Sainsbury's is coming to Stroud Green Road - Woody's is going!

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  • edited 9:57AM
    I always go off peak, and much prefer the quiet.

    Anyway, I was in just now and was told that there's been a change of policy and it's now only one Clubcard point no matter how many bags you reuse. Which is oddly retrograde and not what the Tesco site says...
  • edited 9:57AM
    I wouldn’t be suprised if there were riots on the opening day of Sainsbury’s Edmonton Ikea style, with disgruntled Stroud Greeners fighting to get it with their recycled carrier bags, screaming for oat cakes.

    I’m betting Sainsbury’s is planning on putting on extra staff just to deal with all the disgruntled Tesco shoppers and the excited people from just this thread!
  • edited 9:57AM
    Lots of the staff at Tesco's on SGR are lovely but I agree that the store is badly managed and that many of the staff seem to have had little training in customer service. The reality is the shop is not fit for purpose. It is far too small for the population it serves. I generally try to avoid it because it is just such an unpleasant experience and yes they are often out of stock, there are always puddles and always queues. Hopefully Sainsbury's will aleviate some of this by reducing the number of people who use Tesco's. As someone who has worked as a supermarket cashier, I agree that there is no reason to be rude just because you are on a low wage. I am never rude to staff both because I am not rude anyway but also because I know what it is like to do the job but without wanting to sound pollyanna-ish the job is a lot easier if you are pleasant to people - they generally tend to be pleasant back. Rude staff = rude customers.
  • edited 9:57AM
    Heh heh, miss annie's "I cannot face going into that dirty, badly managed Tesco full of mouldy produce any more - it's like the supermarkets used to be in Prague and other ex communist countries" comment reminds me of when people used to write letters to the NME/MM gig reviewers "were we even at the same Tescos" etc etc.
  • edited 9:57AM
    Christ, it seems some of you go looking for trouble in Tesco. I go in all the time and the staff have always been nothing but friendly and helpful, never rude and more often than not I seem to get given extra bag points.
    It's not rocket science, it is simply because I am not rude to them. Or perhaps it is the fact that there's a general sense of us being on the same level as I have spent most of my 'working life' in retail so I don't treat supermarket workers with utter contempt.
    I thought working in Sloane Square was bad.
    The most polite and regular customer I had when I worked in Sloane Square was a member of the royal family. If she didn't feel the need to look down on shop workers, what makes you think you're important enough to do so?
  • edited 9:57AM
    @ georgiegirl. I'm not rude to them either. Nor do I treat them with "utter contempt". And I don't believe that anybody here is suggesting we should look down on shop workers.
    Some of the staff are great. Some are dreadful. I shouldn't need to be Mr Happy Chatty Pants in order to get good customer service at the till.
    The reality is that it's some of the staff who treat the customers with contempt.
  • edited 9:57AM
    For some reason whenever I've been in shops on Sloane Square, I get loads of static shocks. I have no idea why this might be, but am fairly sure it's not the fault of the shopfloor employees.
  • edited 9:57AM
    No-one said you need to be Mr happy chatty pants. Just DON'T BE RUDE. Why have such high expectations anyway? I'd love to see checkski on the till serving with a smile on his/her face (and earning peanuts).
    I've got no time for jumped up little snobs that refer to shop staff as 'minions'.
  • edited 9:57AM
    Will people stop telling me not to be rude! I'm not rude. I'm a very nice man. I smile at the end of my transaction and often wish my check out person a good evening.
    But despite this, my point is, that some of the staff are still disinterested, unwilling and indifferent. And for that there is no excuse.
  • edited 9:57AM
    I agree with Tallboy.
    I've sometimes worked in retail too so I also have experience of working on the other side. However, as I generally have quite a jolly and calm demeanour and recognise that working in retail is actually all about customer service, I never really encountered rudeness from customers.

    I expect at the very least a checkout person should say hello when you stand in front of them, say that'll be xx amount please when they have scanned everything rather than just stare at you, and then say thank you when you hand over your cash.

    Is that really to much to ask? I don't want grovelling, bowing or scraping(I can get that elsewhere!) just simple courtesy.
  • edited 9:57AM
    I am not looking down on shop workers! I was one! In several different shops! I am also not rude! However the reality is of all the supermarkets I have used in this area over a 20 year period Tesco's on SGR has been the worst for all the above mentioned reasons. Obviously Waitrose has been the best... (waiting for the attacks now on my middle class snobbish shopping credentials)
  • edited July 2010
    It's strange isn't it? No matter how delicately you put it someone will always assume that if you criticise service it's because you think you are superior and above the staff. It's a knee jerk reaction. If people pay for service then surely it's not too much to imagine that a member of staff may be able to help without being hostile.

    Tescos on Stroud Green road IS appalling on so many levels. Yes, some of the staff are quite good but many are rude and surly and the store is dirty and poorly managed.

    Other stores in the area do not have this problem, regardless of whether they are Budgens, Tescos (crouch end), M&S or Waitrose.
  • AliAli
    edited 9:57AM
    If people are early that concerned are not just winging Why not use the feedback e-mail address and be specific about the time which till, what happen etc. Complain it is not being managed very well etc ie kind of flash e-mail them and mention Sainsbury’s etc the Tescolopy beast quite good at reacting when they thing they are threatened
  • edited 9:57AM
    Just to add my size 10s, I'm with Tallboy etc on this. I've worked retail before, and it does suck a bit, but some of SGR Tesco employees really couldn't give a shit about doing more than the bare minimum, and often as slowly as possible.
  • edited 9:57AM
    The Tesco self service tills will replace them all eventually thank goodness. I won't use them in any other supermarket because I believe that checkout staff are important.
    Has anyone else seen people actively stuffing expensive unpaid for items into their bags on those things?
  • edited 9:57AM
    You'd have a job, half the time they're 'unexpected item in checkout area' even when you're only putting in what you've scanned. And heavens help you if you have a bag over your shoulder and just want to put stuff straight in that - no, you have to plonk it down first, then stuff it in your bag later.
  • edited 9:57AM
    this thread is weird
  • edited 9:57AM
    I have the same gripes about the state of SGR Tesco as everyone else but next time you find yourself waiting in the queues at checkout count how many times a cashier initiates contact but is then ignored. I see it all the time. Is it any wonder why they don’t bother sometimes? Try counting the times customers initiate contact with the cashiers. Most people I see stare blank-faced or are listening to music, texting or talking on their mobile.

    I think it’s a two-way street here. I think it’s rude to be on your mobile or have your ear buds in. I find most of the time the cashiers do make an effort to acknowledge the customer and say hello, though some are better than others. The cashiers aren’t the problem with the store bare shelves and now Lake Tesco are the problem and I hope Sainsbury can force Tesco to up their game.
  • edited 9:57AM
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  • edited 9:57AM
    I don't know if it's still the case, but last time I spotted a poster about who managed Tesco SGR, the manager was called Jason King. Disappointingly, the adjacent photo confirmed that he was very much not *that* Jason King.
  • edited 9:57AM
    (ahem)

    Just had to Wiki Jason King.

    Sorry Alex, I realise that'll appal you.
  • edited 9:57AM
    The overall manager is called John. I think he has been there 18 months to 2 years. I had quite a long chat with him about what most of us seem to agree are the main problems. He was perfectly reasonable, but I didn't come away reassured when he reckoned things had been a lot worse in the past.

    Most of the managers are concerned when you complain, and do their best to put things right. I was unlucky yesterday. But, responsive or not, I can't say I've seen any improvement. The worst staff are still there, and just as rude and off-hand as ever.

    And on the subject of rude, I am, believe it or not, always polite and friendly with the nice staff. I wouldn't dream of giving Liz or Karen, and a host of nameless others, a hard time, even if they made a mistake, which they rarely do. No matter what the source of aggravation, an apology always disarms me.

    But with some (see above) it is bad manners that are themselves the cause for complaint, not some perceived deficiency in the system. Even the notorious water leakage issue will not get me going, when
    someone like Barbara (the long-haired blonde manageress) takes the trouble to explain what the problem is - not that that makes it any less disgraceful.

    Even when I make a fuss, I am not rude. There is a difference between complaining vigorously about how one is being treated, and shouting and calling people names. I have never done either, unlike Emma, who seems to think it's OK to do the virtual equivalent of both, on this thread.

    Oh, and I have worked in many shops, one of them for 18 months, when I was young. Some customers were a pain, inevitably, but I don't remember anyone having a go at me, because I gave them no reason to. As for underpaid, how does £8 a week grab you? It was a long time ago, admittedly, but scarcely enough to live on.
  • edited 9:57AM
    The tesco staff are a mixture. Most of them are polite but there's one guy and I don't know what his problem is. I think he just works there part time. He's camp and wears a muslim cap. He's friendly to most people but then when it comes to me, he's very cold and just throws the money at me and scowls. I've always been polite to him and don't warrent his bad attitude. Has anyone else had this from him. My view is that he is repressed and takes it out on me as he probably thinks I'm gay. I've also had a couple of worker there shout at me when I've called them over because of a problem with the self service.

    I think Woodys was even worse for customer service. Lots of men hanging out watching if you shoplifted but a huge queue devoloping. Prices were made up and no prices put on the more expensive items.

    While I don't like chains most of us can't afford small shop prices and Tesco needs competition. It's very overcrowded and has a fairly poor customer service.

    By the way, I work in customer service background and if I acted the way many of the workers do at these places I wouldn't have my job.
  • edited 9:57AM
    The lady who marks down produce coming up to its use by date (ie mouldy) hates me. If she sees me lurking for something she's about to mark down, like 'ripe and ready to eat' avos which are only likely to be R&RTE when they're out-of-date, she buggers off to the pork pies.
  • edited 9:57AM
    "Why have such high expectations anyway" is a bit of a classic as an argument, and deserves wider deployment in other contexts such as politics, child-rearing, sport etc. Andy, you might be despairing that your erstwhile urbane, witty website appears to have morphed into the Mysupermarket.com discussion forum, but you know, why have such high expectations anyway? Btw, HarringayOnline was riven by fierce debate of the merits or otherwise of their big Sainsburys last time I looked, so perhaps it's unavoidable, some kind of equivalent for local community boards of Godwin's law.
  • edited 9:57AM
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  • edited 9:57AM
    Well, Sainsbury's still didn't seem to be open this morning, in direct contradiction of that message Misscara received. So for the sake of balance with all the complaints about Tesco being a flooded wasteland with Soviet-style empty shelves and insolent staff, let the record state that Sainsbury's are LIARS.
  • edited 9:57AM
    Tesco: we're honestly rubbish
  • edited 9:57AM
    This doesn't bode well for getting the requisite allocation of Nectar points...
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