quality stores. Thats life so dont complain about the Co op prices if you want to live here !
It's not really about spending power, it's catchment area. Most of our inhabitants live in the sea!
This is why Tesco et al may be willing to build in Wareham, but not Swanage.
9:23 your statement is ludicrous.According to you anyone can charge whatever they like and if we don't like it we shouldn't complain, but either move away or die. Have you ever actually run a business?More spending power usually = more shops,actually, which equals more competition for your £.
You either secretly own the co-op or you're one of those people who just goes onto blogs to disagree with everyone else.Either way, as you're so happy with local prices i suggest you volunteer to pay 10% of everyone else's bills.Can I have your bank account details please?
1.32. You have contradicted yourself I believe. More spending power and a bigger catchment area certainly does = more shops and competition - that is my business experience. Unfortunately that is exactly why we end up with Co-op and Budgens rather than Tescos, Sainsburys, Aldi, Morrisons, Budgens and Co-op. If we had all or most of those there would be more competition leading to lower prices. Tescos and I suspect the other players do have local pricing policies though. Just compare prices in Tescos in Bournemouth, Poole and Haverfordwest. They are quite different.
To suggest I secretly own the Co-op or just like to disagree with people is crazy even if tounge in cheek.
I do not particularly enjoy the high prices but appreciate that it is part of the deal of living in this wonderful part of Dorset. If Tescos wanted to build a superstore here you could be sure there would be sound economic reasons (thankfully there arent). We are therefore safe from that 'amenity' and all the others that would go with it - multi screen cinema, Wetherspoons, Macdonalds etc. Lets all be thankful and accept the prices we appear to have to pay..
Co-op is reasonably priced, it's just that Tesco and Asda etc are ripping off the producers. They charge the manufacturer a fortune to stock items and insist on promotions. They also treat their staff badly.
For food I try to use local shops rather than the Coop whenever possible but they aren't open as long and I'm not organised enough. From an ethical point of view the Coop is one of the best of a generally bad bunch. Waitrose probably pips it.
Wow! some positive talk, how inspiring and refreshing. Agree with some though that Tescos may be cheaper, but there is a massive down side to the big T. No need to go shopping to find out, google Tescopoly. Budgeons may not have shown its true colours yet, there was an article in one of the papers to say that Budgeons in other places, sell some local produce, so if we start growing more, then they may agree to put it on the shelves.
Most S'markets have the policy of selling locally produced goods.
The bit they don't tell us is that the supplier has to commit to providing a guaranteed amount, for 52 weeks of the year - if they don't, the penalties are huge.
Having said that, I wonder why our awfully enlightened Purbeck Gazette farmer doesn't let on that 75% of S'market product is British.
Once 'power' has a captive market it milks it.
Oh, forgot to mention, it's also on Budgens own website that they promote local produce .......
Always remember to read the SMALL PRINT.
All fascinating stuff but strangely enough all also part of the Swanage time warp experience. The good people of Swanage were grumbling that their shopping cost more than in Poole well back into the nineteenth century, even before the railway when you had to get there by boat. The grass has always grown greener on the other side of the harbour.
What was the purpose of the original post? Its something we all know about. Its not just Swanage, our trolley-full in Lidl has shot up just as much or more and I think that customers of the establishments that claim they are "always driving down prices" and "every little helps" have had the same experience, plus their customers are paying for the adverts. Conversely "guud with fuud" is very irritating.
Sterling has gone down by 25% so all the imported stuff will go up to restore margins if it has not already done so. Inputs into British agriculture have gone up as much or more. Agri-chemicals, if they are oil based will also have risen because of the rise of the dollar and oil prices. Commodity prices are on an upward trajectory. I think its all rather more than the machinations of co-op management.
By the way, I do own the co-op - or at least my £1s worth, as a member.
Maybe it is time for some brave person to open up an attractive local deli and fruit and veg, selling Dorset produce, fresh bread, cakes etc with a little coffee shop on the side. Many towns have one of these stores and with the additional summer trade a living may be possible. Swanage used to support a variety of grocery stores 50 years ago. Who remembers (coming down the High St)Knapps Stores, Parkers Stores, The Co-Op (small version of todays store), Robsons, Abbotts Stores, Hunts and in Institute Rd Home and Colonial and International Stores ? There was also one at new Swanage with a Post Office.. They were all killed off around the time the Louise fashion store became 'The Supermarket' (now Budgens).
Surely just one well run, centrally placed store could make a living and serve the community and visitors very well as well as providing some competition for Co-Op and Budgens.
Incidently Budgens do franchise out their stores and some of these offer a good choice at reasonable prices, together with local food, wines and beers. Perhaps someone could make them an offer as I suspect the Swanage Budgens may be a 'managed store? If so there is no real incentive.
whilst we are remembering shopping experiences past must mention Soars Dairy and a further grocers near the Purbeck pub......shopping in Swanage used to be a more varied experience it seems. There were bakers too, sadly Haymans is the only one left now but what a star it is....
I am old enough to remember when the supermarket opened in the former Ritz cinema premises (it expanded into the dress shop some years later.) It offered a more attractive proposition than having to tour half a dozen shops, making desultory conversation with the staff, often queuing up in each and them waiting while each item was fetched from a distant shelf by a begrudging adolescent or the creaking and arthritic owner. There was no way of comparing brands or other aspects of the goods before making a decision, you had to as for what you wanted. If the first shop did not have what you wanted there was then a tour of the others, clutching the evidence of ones disloyalty to them. The whole pattern of retail in towns has changed out of recognition since the.
As is well known the same thing has happened everywhere else and the number of food shops nationally has fallen to a fraction of what it once was. I am not surprised. Its easy to look back to an imaginary world of rosy cheeked shop keepers dispensing food produced by bucolic farmers a few miles away. The reality was having to decide whose Australian apples would be least bruised and wrinkled before seeing them or which butchers "home made" sausages had the least gristle in them.
so no change, except its now Co-op or Budgens....
There is an option to using Coop/Budgies or the pricey home delivery option from Tesco:
The secret is:
Use Wilts and Dorset from Swanage to Poole, alight at the rail station, then cross the road to Asda. Cheap transport, and even free if you have a bus pass.
Shop till you drop at Asda. (For chilled/frozen goods, you can buy one of the insulated bags). Even pop over to the Sovereign on Asda's free shuttle bus for lunch, or to buy other items.
When you have everything, pick up the W&D bus back to Swanage, right at the traffic lights at the Asda.
If you have too much to carry home, take a taxi from the station.
Do this once a week. You can even do it in the evening, or Sundays. Then use the Coop or Budgens for just last minute items.
Easy, cheap and good for the soul (as well as the environment)!
And what do we do when Wallmart (AKA Asda) and Tesco have reduced the food market to a duopoly?
They more or less have, but there will always be remote areas they won't be interested in - areas with clientele too small to bother with.
Before you blame Walmart for the demise of high street shopping, reflect on the fact that this 'pile 'em high - sell 'em cheap' philosophy was started right here in the UK, by Jack Cohen.........the Waltons of Bentonville Ark. took it to the next level, then Tesco caught on...
"this 'pile 'em high - sell 'em cheap' philosophy was started right here in the UK, by Jack Cohen."
The version I heard was slightly different. Tesco was a chain of small and medium town centre supermarkets offering good value and selling a surprising amount of Polish and other east european food which was both cheap and tasty. Mr Cohen's apotheosis came when he visited the USA and saw at first hand that what mattered in supermarkets was appearance and brand. Flavour was irrelevant if not a disadvantage. The company has not looked back since.
Many thanks for the Asda suggestion. I shall try it and suspect so will many more people too. Sounds like you get good prices, quality, variety and a day out too !
Asda and Tesco may be cheaper, but Lidl, Aldi and Iceland beat them - admittedly without the choice of products that the biggies - which include Sainsburys, Waitrose, Sparks etc. provide. Does anyone like Morrisons? I think not. How did they get big? At least the Co-op is better priced and with more range than Budgens. Why oh why did we get Budgens - of all the possibiles? The Co-op is also ethical and has a carpark, but it does have a country member as a manager. Why hasn't he been sacked?
Co-op and Budgens' business model is to open shops in rural areas where the big boys do not operate. They sell less for more profit. In other words, the capitalise on or remoteness. We pay.
Just how is the Coop ethical?
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