The CO - OP and their prices.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

Me too... 343430. I'm sure stamps superseded the divi number.

Nothing to do with the co-op but I remember Green Shield stamps when I was a slip of a lad.

Once you had a book full, you could buy stuff from a catalogues using the them. The concern eventually ended up as Argos.

[VVC-Geeza]

Originally Posted by MSS

Are we having a grumpy day, Mick?

You could be right Maninder

Originally Posted by MSS

Ultimately, you can choose not to shop at the co-op, but as shown by so many posts a lot of us are perfectly happy with our little local co-ops as they are.

Yes it appears most are happy to buy the odd item for convinience,me included, but I don't recall one who would do the weekly shop at a CO-OP.

[macafee2]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

We don't have a very local shop, nearest are shops in the Main St a bit over half a mile away, or a Lidl + Tesco + Home Bargains a bit further away.



I tend to jump on the bus to Main St, L/T/HB need two buses, whereas Wendy likes to walk to all. We just go in the car for a major shop every few weeks. We have just 'lost' a shop from the Main St, Fultons which was a favourite for many things based on their prices, but you had to always check the BBD - some of their items would be expired. They tended to sell a lot of surplus stock cheap, what ever they could find cheap and sell cheap.



We generally buy the bulk of the food from Lidl, but not on price alone - we find much of it better and cheaper than the other sources.

"we dont have a local shop, nearest shops are half a mile away." That is very local. Would be great to have a co op 1/2 a mile away


macafee2

[mileshawk56]

The CO-OP is too expensive for me, I use Aldi and my reason is cost and quality, and origin. I shop very well to my wifes annoyance. I use Tesco and Waitrose for one/two item shops and compare prices and Aldi always come out best. COOP is poor on origin as well as price, and quality compares poorly to other shops. Chris.S.

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by macafee2

"we dont have a local shop, nearest shops are half a mile away." That is very local. Would be great to have a co op 1/2 a mile away


macafee2

I was comparing what we used to have, with what we have now. When I were a lad (violin), unless you were really out in the sticks, the almost the end of every street would have a little shop. The end of our road actually used to have a shop, the ground floor of a detached house, but 30 years ago the owners began limiting the open hours. Last time it was open 3 years ago, it opened for just a couple of hours per day, in time for the kids passing on there way from school. Then it closed permanently. This year it was converted completely to a house.



There used to be another council owned property/shop, in a rather isolated location, 100 yards from the main shopping street. That one was sensibly closed and eventually converted to a house, after the council had tried several failed options for it's usage.



Our Coop is quite a large store, the largest food seller in the Main street, but when I go in I notice their customers are only doing the small quick shop items. They have three or four shopping trolleys available, swamped by the number of available baskets - which says a lot about how small a shop their customers make, when they go in. Despite the size of the place, they don't have the conveyor tills - customers just have to offer one item at a time for scanning.



I cannot help thinking, that if they made their prices more competitive, they would sell more and make more profit.

[MSS]

Originally Posted by mileshawk56

The CO-OP is too expensive for me, I use Aldi and my reason is cost and quality, and origin. I shop very well to my wifes annoyance. I use Tesco and Waitrose for one/two item shops and compare prices and Aldi always come out best. COOP is poor on origin as well as price, and quality compares poorly to other shops. Chris.S.

Waitrose? Now that is posh!

Chris - ref your post on the other thread, you truly belong here in Suffolk with us posh people!

[wraymond]

With some of us, price is by no means crucial. Shops with counters are great for making friends, amongst other things (see below).

Top priority is quality of fresh foods and we shop monthly for the ‘biggie’, the main one being Aldi. Huge variety and the meat section is first class for quality home produce.


I’ll make this as brief as I can. My first job when at 18 I emigrated to the southern extremities, was as a trainee butcher and I worked at J. Sainsbury’s in Barkingside, Essex.

Now, butchers, along with greengrocers, can pretty much be really friendly to customers to the point of almost embarrassing. A young girl who worked four shops along the High Street used to come in every Saturday morning for a pig’s kidney, apparently her boss liked them grilled.

When serving, you can dodge whoever you don’t take a fancy to and obviously the opposite is also true. This girl was a corker, so, to judge when best to be ‘occupied’ when she wasn’t ‘next’ was developed into an art form. Then, at the crucial moment, just when the senior Ted Hopker, bless him, was getting ready to jump in, I pushed in with a breezy ‘Hello love, same again is it?’ It worked, curiously for several weeks. Probably more down to my, then, strong Liverpool accent.

One particular Saturday, high summer, the window on the shop was pushed up to show the traditional counter to those passing on the pavement. She came in, I served her, and we chatted a bit. She left, smiling.

She passed by, I leaned out to watch, attractive pins I thought, and I saw the pig’s kidney get tossed into the waste bin at the bus stop. It was then I twigged I wasn’t necessarily as smart as I thought.

Yesterday was our 57th. anniversary.

I should have known what was going on when I realised her boss who owned the shop she worked in was Jewish.

A pig’s kidney? So far, she doesn't know I know.

[Southern Star]

Originally Posted by MSS

Nothing to do with the co-op but I remember Green Shield stamps when I was a slip of a lad.

Once you had a book full, you could buy stuff from a catalogues using the them. The concern eventually ended up as Argos.

I remember a court case where a man was up before the magistrate for sticking Green Shield stamps in his National Insurance card.

The magistrate gave him six months and an electric toaster.

[VVC-Geeza]

Originally Posted by wraymond

I’ll make this as brief as I can. My first job when at 18 I emigrated to the southern extremities, was as a trainee butcher and I worked at J. Sainsbury’s in Barkingside, Essex.

Now, butchers, along with greengrocers, can pretty much be really friendly to customers to the point of almost embarrassing. A young girl who worked four shops along the High Street used to come in every Saturday morning for a pig’s kidney, apparently her boss liked them grilled.

When serving, you can dodge whoever you don’t take a fancy to and obviously the opposite is also true. This girl was a corker, so, to judge when best to be ‘occupied’ when she wasn’t ‘next’ was developed into an art form. Then, at the crucial moment, just when the senior Ted Hopker, bless him, was getting ready to jump in, I pushed in with a breezy ‘Hello love, same again is it?’ It worked, curiously for several weeks. Probably more down to my, then, strong Liverpool accent.

One particular Saturday, high summer, the window on the shop was pushed up to show the traditional counter to those passing on the pavement. She came in, I served her, and we chatted a bit. She left, smiling.

She passed by, I leaned out to watch, attractive pins I thought, and I saw the pig’s kidney get tossed into the waste bin at the bus stop. It was then I twigged I wasn’t necessarily as smart as I thought.

Yesterday was our 57th. anniversary.

I should have known what was going on when I realised her boss who owned the shop she worked in was Jewish.

A pig’s kidney? So far, she doesn't know I know.

Congratulations on your anniversary Ray,what a great story

[BigRuss]

Where I do my main shop there's An Aldi, Co-op and a Lidl.
All with a couple of minutes walk of each other.

I don't use Lidl, don't like the layout much but use the Co-op and Aldi equally.
Some things are better in the Co-op although they may cost a little more but I don't buy supermarket meat at all if I can help it I get that from the local butcher round the corner, far better quality and all locally sourced

Russ