The Tesco & other non-Morrisons supermarket thread

[cdd]

I don't know about Gav, but I tend to accumulate vast quantities of change and only get rid of it in big batches, so coinstair is both a blessing (convenience) and a curse (so many percent!)

I'm not casting aspersions on your method of working or anything, I'm just curious because a lot of people I've noticed do this and I've never understood it. What's preventing you from spending a handful of the change - how does it accumulate? Is it just the satisfaction of watching it build up or are there practical/efficency reasons behind it?

Maybe I'm skewed because I try as hard as possible to live a "cashless" existence (credit cards/mobile phone payment for everything) so when cash and hence change comes into my life I make it my business to get rid of it at the earliest opportunity.

[Alexia]

Cheers Alexia. I was sent the picture by my friend who lives in Wales. It's been that way for a while apparently - Christ knows what the advantage is of operating 2 shops side by side but they were apparently both busy.

This retail relic lay around the corner too:

Yep -- that Index was attached to the side of the Littlewoods (they were the same company I believe) and you could walk between them -- they knocked a hole in the wall.

There are slight differences between the two Icelands -- one sells alcohol, the other doesn't - one has more dry goods and less freezer space than the other, and the ex-Littlewoods one is fairly easy to move around -- the other one you have to walk down one aisle and back up before you get to where you want to. Plus you HAVE to exit through a till lane, which looks damn suspicious if you went in for something and it wasn't there, so it looks like you're sneaking out.

[Critique]

We have two Greggs on the high street, but they're at different ends, and one used to be a Bakers' Oven, and still maintains that signage, although in-store it's all Greggs branding. We also have two, maybe three Santander banks. One was an ex Bradford and Bingley, and the other was an Abbey. We also, quite oddly, have two QD's, when, to be perfectly honest, hardly anyone needs one store. We used to have two GAME stores, one a stand-alone, and the other inside Debenhams - we've recently lost the Debenhams one.

[Pete]

We had three Games, one in Borders, one in Debenhams and a standalone. Obv the Borders one vanished just as they were going under but the Debenhams one (which was always quite busy) vanished recently too.

[m-in-m]

Also reading the local paper this week I noticed that Tesco are seeking permission to install a collection pod in the car park - at the sacrifice of 11 parking spaces (no issue as they are always spares). The pod is designed to allow shoppers to collect their orders from a bay at what is being described as a "Click and Collect" facility. The pod would be open the same time as the store.

The pod is 3.3m high and 8.1m long with a flat roof. I'm afraid I've been unable to locate the planning application on the council website so can't find a picture.

The application has now been approved and I have found an image of the pod.

http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/swiftlg ... -96520.pdf

[wells]

We had three Games, one in Borders, one in Debenhams and a standalone. Obv the Borders one vanished just as they were going under but the Debenhams one (which was always quite busy) vanished recently too.

They must have pulled out of apartment stores, the ones in Birmingham's Selfridges and Bristol's Debenhams are now both gone.

On the subject of coins and the self service checkouts I once got a 20 cents (euro) coin instead of a pound coin out of one, it was a new store that had only just opened (that day or one of the day before), one assumes they're built and tested somewhere else within the EU.

[WillPS]

We had three Games, one in Borders, one in Debenhams and a standalone. Obv the Borders one vanished just as they were going under but the Debenhams one (which was always quite busy) vanished recently too.

They must have pulled out of apartment stores, the ones in Birmingham's Selfridges and Bristol's Debenhams are now both gone.

On the subject of coins and the self service checkouts I once got a 20 cents (euro) coin instead of a pound coin out of one, it was a new store that had only just opened (that day or one of the day before), one assumes they're built and tested somewhere else within the EU.

It definitely wouldn't be delivered with a cash cassette installed.

NCR Fastlanes (as used by Tesco, Sainsburys, ASDA, M&S, Boots, WHSmith) were until recently made in Dundee. I think they're now in India, USA and Brazil.

[JAS84]

We have a similar thing here in Sheffield. We had a branch of Abbey, a branch of Bradford and Bingley, and a branch of Alliance and Leicester. All of them are now Santander, but two branches are literally opposite each other across the tramlines on the high street, and the other is just a little further up, about a minute's walk away. Crazy!

It's the same in Hull! A Bradford and Bingley and Alliance and Leicester right opposite each other, and an Abbey in the next street, all now rebranded as Santander. I'd expected either the A&L or B&B to close down, but they're all still open.

Taking this wildly back on-topic if I may:



I present two branches of Iceland *literally* side-by-side, selling more or less exactly the same lines.

You'd think they'd at least replace the signage on the one on the left to the current logo like on the other branch.

[DVB Cornwall]

The Santander situation seems on the surface to be silly, but knowing the speed (of a snail) that Santander act on software changes, the branches had to operate independently serving customers of their former brands. I gather that the software should be unified around the end of this financial year so rationalisation could commence then. It's virtually complete now. However a further spanner will then be in the mix with the acquisition of the NatWest branches in Scotland and RBS ones in England and Wales, and the subsequenr need for these to be integrated within the Santander system.

Don't expect many closures anytime soon.

[WillPS]

The Santander situation seems on the surface to be silly, but knowing the speed (of a snail) that Santander act on software changes, the branches had to operate independently serving customers of their former brands. I gather that the software should be unified around the end of this financial year so rationalisation could commence then. It's virtually complete now. However a further spanner will then be in the mix with the acquisition of the NatWest branches in Scotland and RBS ones in England and Wales, and the subsequenr need for these to be integrated within the Santander system.

Don't expect many closures anytime soon.

I don't think the Scottish RBS branches will cause so much of a problem.

As I understand it, the account holders in question have been told that they will automatically become Santander's equivalent accounts unless the account holder opts to remain with RBS (in which case their branch will change, presumably to the nearest remaining branch).

Whenever that date rolls around, the NatWest/RBS branch will close down one day, and then be completely refitted as Santander branches, with Santander systems etc.. The most complex part that I can see is staff who'll be protected under TUPE - obviously it would be beneficial for Santander to harmonise these (along with B&B and A&L staff).

[m-in-m]

The Santander situation seems on the surface to be silly, but knowing the speed (of a snail) that Santander act on software changes, the branches had to operate independently serving customers of their former brands. I gather that the software should be unified around the end of this financial year so rationalisation could commence then. It's virtually complete now. However a further spanner will then be in the mix with the acquisition of the NatWest branches in Scotland and RBS ones in England and Wales, and the subsequenr need for these to be integrated within the Santander system.

Don't expect many closures anytime soon.

I don't think the Scottish RBS branches will cause so much of a problem.

As I understand it, the account holders in question have been told that they will automatically become Santander's equivalent accounts unless the account holder opts to remain with RBS (in which case their branch will change, presumably to the nearest remaining branch).

Whenever that date rolls around, the NatWest/RBS branch will close down one day, and then be completely refitted as Santander branches, with Santander systems etc.. The most complex part that I can see is staff who'll be protected under TUPE - obviously it would be beneficial for Santander to harmonise these (along with B&B and A&L staff).

Presumably this is going to lead to some people finding their local branches closed for a period? This whole process doesn't necessarily do the best for existing customers.