Boycott Tesco, Stround Green Road

barnesbq · April 2012

The reason Morrisons is cheaper is because there genuinely are less people involved in the chain between killing a pig and getting it onto a shelf for you to buy. They still get their profit. They are also the only supermarket to employ fully trained butchers at the fresh meat counter - not just any old people who are trained to weigh and serve a steak. I wish there were more of them, as they seem to be the most ethical of all the biggies. I never buy meat locally and i have no idea why! I would like to, though. Can anyone recommend a good butcher? Not interested in Halal - which I think has been my barrier about buying meat in Stroud Green until now.

harpistic · April 2012

The butcher past the Old Dairy towards the station seems to be the best one in the area - I've drawn a blank on the name. It was mentioned in a fairly recent thread - sole criticism was that meat doesn't always last long. Tesco is turning me vegetarian against my will.... !

Papa · April 2012

Unfortunately our Tesco on Stroud Green Road is a lesson on what the company has done wrong and why it is now being punished. In any order this list reads: taking captive customer base for granted; poor product selection; constant staff cutting; lack of choice; bad supply chain; lack of design to make shopping pleasant On the plus side, it is a major local employer and if you are good working at Tesco you do get pushed up the ladder fast. Luckily, we have some fantastic other options: Ash's greengrocers, which is absolutely brilliant and much cheaper; Tony's Butchers ditto (that's the one up past the Old Dairy); France Fresh Fish and any number of the indie convenience stores - all I find regularly compete on price. I used to live in Leeds and loved Morrisons up there, tried the Holloway Road one ages back and thought it was rubbish by comparison - ventured back in there the other day and was impressed again, seemed much better. I can second that about M&S too with an anecdotal example. A friend of my dad's owns a vineyard in France, he tried selling the wine through M&S, they took it at a reasonable price the first year, sold it, and then came back with a knock down price the next that would have ended up with him paying them to take it off his hands - he walked away. This was a good few years back mind. At the end of the day supermarkets need to make shopping fun and tempting again to get people to buy things - that's why Waitrose has done well, and also to an extent Sainsbury's and Morrisons. If I want to come up with some inspiration for dinner, Stroud Green Tesco is currently the last place I'd go

gardener-joe · April 2012

Sainsburys now stocks tinned anchovies ... yayy! Last weekend I went to Londis on SHr ... I had forgotten how very good that place is.

kreuzkav · April 2012

@ Papa L. I really don't go to a supermarket for fun but to purchase food and other household products. It's a chore. Saying that it's important that they're not too stressful. I don't want overglossy places like Sainsburys Local on SGR. Hurts my eyes how bright and marketed it is, as well as my wallet. I think Tesco on SGR has a lot of the products I want at fairly good prices but its major drawbacks are:Not enough staff at checkouts esp. on Monday evening. For a big national and even multi-national company they don't seem to have done proper research in each branch to find out when it is at its busiest and employed more workers at those times. The skimping on staff I think has backfired on them, as many people have gone to local shops. As you have said, the locals are often just as cheap on many products.Stocking up late. They spend most of the morning stocking up and if you are a shift worker or just want to go early you end up not being able to buy many goods. I went in last Sunday at 12.30 and most of the veg wasn't on the shelf, as well as none of the fresh sliced bread.I don't get it. Tesco could have kept being a top supermarket by spending a bit more on staff and having their stock replaced a bit earlier in the morning but have cut so many corners to make big profits that it's gone against them. Already they're profits are down. Greedy capitalists!

ChangN4N6 · April 2012

The trend towards 'self check out' is horrible. That moaning voice, stupid procedures about baskets, calling staff to validate beer or cheese... Gobbling up notes. Takes forever is boring and nasty way of cutting inexpensive who would give good service, need a job and don't talk in that princess Anne meets missc voice. We in Lorne road only queue for real ppl. Chang

Papa · April 2012

What's worse is the trend towards self checkout and then closing all the proper ones after a certain time, so that you have no choice but to use the accursed machines.

checkski · April 2012

I confess I prefer the self service machines, to the surliness of half of the cashiers.

Ian · April 2012

It's not just they are surly - they also have almost no interest in scanning products. They are much more interested in chatting to their fellow workers and wandering aimlessly about. When they are there at all as others have said - it is fully staffed off peak and empty at peak. The whole atmosphere is of a shop run for the people who work in it.

ashman · April 2012

Its the management, its rubbish. not everyone is even capable of using them machines. There are old people, people who don't speak English, people that are just rubbish with technology. I always refuse to use them.