Supermarkets not stocking same products every week!

H

Henny Penny

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There are 4 supermarkets near to where I live ... Aldi/Lidl/Tesco/Supervalu. I alternate between them depending on what I need to buy. What really frustrates me about the latter two mentioned is that I can never get the same products week after week ... for example yogarts flavours ... they never have the same variety two weeks running! Is it because they want to encourage us to have more variety in our diets? I accept there are seasonal variations in some products ... but not everything. Breakfast cereal is another example ... some weeks no frosties ... other weeks no Cheerios etc. Whoever is stocking supermarkets should get a grip. Whinge over.
 
I would agree with the above. We have a supervalu,centra and a number of smaller shops near us but often travel to Lidla nd Tesco also. do find that expecially in the catagories mentioned above (cereals,yoghurts) that from week to week you never know what will be in stock and this makes shopping to a list extremely hard.
Also I hate the way supermarkets keep changing their layout so you have to navigate the larger stores trying to find whats on your list leading to more impulse buys!
 
Our local Dunnes Stores (Portmarnock) tends to be hit and miss in this respect. Have to say that Tesco at Clare Hall is a disaster though, given that it is the biggest (?) supermarket in Ireland. The Superquinn in Sutton and Swords are pretty good (at a premium price I'd imagine, but sometimes its worth it).
 
Have people who have experienced these stocking problems drawn the attention of the management of the relevant stores to it so that they are made aware of it and can take remedial action? If so, what was the response?
 
Yeah it should be fairly easy to correct if you make a complaint. I'm still working in Supervalu (i'm quiting on sunday next though! have to focus on the LC) and we get a delivery ever day of the week bar sunday. Thats an articulated lorry full of food from the Kilcock distribution center which should theoretically have everything in stock all the time. Our orders are done on a basis of a weekly stock count done on a Sunday, sometimes lazy employees don't bother actually counting some items and make up random numbers - leading to errors when the ordering is done later on. If you bring this to the managers attention things might change.
 
I have spoken to the manager at my local supervalu on a number of occasions on the issue of yoghurts and marmalade (not essentials i know) and he said that they check what people are buying and ten stock the most popular but did get in the marmalade for me. The yoghurts are harder to stock as he said there are just so many varieties and limited shelf space. I can see his point but I love the Glenisk rganic natural yoghurt and it can vary from week to week whether it is stocked locally.
 
I have also raised the issue with the staff ... they have a list on which they request products ... so at least the following week I can get what I was looking for. The trouble is that if I go two weeks after the request was made, they don't have the product again!
 
My local Tesco has been out of milk on the last few times I have been there. I would complain, but there never seems to be anyone there to complain to - at least nobody who looks to be 'in charge'. The information/reception desk is unmanned in the evenings. I checked their website, but given that they went 24 hour last year and the website tells me they are open till 2200 every night, I don't trust the contact informaiton there.

Previous times had been at 2200/2300 times, but last night I was there about 1930 and I got the last 4 2 litre bottles (are they called bottles ?). There were a few miserly looking single litres, but add them all up and the entire shop had about 15 litres of milk left - this was across all brands, sizes and varieties.

I thought that supermarkets were supposed to do away with the idea of running out of staples like milk or bread ? It is as if the shop has stepped back 30 years to the '70s when you might or mightn't get what you wanted in the shops, depending on the time of day/day of week.

z
 
I find that Tescos in Maynooth regularily runs out of milk especially on the Tuesday/Wedensday following a bank holiday. I guess its a supply chain problem. I use the cartons as I find a rotten taste off the plastic bottles.

Is this issue confined to milk, cream and youghurt or does it apply to other non dairy products as well?

aj
 
I know that Tesco's are bringing in a new system for ordering Milk products - called continuous replenishment and so that should help the problem of them runnig out of milk. This should be operational by the end of October in all stores!

I use a lot of milk with 2 small kids at the moment and find the plastic own label cartons from TEsco (Golden Vale Milk) to be fine if used in 1-2 days but it does go off easier than tetra pack milk but is more economical.
 
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