Christmas and the local supermarkets

It's hotting up around our local supermarkets in my particular part of Cornwall.

One outlet in a bid to attract further custom decided to introduce a loyalty scheme, whereby regualar customers, recieve 5 pence off a litre of fuel for every 10 pounds spent, great particularly given rising fuel costs. . Another local outlet,('supermarket 'B'),had a very loyal shopper, who upon seeing this then thought why doesn't my favourite supermarket do something similar and offer 7 pence off a litre of fuel for every 10 pounds spent. Great for consumers, but in all honesty from a commonsense business point of view fairly retarded as an idea and ultimately unsustainable. As stated the originator of the 7 pence a litre discount idea wasn't actually employed by the supermarket but liked to shop there and posted the idea up on Supermarket 'B's' website, every one that read the post thought hmmm that sounds familiar, and seems a bit retarded, so they all quite rightly ignored it, seeing it for the nonsense that it was.

In this case however the a member of the management team of supernarket 'A' , was so incensed that there balliwick was bing infringed upon that they wrote a letter to the local chamber of commerce, complaining that Supermarket 'B' had shamelessly plagarised there loyalty scheme.

All well and good except that every supermarket in the land seeks to undercut the competition and to seek to stop such practices is naive at best. To compound matters the complaint was made in a way that was frankly pompous, arrogant and banal. Apparently the chamber on recieving it felt that the author really needed to consider that it's just shopping and that there are lots of places to shop. Certainly every one that had the misfortune of reading the missive formed the opinion that the complainant needed to lighten up. and remember that they were merely invoved in a small retail outlet in a sea of hundreds of retail outlets.

Oh and apparently the person who copied the idea, isn't allowed to shop at Supermarket 'A' , anymore, I expect he's not to worried personally,I prefer the service at super market ,'B', myself

Glad I don't work in retail

Ted

I must admit it all sounds a little confusing to me, i mean if 'I' for instance had an idea like that to bring people into my shop and then someone copied me, I mean COPIED ME??? I'd be fume'n. But I'd have to look at the bigger picture and think well you know what thats life, I cant be letting those little things get to me, After all there's more to life than work or pellets!!

Isnt there???????????????????????????????????????????

I can sympathise with this statement, I am employed by a company that produces a product that is readily available at a number of competitors shops and showrooms. Although i feel our product is superior in quality to most of our competitors the conundrum exists herein.......CHOICE.......... unfortunately people are people and will shop where they like, whether it be for the product quality, staff relationships or the customer service.

There are so many factors that can sway a persons decisions to buy our product or purchase from another....sometimes i feel like calling them back when they decide to purchase elsewhere to ask why......But for me, this would be a waste of my time.

Great topic Ted.

For me it's all about the customer service, If one outlet has a poor attitude and a general disregard for there clients, i'll go elsewhere. My experience is that this normally stems from the top, get the right people in place, 'happy days', get a bunch of duffers and its a karzi.

All you can do is vote with your feet.

Ted

what i usally find Ted, is that when i'm shopping and have a prolem you try to sort it from the top, but in many cases i find that theres all ways one that likes to think there at the top and stick there nose in where it really isnt needed and make matters worse,

Dont know how you feel but this is from experience!

Raptor I know where you are coming from, for example I personally take little interest in retail matters but every now and again you hear or see something that is so utterly ridiculous that you have to just scratch your head and wonder.

I'm all for maintaining a low profile.

Ted

Indeed, in my experience a well maintained account base can directly correlate to better customer relations and the result is often a happier client.
I think the key is to know what your account holders are thinking and therefore pre-empt there requirements. No 2 clients are the same so the splatter gun approach to retailing is a doomed to fail from the outset. You cant win them all so sometimes all you can do is walk tall, take it like a man and try to keep a scrap or 2 of integrity and dignity.

My experience in this field is obviously very limited, but I think that it must bear scrutiny that for any business to succeed it needs to focus on it's own core activities, keep an eye on the competition, or as I prefer to think of it,'others providing a similar sevrice', by all means, 'but keep it real'.

I see no future in constantly being preoccupied in what others are about. Surely your own interests will suffer as a result.

Patton i too abhor the 'splatter gun' approach, very messy, and you've never got enough spare kecks.

Ted

Hypothetically this situation could be misconstrued as a form of Corporate bullying ... except if I am right in my estimation of which supplier 'Supermarket A' actually is, then I cannot grasp as to why they would even show their hand and ridicule themselves on a public notice board over a matter that really should have been dealt with by rewarding the consumer with a better deal and thus retaining the (self imposed) mantle of Victor! ... It all boils down to customer loyalty ... and that of the loyalty of the supplier to the consumer!!!

Although customer loyalty is often achieved through offers, discount coupons, rebates and other kinds of rewards, long-term customer loyalty can only be created by making your customers feel that they are your number one priority ... and sadly my short experience with 'Supermarket A' was found wanting.

Competitive advantage can be achieved through customer loyalty. This is the way to gain the best kind of customers, repeat customers. Repeat customers tend to spend more money and provide the best word-of-mouth advertising.

All 'Supermarket A' has achieved with their actions is to distance themselves from their consumer base and made themselves look like ignorant simpletons!!!

All in all as long as a company maintains a 'steady hand' at the rudder, then its course will stay true

Me mum works in retail, so she knows how crazy it can get, as she is a deputy manager. With assperations of making manager one day too.
But its not without its concequences she says, for me personally i like to keep myself to myself and stay out of these 'supermarket wars' as they can get messy or even crazy too you know.

But I like to shop at one supermarket, lets call it 'A' cause i like it, they have similar offers to the other supermarkets, lets call them 'B, C and D' but at the end of the day is all retail and the customer must choose where to shop Ted, even if the other supermarket has better offers, dont you agree??

Its good to talk retail now and again.

Indeed Mr Cock I know of Supermrket, 'A', but prefer to shop elsewhere, i don't boast about it, it's simply a matter for myself.The activities of supermarket 'A',hold no interest for me, let them get on with there own retail capers They do however seem to take an unhealthy interest in others retailers business, to an extent that may be discribed as unhealthy.

In the case of the complaint forwarded to the chamber via a very public medium,this particular retailer has merely succeeded in making themselves look petty and frankly ridiculous, at the end of the day it, all doesn't amount to a hill of beans,(see what I did there), such actions and a misplaced sense of elitisim only as you quite rightly point out serve to aleinate the customer base and provide negative self publicity.

Raptor I love a spirited debate about retail, indeed tonight I would like nothing more, (well except perhaps a large glass of scotch, purchased from a rival supermarket).

May the force be with you

Ted

lol, tis the season to be jolly oddly there ar issues between the two major supermarkets up here too, same thing diffrent place. It makes me sad that up here supermarkets cant get along and work together instead of battling, under cutting each other and holding events on the same day to force their customers to choose between one or the other and be judged accorindgly.

anywho, hugs kisses and merry xmas one and all. I have really enjoyed playing at your site and the game you did up here. I will enjoy playing next year too. wish i could be there on the 18th. merry xmas one and all

The monkey

Sorry to hear that Monkey, I fear that the issue is more widespread than we feared. I'm thinking you might be based over the Tamar, where I know that there have been quite brutal,'price wars', and we are all too well aware of,'staffing issues'.

I think Part of the problem is that the very nature of,'retail', in that, like so many other walks of life, that it attracts some great people , unfortunately it also attracts a higher than average number of complete and utter numpties. The problem is compounded by the fact that after three visits within a prescribed time all customers qualify for special offers and selected exclusive products.

I think the main thing is to get out there and see what the various stores have to offer, see what the customer service is like and to be fair the clientele, you can tell a lot about a store not only by the management team but also the customer base. Though I think the consensus is that the right,'instore', management team is vital.

We're very fortunate in that at our preferred Supermarket, the management is streets ahead of the competition, there are a number of other stores that could learn a thing or too from them, it's just unfortunate that a lot of the management culture of today has it's head very firmly up it's arse. Just look at the sorry tale of rival retail retardness discribed earliar,at it's worst such culture can resort in the aforementioned,'corporate bullying'.



Happy christmas mate

Ted

if you look at the steaderly diminishing market share of supermarket A you can clearly see that there customer base has bee rapidly shrinking in the last few years in spite of the "incentives" and corporate espionage they have been imploying .
as a market share holder i belive that this mainly to do with poor retail space in there outlet and also the underlying problem of a very poor board of directors allthoght boasting of huge amounts of retail experiance it is claer that almost all of this was spent in Wholesale.Accustomization.Learning.Time.

rather than at the thin red line of the retail world and because of this the "staff" feel some what inadequate in themselves and have to some how compensate with aggresive and ineffectual marketing stratagies .

not since the days of gerald ratner has there been such a poor marketing stratagy

yes, i am from the other side of the tamar. though a frequent shopper at supermarkets on both side of the bridge.


well we have found that our local supermarket A has issues of the WALT variety, they have moved to new premises and I fell that while the actual site is pretty damn good, the structure and management will ensure that sadly supermarket a may not succed. I draw no satsifaction to see any supermarket fail, infact it saddens me. the upper management of this supermarket is above average if truth be told, the middle manager suffers the walt problem.to the point where he has panflets on everything and claims to have been to warm sandy places and been part of other organisations he has never been part of. it upsets me mildy and detracts from the quality of any supermarket. i do shop there too, but only rarely.

while I accept that our local supermarket B is often not perfect, no supermarket it, suffering from acces problems and being a new supermarket, the clientel are exceptional forming a close family similar in nature to your own local supermarket.

i think i will definatley look forward to shopping at your local supermarket in the new year, i think i will look forward to it an awful lot.

It's really a good thing we don't have any of these problems within the airsoft community !

Orders now being taken for "SUPERMARKET B" tee shirts and badges?????????
-Ghilliedad (account not working)