The Madness Of May

Let’s face it, May did turn out to be a bit of a mad month – the election was a complete madness in itself! The final result was a bit of a shock to many, not at all keeping with the forecasts; you can read my response at the-election-my-response

Having felt thoroughly disillusioned and fed up with certain issues, I’ve started a new blog as a platform to inform and campaign on certain issues, see www.purelypeoplepower.blogspot.co.uk to read more. Introducing this new blog means that my existing #OfstedNoConfidence campaign twitter.com/hashtag/ofstednoconfidence will move to this new site, and I have also started a petition calling for a review of Ofsted, which you can sign by visiting https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/call-for-independent-review-of-ofsted  Shoppers’ Joy can will now revert back to its original use, which is to showcase product and service reviews, consumer issues and general shopping-related chat.

And so in other news...

This month I reviewed both Travelodge and Pontin’s, having experienced recent short stays in each, both of which seem to have undergone some improvement. Travelodge certainly seem to be upgrading their hotels, and whilst Pontin’s accommodation could do with a bit of an update, other facilities on offer are good. I’ll be interested to see how both progress.

In one post this month, I mentioned that my weekly shopping habits have recently changed, with more visits to Morrisons being the norm. I’m now using Sainsburys’ much less, partly because I now live further from a branch than I did before, but also the miserly lot have reduced the number of Nectar points that they’re awarding! Hadn’t you noticed? They’re now only giving one point per pound spent, instead of two, but the value of points remain the same – so basically you’ll have to spend £2 to get just 1p back! And there are no longer points awarded for re-using your own bags. Not a good move Sainsburys!

Finally, I was thrilled to hear that culottes are making a comeback. I think they’re great, offering the look of a skirt but with the comfort and practicality of trousers. I owned quite a few pairs back in the 80s, and I know they say you shouldn’t wear a fashion trend if you sported it the first time round, but I just couldn’t resist picking up a pair sitting on the sale rail in New Look. At £7 they were an absolute bargain, I just couldn’t resist!

How did May shape up for you?

A Move To Morrisons

Since moving to a new, more rural location last year, my shopping habits have changed somewhat.

At my old home, I did my main grocery shopping at the local Tesco Extra, with smaller top-up shops at Sainsburys’ and the Co-op, but all that has changed since the move.

My current nearest Tesco is rather smaller than the Extra at which I once shopped, with far fewer product lines on the shelves, making it impossible to replicate all my most common buys. Although the store can meet a lot of my needs, it falls short on others.

Similarly, I have neither a Sainsburys’ or Co-op within easy reach, so have needed to look elsewhere. Attempts at buying groceries in Aldi failed dismally, I couldn’t get on with their products at all, and although I like Lidl better, the journey to the nearest branch is too far to justify any savings. And when it comes to grocery shopping, I’m not a fan of doing it online, as I like to scrutinise the meat, carefully select the fruit and veg and take the time to mull over relevant offers.

Therefore, my weekly shop now tends to be divided between the smaller Tesco, and Morrisons’, as there is a large branch of this store near to said Tesco.

On my first few visits to Morrisons I tentatively tried a selection of own brand products, as well as selecting some well-known labels that were on offer. I decided that many of the products were of good quality and therefore represented good value, an opinion further enhanced by the introduction of the Match and More card. This loyalty card price-matches your purchases not only with other leading supermarkets, but also with Aldi and Lidl, converting any extra money that you have paid on your comparable Morrisons’ shop to points, which then accumulate until you have sufficient to be awarded a £5 voucher. Despite targeting many own brand and offer items in my shop, I always seem to earn points, and have received several £5 vouchers, further reducing my shopping bill.

In addition to this, Morrisons have been sending me a variety of additional money-off vouchers through the post – they’re really making an effort to gain custom!

I’ve now also become a fan of certain of their own brand products. Here are a few of my favourites:

Morrisons Laundry Gel (Bio) 540ml (up to 18 washes) for just £1.75 – just as good as the Ariel version in my opinion and much cheaper!

Morrisons Pure Fabric Conditioner £1.50 (up to 42 washes) is a great bargain buy that leaves my laundry really fresh.

Morrisons Bolognese Sauce 725g for 99p, we actually preferred this to many other makes that we have tried.

Morrisons Chilled 100% Fruit Juices, 1-litre bottles, 3 for £3 (£1.29 each), not only are these really tasty, but there is such a great range of flavours. In addition to the normal apple, orange and pineapple, I love the apple and mango, Clementine, apple and pear and red grape and berries.

I’m also a big fan of their deli items, such as vegetable samosas and olive selections, and am pleased to see that their meat tends to be sourced from British farmers.

It would definitely seem that I’ll be doing much more of my weekly shopping in Morrisons in the future.

January’s Highs And Lows

It’s been a strange month. The weather has been freezing cold one moment and unseasonably mild the next. With a general election looming this year, there have been debates on how and even whether there should be party debates and slanging matches have started between party leaders.

I’ve been trying to keep warm in the ‘glorified shed’ (you can keep up with the latest on that at www.ruraljoy.blogspot.co.uk) and despairing as to whether any party leader is actually fit to run the country!

 

Anyway, here are a few of my other highs and lows for the month.

Highs

Discovering a handy website for knitting patterns and wool, as I had been very frustrated at the lack of decent patterns available. My local craft and wool shop only seems to stock patterns that appear to belong in the 1970s and knitting magazines tend to print lots of patterns for small items, with only the odd cardigan or jumper that may or may not be appealing. I was very pleased therefore to discover www.deramores.com where you can sign up for a newsletter giving you access to free patterns as well as purchase reasonably priced patterns and wool. My order was processed and despatched literally within hours and I was very pleased with my purchases.

Grabbing some late sale bargains, including a pair of trousers from Wallis reduced from £30 to £10, a cardigan from Dorothy Perkins down from £25 to £10 and a perfume set from Boots for just £8 as opposed to its original £28! That amounted to £83 worth of shopping for just £28 – well £20 actually, as I used my Boots Advantage points for the perfume!

Receiving my first £5 Morrisons’ Match and More voucher, despite only purchasing quite minor amounts of shopping in the store and targeting offers most of the time, these points still added up very quickly!

Enjoying Father Brown on TV, although why it’s shoved into an afternoon slot on BBC1 I don’t know – it would make great evening viewing. In fact, that’s exactly when I do watch it, as I record it on my Humax box. It has a great cast and if you’ve never seen it I strongly recommend you start watching!

Lows

Finding out that Sainsburys’ online grocery shopping slaps on an extra charge for orders under £40, although I can report that Tesco only put an extra fee on the bill for orders under £25. My elderly mother-in-law particularly wanted to order some groceries from Sainsburys’ and enlisted our help. As she is only catering for herself, we checked that the minimum order for delivery was indeed £25. It was not until we got to the checkout stage, that we discovered the extra charge. Fair enough, there has to be a minimum amount to make delivery viable, but I don’t believe any supermarket should be charging extra for orders above the £25 mark.

The return of Broadchurch to our TV screens has been somewhat of a disappointment to me. I’d read various articles saying that the story was going to be really different and exciting, yet half of the programme each week seems to be going over old ground and dwelling on the court case relating to the last series. I would have much preferred more emphasis on a new story than dredging up the past – I can only hope it will improve as the weeks go by.

Reading ‘Natural Causes’ by James Oswald, which I’m not criticising for its writing or characterisation, but purely saying the plot was not for me. I like a good detective story, but this was too gory for me, with a higher body count than even a series of Midsomer Murders! It has some great reviews, but personally I prefer a little more mystery and a little less graphic content.

What A Sauce!

I’ve often stopped to grab a bite to eat whilst out on a shopping trip, pausing at a supermarket café or High Street restaurant.

Of course, choice and standard of food can vary greatly between cafés, but what can also vary vastly is the way in which the condiments are made available.

It’s often nice to add a bit of vinegar, ketchup or mayonnaise to a meal, preferably from a decent bottle, but this is not always the case. Sauces can be served in anything from tiny, hard-to-open sachets, which can be free or cost anything up to 12p, to large bottles that are left permanently on the tables, with a number of other options in between.

Plastic sachets are the most annoying ways to have your ketchup served. You can spend ages trying to open them up, spraying unsuspecting fellow-eaters in the process, only to end up with the most minute splodge of sauce on your plate. It can take several of these to produce enough of your chosen sauce to complement your meal – not really an option if you’re paying for the privilege, not to mention all that plastic waste!

It may be that some cafés fear that bottles of sauces will ‘disappear’ or are less cost effective, but considering what you pay for some meals, a bottle of sauce is a small ask. Some eating-places bring the bottles to the table with your meal and remove them when you’ve finished – there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.

Sainsbury’s restaurants have tried various systems over the years. Originally I remember being able to help myself to sauce from a bottle, then to sachets that were readily available at no extra cost. Then they started to supply a pot of sachets at the till point, which in my local branch at least, has now been reduced to an odd sachet or two being produced reluctantly when you pay.

One of the best systems, for customers and café owners alike, is that adopted by McDonalds – sauce on tap. This way you help yourself to your chosen condiment, in suitable amounts, in a type of card-based pot, which is much more user and environmentally friendly than plastic sachets.

However the sauces are served, I don’t believe that customers should pay extra for the privilege, but what do you think?

Celebrity Endorsements

Advertisements can often be controversial, but I do despair at the amount of celebrity appearances and voiceovers in TV commercials, which must cost a fair whack, money probably better spent on the products themselves – or reducing their prices!

I’ve touched on this subject before, see good ads, but I’m becoming increasingly irritated by the cheesiness and pointlessness of these so-called celeb endorsements. Do I care what Cheryl is (supposedly) using on her hair, which yogurt Nicole Scherzinger (allegedly) prefers or that Victoria Wood appears to extol the virtues of a Dyson? Does it make me more likely to buy these products? Actually, no.

In fact the insincerity of some of the celebrity ads makes the products appear less credible to me. Their only use is to play a game of “Name That Celebrity” – can you recognise that famous voice in the background?

Random kittens in blog,
Much like random celebs in ads

I mean, do we really imagine that Peter André regularly pushes a trolley around his local branch of Iceland and that Mel Giedroyc really believes that “You’re better off at Asda”? The amount of different Asda ads featuring our Mel’s voice in the course of one week probably earns her enough to be far more extravagant with her weekly shop!

Personally, I’d prefer more ads featuring ‘real people’, which would be more cost-effective to make and more believable. It’s not really the TV advertising that encourages me to buy a product or visit a certain shop anyway, but introductory offers for products and loyalty incentives in the shops.

The odd advert can be quite entertaining, with some of the recent Christmas ones certainly worthy of a mention. I loved the Waitrose ad with its traumatic tale of the girl preparing the gingerbread stall and the John Lewis commercial with the lad and his penguins. But whilst the Sainsburys’ World War One ad was a poignant piece of film, I rather wish it hadn’t been an advert at all, just a short film to make us all think.

So does seeing or hearing a celebrity on a TV ad make you more likely to buy a product, or do you think there presence is just a total waste of money?

A Year In Supermarkets

With only weeks left of the present year, I thought it was time that I started looking back at some of my shopping experiences for the year, and in particular, what has been happening with the supermarkets.

Tesco were in the news this year for dodgy accounting, which has resulted in a criminal investigation. Now whilst this is serious stuff, and we should theoretically be concerned, as a shopper, I’m more interested in what is actually happening at ‘ground level’ so to speak. All the while I can go into a Tesco store, find what I want at a reasonable price, get good service from the staff and earn valuable Clubcard points I will continue to shop with the chain. They certainly operate the best loyalty scheme around, with points amounting to four times their value when exchanged for days out and Clubcard send out a regular supply of relevant money-off and extra points vouchers too.

Sainsbury’s, on the other hand, announced that they are set to cut the number of Nectar points that you earn on your weekly shop. (Loyalty cards) With their loyalty scheme already offering a poorer deal than the likes of Tesco I don’t think this is a very clever move. They are, however, pledging to cut more prices, so we’ll have to see how all this works out in practice.

Morrisons launched their new ‘Match & More’ card this year, (I want more) an interesting twist on a loyalty card, whereby you earn points on items that you would have been able to buy cheaper elsewhere – a price comparison that includes the likes of Aldi and Lidl as well as the other major supermarkets. What pleased me about this card was that Morrisons offered three options when it came to registering the card – online, by post or in store – a refreshing change from companies that expect you to do everything online!

Asda has never been one of my favourite supermarkets, but they’ve certainly put themselves in the doghouse recently. My daughter placed an online grocery order with them, but the goods never actually materialised (Oh dear Asda) and despite phone calls, completion of an online form, a blog post and a Twitter conversation (which reaps results in most cases) the company failed to properly apologise for the inconvenience, or offer any explanation as to what went wrong. Needless to say it’s not an experience she has rushed to repeat. In fact, my prize for “The Worst Customer Service of 2014” is hereby awarded to Asda. Perhaps they’d care to take note!

Whilst I continue to give Aldi a wide berth, having rated previous shopping experiences with them at 2/10, I have become a bit of a fan of Lidl. For me, Lidl have been one of the great emerging retailers of 2014. Most recently I’ve found them a great place to stock up with Christmas spirits – port, cream liqueur and cherry brandy all costing around the £5 mark, and tasting delicious – and I love their Stilton too! I’m sure that I’ll have much more to say about them in 2015.

So wherever you shop, I hope you’ve had good experiences this year – if not, let me know, I’m always keen to hear your shopping stories too!

I Want More!

When it comes to loyalty cards, I’m a serial collector, as many a blog post has demonstrated. It’s little surprise then, that when I heard about the Morrisons’ Match & More card, I just had to grab one and find out, well more.

Strictly speaking, this is not so much of a loyalty card as a price match tool. When shoppers get their card swiped at the checkout, the grocery spend is compared with Tesco, Sainsburys’, Asda, Aldi and Lidl – a selection of supermarkets that just sent the automatic spellchecker on my computer into meltdown!

Always looking to save valuable pounds!

If you would have spent less at these stores, then the difference (with an added zero) is converted to points and put on your card. My first shop with the card could have theoretically been 54p cheaper elsewhere (despite the fact that I targeted offers), and so earned me 540 points. Once I have accumulated 5000 points I will qualify for a £5 voucher.

When I first heard the details about the card, I was unsure whether the benefits would be worthwhile, but considering I’m already a tenth of the way to getting my first £5 following a relatively small grocery shop, it could prove quite handy.

In addition to the ‘match’ points, I’ve spotted a few items in store for which extra points are awarded and you also get 10 points for every litre of fuel that you buy at a Morrisons’ garage.

But what really struck me when I picked up my new temporary card and accompanying leaflet, was that Morrisons actually provide customers with a choice of ways to register – either online, by post (postage paid) or by dropping off the completed form to a box in store. Following previous posts bemoaning companies that only expect customers to communicate with them online, this was a breath of fresh air. After all, there are still people (some of my more elderly relatives included) that either do not have or cannot use the Internet. Well done Morrisons!

I Love My Loyalty Cards

Like many shoppers, I was quite incensed to hear that Sainsburys’ are halving the amount of Nectar points that they award to customers as of April next year. They will only be awarding one point per pound spent, as opposed to the current two (two points are only worth 1p ).

It’s true to say that Nectar points always have been slightly inferior to those awarded by Tesco Clubcard, with the exchange rate of the latter being four times their face value when converted to Days Out vouchers, and each point being equal to 1p .

There are some shoppers (misguided in my opinion) that question the value of loyalty cards, but I believe that any reward you are given for shopping is better than no reward at all.

Less effective than a loyalty card

The argument goes, that if stores are operating reward schemes, they subsequently have to set their prices a little higher to offset these incentives. However, I would refute this, as many good value items I buy are purchased in shops that offer reward points.

Many of the products that I purchase in places such as Tesco and Superdrug, are not only cheaper or at least comparable to those offered at other shops, but earn me points. Over the years I have acquired so many points under the Clubcard scheme, that we have been able to pay for several family days out each year, including trips to expensive theme parks, which we would not otherwise have afforded. Even if I have occasionally paid a few pence more for the odd product or two, I have received this amount back umpteen times over. It’s true to say, that if I could have bought some items slightly cheaper elsewhere and put the pennies I’d saved into a savings account, I would not have accumulated anywhere near enough to pay for the equivalent number of fun outings.

I regard all loyalty cards (and I can boast a considerable collection) as mini saving schemes that allow me to enjoy life’s little extras. Unless prices are considerably higher in a shop that offers a good value scheme, I am unlikely to shop for identical products somewhere that does not offer me these extra benefits.

So my message to Sainsburys’, and any other stores planning to reduce or withdraw their points schemes, is that this may result in a customer-cutting exercise as opposed to your intended cost-cutting one!

The Quest For Ginger Preserve

It’s really annoying when you start using a product and really enjoy it, then suddenly it disappears from the supermarket shelves.

That’s exactly what’s happened to is Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve, which I’ve previously blogged (see here ). I just loved its spicy tang, which helped to wake me up when spread on my morning toast. But since its disappearance I’m mourning its loss.

I had been buying it at Tesco, but as I could no longer find it in the store, or in any other local supermarket, I decided to email Duerr, who replied within hours, so a big thank you to their customer service department.

I was pleased to learn that they have not discontinued the product, although Tesco have withdrawn the brand from their shelves. Duerr urged me to write to Tesco to complain about this move, which I am in the process of doing, and would encourage other Ginger Preserve fans to do the same. Send your letters to:

Tesco Customer Service Centre

Baird Avenue

Dundee

DD1 9NF

In the meantime, Duerr tell me that I may still be able to pick up the preserve at larger branches of Asda (which sadly does not seem to apply to my local branch) and they apparently make Sainsburys’ Ginger Preserve for them, although I have not managed to find this as yet either.

However, in recent weeks I have managed to buy some Asda, Chosen By You, Ginger Preserve, which whilst not quite on the par with Duerr’s, will suffice until I manage to get more of my preferred variety. The Asda version is too jelly-like in consistency and therefore not so easily spreadable.

Have any of your favourite products disappeared from the shelves in recent times?

Customer Service – Responses

I’m a stickler for good customer service and am of the opinion that we should always speak up when service falls short of reasonable expectations.

Since starting my Shopper’s Joy blog nearly two years ago, I have taken up customer service issues with various retailers and service providers with rather mixed responses.

In the fledgling days of my blog, I experienced problems with both Sainsbury’s and Greggs, both of whom I sent letters of complaint, in addition to featuring them on the blog. I was pleased to report that both responded promptly and reasonably sympathetically, assuring me that they would address the issues raised and sending some handy vouchers by way of apology.

Long before my blogging days, I occasionally had cause to approach a company, either by letter or phone call, with regard to poor customer service, sometimes receiving an appropriate response, although at other times being totally ignored. It is fair to say that since any complaint that I’ve made has been shared on the public domain, responses are much more forthcoming. Thank goodness for the likes of Twitter, Blogger et al.

In the days when our grievances were only aired behind closed doors, companies had the option of brushing any complaints under the carpet, in the belief that they would be unlikely to become common knowledge. Although some firms have always responded well to reports of customer dissatisfaction, others have had to improve their reactions in the light of social media. Let’s face it, when we’ve had a poor experience, first and foremost we want an understanding reply, backed up by the promise that future service will be improved.

It is true to say that sometimes it is only an individual employee or isolated branch of a chain that lets customers down, but if the company as a whole does not respond positively to criticism, they risk being given a bad name.

More recently, I blogged about my experience of two different branches of the Hungry Horse pub/restaurant chain. One branch couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly; whilst the other gave the impression that they really couldn’t be bothered with my custom. On this occasion I cut straight to the blog without directly contacting the company and lo and behold, the manager of the poorer branch responded with a request for further details so that she could resolve the issue. The only sad part is that despite an encouraging first response, I never heard from her again. For the record this was The Star at Gillingham in Kent – just so you know!

Needless to say I have not returned there since!

In the last couple of weeks, a trip to my local B&Q store resulted in me leaving without my intended purchase, following what I can only describe as total indifference from the staff.

My attempt to by a floral arrangement in an odd-shaped pot was thwarted, when staff could not supply the means of transporting said pot without either crushing or totally losing its contents. A request for a box resulted in being presented with the most pointless, shallow example of its kind known to man – totally useless. An additional colleague was summoned who shrugged off the request with a kind of ‘haven’t-got-anything-hard-luck’ attitude. Right, thanks for your help guys!

Interestingly, however, a single tweet about my trip elicited a response from the B&Q help team, promising to investigate the matter. Great! Trouble is I’m still waiting for the result of that one …

And now BT is in the doghouse. My recent move saw me cut my ties with this company – a more expensive transaction than I would have thought. Watch this space for more news on this one.

So the point of all my waffling? Well, I have several in fact:

- When you receive poor service, do speak up; it’s the only way to get things improved.

- If you have access to social media, then use it! Pushing your complaint into the public domain increases your chance of a response.

- If you are a company on the receiving end of a complaint, then for goodness sake acknowledge it, investigate it, improve on it and say sorry! Remember, ignoring a complaint is just another form of poor customer service!

Which companies do you find are good or bad at handling complaints?

In May I …

… have been getting to grips with mastering my new hairstyle. My new cut meant a change in blow-drying technique and even saw me ‘investing’ in a set of straighteners. It called hardly be called investing however, as I picked up a bargain from Sainsbury’s where Phil Smith hair-styling sets were being sold at a 75% discount. For around £7 I bought a handy travel bag containing ceramic-plated mini straighteners with cover and a handy folding hairbrush. A really great buy!

 

… ate lots of Duerr’s Ginger Preserve. It all started when I lost my appetite due to a bug, and the thought of most food left me feeling queasy. As ginger is recommended a stomach settler, I decided to give it a go, and am still totally hooked on it long after recovering from said bug. It’s delicious on toast.

… made lots of lists. Lists of people to notify about change of address, lists of jobs to do on the current house to leave it in order, lists of what is to be stored where during our complicated multi-stage move, lists of food for my mother-in-law’s 90^th birthday bash … perhaps what I really need is a list of lists.

 

…read ‘Peril On The Royal Train’, another great story from the Railway Detective series, penned by Edward Marston. I really enjoy these crime stories set in the golden age of steam and featuring the masterful Inspector Colbeck and the feisty love of his life Madeleine. The tales are very atmospheric – a piece of history and crime combined.

… also read ‘The Missing One’ by Lucy Atkins, which I found quite chilling yet felt compelled to read at the same time. The book demonstrates how keeping family secrets can have far-reaching consequences and disturbing effects.

My Best Buys This May

I’ve really been enjoying the return to salad weather and tucking into Tesco Sweet and Smoky Beetroot – shredded beetroot that actually isn’t dowsed in vinegar. To my mind this is how beetroot should be eaten. I’m a bit unsure about the packaging though. It proclaims, “I’m new” and “Keep me in the fridge”. Er, I don’t think it can actually talk Tesco, so why insist on trying to thrust this human quality on it?

In our household, we occasionally enjoy a glass of Sprite/7Up Zero, but it can be pricey at around £2 for a 2-litre bottle, so I was thrilled when I discovered Tesco Lemon and Lime Zero for just 65p for the same size bottle. But then I was even happier when I found Sainsbury’s Lemon and Lime Zero for just 55p a bottle! Although the price has now risen to 60p it’s still a great buy, which is as tasty as the big name brands.

For a lovely summer meal, we’ve been enjoying Sainsbury’s Minted Lamb Grills (frozen, 4 for £2) accompanied by Sainsbury’s Microwaveable Golden Vegetable Rice (frozen, £1 for 2 sachets) and served with a salad. This is a tasty, budget, family meal that is quick and easy to prepare.

As a bit of a treat I’ve bought Marks and Spencer Passion Fruit and Peach Jaffa Cakes. They are absolutely gorgeous, but strangely come in packs of eleven, what’s wrong with twelve? Nevertheless, Jaffa Cakes have come of age!

Follow me on Twitter @shoppersjoy

Random Thoughts For May

As I fast track another pile of badly thought-out election leaflets from the door mat to the recycle bin, I can’t help wondering how many politician’s faces are destined to become tomorrow’s packaging materials. Who says politicians don’t do enough to help the environment?

Whilst enjoying a cheese scone at my local Sainsbury’s café, I started pondering the pronunciation of the word ‘scone’. The lady who served me pronounced it as I do, with a long ‘o’ as in ‘bone’. But of course, many people use the shorter ‘o’ version to rhyme with ‘con’. This always puzzles me, as it seems to follow the pattern of words such as ‘cone’, ‘crone’, ‘phone’, ‘tone’, ‘zone’… Well, you get the idea. Mind you, the ‘scone-related’ scenario that really irritates me is that many cafés that offer cream teas serve them with fruited scones, as opposed to the more traditional, plain Devon scones. Sorry, this combination just doesn’t work for me.

It’s very nice of Cadbury’s to emblazon my name across many of their chocolate multipacks. Does having the name ‘Joy’ on them mean they’re all for me? Well, there was no harm in asking.

Follow me on Twitter @shoppersjoy

Re-usable Shopping Bags

There has been talk of late about placing a charge on carrier bags that are issued by shops, as if this is some new innovation. However, this has been done before, and quite honestly I don’t really know why it was stopped in the first place.

When I was a child, people tended to take their own bags when they went to do their weekly shop. I remember my mother gathering together her sturdy bags without giving it a second thought. Once in a while, if she bought an extra lot of shopping that wouldn’t quite fit in the bags, she would select a cardboard box from the pile provided by the supermarket for customer use.

By the time I got a Saturday job in Fine Fare (whatever happened to them?) carrier bags were much more in evidence – but customers were charged for them. Rival supermarket Safeways (another blast from the past) provided large paper sacks, which although were more environmentally friendly, were hard to carry as they had no handles.

Re-usable bags don't have to be boring!

So basically, there were generations of shoppers who were quite prepared to provide their own shopping bags, or at least pay for the ones available in the shops.

More recently, customers have come to expect that stores will provide bags for free. Many shoppers bear little regard to the number of plastic bags that they stuff their shopping into, or give much thought to the impact on the environment.

Carrier bags have almost become a habit, they are taken for granted as part of an average shopping trip.

Supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsburys have long offered an incentive, in the form of extra loyalty points, awarded for every reusable bag used by the customer. I have often thought incentives (points) work better than punishments (charges) but sadly in this case many customers have not been persuaded to kick the carrier bag habit.

I would quite happily see as much as 5p charged per carrier bag, with proceeds going to good causes if possible, to hopefully reduce the amount of bags used and see a return to shoppers providing reusable bags of their own. This is definitely a good habit that we should all get into.

Follow me on Twitter @shoppersjoy

Loyalty Vouchers – The Reply

As a follow on from Monday’s post, bemoaning the short expiry date on some of the loyalty vouchers printed at the Sainsbury’s checkout, I’d like to share with you some comments I have received from the store.

They remarked, “I am sorry to hear you have been unable to take advantage of some of them (vouchers) and understand this can be frustrating to find they have expired when you are shopping. We know a lot of customers shop weekly and therefore find these vouchers appropriate and appreciate receiving them each time they shop.  We are trialling different types of offers and validity periods to ensure we meet our customers' needs. I have logged your comments on our internal system and they will be shared with our marketing team.  They take all customer feedback into consideration when issuing similar coupons in future.”

Pleased as I am to receive a prompt response, I do feel this is still all a bit vague. I was not saying I did not shop weekly at the supermarket, just not on the same day each week, so was missing out on valuable offers.

I sincerely hope that they will be reviewing the expiry dates soon, to make it better for all their customers. I look forward to that Sainsburys.

Follow me on Twitter @shoppersjoy

Loyalty Vouchers

I’m a big fan of loyalty cards as regular readers will know, My purse houses a fine collection, all of which are put to good use. But as with everything in life, there is always room for improvement as I have discovered.

Recently, I’ve started buying the larger part of my food shopping in Sainsburys, following the discovery of several products and prices that I prefer to those at Tesco – my previous store of choice. When my Nectar card is swiped, I’m invariably presented with a selection of vouchers printed at the till point, my favourite being those giving me extra points on or money off my entire shop. However, there is a drawback with these, and that is the expiry date.

Suppose I shop on a Wednesday one week, the vouchers issued (with the exception of those for specific products) expire the following Wednesday. Now that’s fine if I want to shop the same day the following week, or even a day of two before, but not if that week I would like to do my shopping on, say, Thursday.

Surely the point of a loyalty card or vouchers is that they are to thank you for your loyal custom. Therefore, if I’m buying a trolley full of shopping each week in Sainsburys, I should be rewarded whatever day of the week I shop. The answer would be to ensure that the vouchers in question are issued with the end date of the following week, meaning they are valid for your shopping on any day in that week.

I’m not of my mother’s generation where I have set days for things. I like to vary my shopping day in line with whatever else I may need to do, but don’t expect to lose out on an offer just because one week I shop on a Tuesday and the next a Wednesday. So come on Sainsburys, review this dating policy!

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Customer Service Update

A couple of weeks ago, I related a tale of what I considered to be a bad example of customer service at my local Tesco. I was kept waiting for some time at a checkout when the delay was easily avoidable (see here)

A big cheer for good customer service!

I was thrilled therefore, when on a shopping trip to Sainsburys last week, I experienced customer service working as it should. A problem occurred with the shopping of the customer in front of me, but rather than keep everybody in the queue waiting, a supervisor came over, suspended the transaction (which involved printing out a slip) and took the customer and all her shopping to the customer service desk to complete her transaction.

This was the ideal solution as it meant that the customer in question was given assistance, but the rest of us were spared a tedious wait. Well done and thank you to Sainsburys for a very good customer service experience.

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This January I’ve …

… Been doing lots of baking, not because I’ve got Great-British-Bake-Off-Fever, but because it’s a cheap way to keep the family provided with cakes, buns and other goodies. With Tesco Everyday Value flour costing only 45p for a 1.5kg bag, you can keep the family supplied at a really low cost.

,,, Bought Cross Stitch Card Shop magazine, which comes with a cute card kit and is full of fun cross stitch designs. I got the bug for making cross stitch cards in the lead up to Christmas and am still keen to make more!

… Received my first reward voucher from my Together loyalty card (The Works book shop). If you’re an avid reader this is a great card as you earn 5 points for every pound that you spend, with each point worth 1p. This is better than a Tesco Clubcard where you earn 1 point per pound or a Sainsburys Nectar Card, which awards 2 points per pound, but it takes 2 points to make one penny. But of course, you won’t spend so much in The Works anyway, will you?

Enjoying Carling Zest with a hint of winter berries, the latest edition to their delicious range of flavoured lagers and by far my favourite. Grab a box of 12 bottles for just £7 at Tesco!

… Reading lots of books as usual, including:

‘The Memory of Midnight’ by Pamela Hartshorne, an intriguing tale that combines the modern day life of troubled Tess and the hardships of Elizabethan York as experienced by Nell Appleby. A gripping tale that really gets you hooked!

‘The Flower Reader’ by Elizabeth Loupas. A tale of danger and intrigue set in the court of the young Mary Queen of Scots, which takes a lot of twists and turns before all is revealed. It’s compelling reading.

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Say No To Thai Chicken!

OK, so I’ve mentioned before how fed up I am that so many chicken products are made using poultry that isn’t British. (Read the most recent of these rants here) But I struggle to understand why so much chicken from sources such as Thailand and Brazil is still used in food manufacture.

Supermarkets rallied a little following last year’s horsemeat scandal. The amount of fresh meat sourced from the UK rose, be it somewhat slowly in some stores, and many beef products, such as lasagne and pies started to be made using British Beef.

However, many chicken dishes sold in supermarkets are still not produced using British chicken, or even chicken sourced within the EU. Sainsburys’ fresh kievs, goujons etc are all made from British chicken, which is clearly stated on the label. However their frozen ready meals use chicken from Thailand (even their roast dinners that include a whole chicken breast) and Tesco frozen ready meals also use chicken from Thailand and Brazil.

Of course, you wouldn’t notice this at a glance. The chances are that you have been buying these products without even realising the source of the chicken, as the finished meals are actually produced in the UK. To check what you are buying you have to read the small print on the back of the box, where the country of origin is stated.

But at least supermarket own brands are honest and state their sources, even if not in the most obvious place. Some of the big brand names that manufacture frozen meals and meat products do not state the country of origin at all. I have studied boxes produced by Sharwoods, Heinz Weightwatchers and the like, but can find no mention of where their chicken has been sourced. In order for us to make an informed choice as shoppers, we have a right to be provided with all this information, and I therefore believe that it should be law to clearly state the origin of a product’s main ingredients.

In the meantime if I read that the chicken in a product is from Thailand or Brazil, then I don’t buy it. If a product does not state its country of origin, then I still don’t buy it. I want to know that all meat and poultry that I buy in any way, shape or form is British, not only so that it conforms with food safety standards, but I don’t feel we should be importing such items from halfway across the world. Think of the global footprint!

What do you think?

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Customer Service – Queues

Levels of customer service can vary greatly, not just between different store chains and shops, but also between individual branches, and indeed, individual shop assistants.

I’ve previously chronicled some of the good and bad examples of customer service that I’ve received and now have a couple of new stories to relate.

Hands up who's fed up of queues?

On the whole, I’ve always received a good standard of customer service at my local Tesco stores. However a recent shopping trip to one branch left me feeling rather annoyed. I’d popped in for a few necessary items and joined a checkout queue with only one other customer in front of me. I should have whizzed through the checkout easily, however this was not to be. There was a problem with an item that the customer ahead of me was purchasing – some fault with the bar code. The item in question was only worth a couple of pounds and the easiest solution was for the cashier to total up the few other items of shopping and refer the problem to customer services.

However, she chose to send a colleague to track down a better bar code, who proceeded to do so in the manner of someone taking a Sunday afternoon stroll. Ten minutes later the assistant finally returned with the new code and finally the queue got to move!

At no point during all of this did either the cashier, or her colleague, attempt to apologise to those of us waiting in the queue. When it was my turn to be served I was just met with the customary, “Thank you for waiting”, said without any feeling. I did not reply, “That’s OK”, because it wasn’t.

I am quite prepared to wait in a queue if I 1) feel there is a valid, unavoidable reason for this and 2) receive an apology for the delay. As neither of these points applied to this situation I was far from happy and will be contacting the store manager.

On the flipside, my local Sainsburys, who I’ve previously had to take to task over a 20-minute hold-up with a customer service query, appear to have upped their game. How refreshing it has been to arrive at the checkouts with a full trolley of shopping and be met by a smiling-faced individual who proceeds to take me to the checkout with the shortest queue. It’s these little personal touches that make a difference to a shopping trip.

The same branch of Sainsburys sent a letter to me just ahead of Christmas, thanking me for my custom and enclosing a gift voucher. OK, they probably did that to lots of customers, but once again it made me feel appreciated.

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