All that effort getting me to come into your store - then you wouldn't take my money!

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › All that effort getting me to come into your store - then you wouldn't take my money!

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1043 posts

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#922962 28-Oct-2013 11:29

You guys should see how they handle checkout queues in other parts of the world.

One supermarket in Munich takes the trophy as far as I am concerned.

The first checkout is always staffed and a few trolly lengths back from the checkout there is a sign which reads (in German) "if the queue gets back here, please press the button to let us know that we need to open more checkouts." You press the button and a bell rings. The door to the manager's office opens and out he comes doing a fine Basil Fawlty impression as he screams at you and says that if you ever press the button again, he will ban you from the shop forever.

Priceless.

The supermarket closest to the last place I lived in Munich does it better. They have lots of checkouts and every staff member is expected to be able to work in any role in the store. If an employee is working on a checkout and sees that they have two people waiting behind the one that they are serving, they turn on the mike on their workstation and just say "more staff to checkouts" causing the nearest shelf stacker to stop stacking and open up a checkout. If a checkout operator has nobody to serve then, unless they are the last person on the checkouts, they are expected to close the checkout and go stack some shelves. Works perfectly.

Aldo do that in their newer stores. I dream of the day when their Ozzie division feels that it has opened enough stores there and turns it sights on New Zealand. That will shock the existing operators.

Geektastic

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#922964 28-Oct-2013 11:31

jpoc: You guys should see how they handle checkout queues in other parts of the world.

One supermarket in Munich takes the trophy as far as I am concerned.

The first checkout is always staffed and a few trolly lengths back from the checkout there is a sign which reads (in German) "if the queue gets back here, please press the button to let us know that we need to open more checkouts." You press the button and a bell rings. The door to the manager's office opens and out he comes doing a fine Basil Fawlty impression as he screams at you and says that if you ever press the button again, he will ban you from the shop forever.

Priceless.

The supermarket closest to the last place I lived in Munich does it better. They have lots of checkouts and every staff member is expected to be able to work in any role in the store. If an employee is working on a checkout and sees that they have two people waiting behind the one that they are serving, they turn on the mike on their workstation and just say "more staff to checkouts" causing the nearest shelf stacker to stop stacking and open up a checkout. If a checkout operator has nobody to serve then, unless they are the last person on the checkouts, they are expected to close the checkout and go stack some shelves. Works perfectly.

Aldo do that in their newer stores. I dream of the day when their Ozzie division feels that it has opened enough stores there and turns it sights on New Zealand. That will shock the existing operators.

Totally agree! Aldi and Lidl would wipe the floor here in NZ - as would Tescos if they ever head south from Asia!

jeffnz

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#922985 28-Oct-2013 12:00

what rubbish I think you need to shop around. I get great service at New world and they shift people around as required. Yes I've been to ones that are rubbish and I don't go there anymore or just time it so I'm not there at busy times, its about choice.

I think you really have a bad opinion of retailers in NZ to a point it is clouding your opinion.

I think you'll find that NZ is no better or worse than most places and if you look for bad service you'll find it in any country, likewise good service

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sbiddle

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#922988 28-Oct-2013 12:13

Geektastic:
jpoc: You guys should see how they handle checkout queues in other parts of the world.

One supermarket in Munich takes the trophy as far as I am concerned.

The first checkout is always staffed and a few trolly lengths back from the checkout there is a sign which reads (in German) "if the queue gets back here, please press the button to let us know that we need to open more checkouts." You press the button and a bell rings. The door to the manager's office opens and out he comes doing a fine Basil Fawlty impression as he screams at you and says that if you ever press the button again, he will ban you from the shop forever.

Priceless.

The supermarket closest to the last place I lived in Munich does it better. They have lots of checkouts and every staff member is expected to be able to work in any role in the store. If an employee is working on a checkout and sees that they have two people waiting behind the one that they are serving, they turn on the mike on their workstation and just say "more staff to checkouts" causing the nearest shelf stacker to stop stacking and open up a checkout. If a checkout operator has nobody to serve then, unless they are the last person on the checkouts, they are expected to close the checkout and go stack some shelves. Works perfectly.

Aldo do that in their newer stores. I dream of the day when their Ozzie division feels that it has opened enough stores there and turns it sights on New Zealand. That will shock the existing operators.

Totally agree! Aldi and Lidl would wipe the floor here in NZ - as would Tescos if they ever head south from Asia!

Aldi are a very different model. While they've had massive expansion in Australia they've also had to move towards a lot of mainstream brands in Australia to get customers in the door. You can now by Coca Cola and Tim tams in Aldi AU stores. The home brand market in this part of the world is very different to Europe.

Stan

929 posts

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#922990 28-Oct-2013 12:29

From a retailers perspective sometimes it is impossible to predict the amount of customers that will come though the door at any given time then on top of that what if you have a few staff sick? Sure you could employ more staff to cover this but you as a consumer will have to pay more to cover this.
The problem is most people want bottom dollar pricing, top notch service, high stock levels of product and increasingly a higher living wage. It's not possible.

Stan

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#922991 28-Oct-2013 12:29

thecatsgoolies

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#922996 28-Oct-2013 12:42

kingjj: Hey come on, give them a break! They don't hold a sale every weekend like some retailers, they obviously aren't used to being that busy........

You mean Briscoes had a sale on and I missed it? ;-)

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stevenk

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#922997 28-Oct-2013 12:51

jpoc: Aldo do that in their newer stores. I dream of the day when their Ozzie division feels that it has opened enough stores there and turns it sights on New Zealand. That will shock the existing operators.

They would probably burst out laughing... as I did the first time I shopped at Aldi.

4:30pm during the week (peak supermarket shopping time) at Braybrook (low-income area, good place for a discount supermarket, or so you'd think) and the shop was almost deserted. While they have some very good products, their range is so limited that you need to go to a full-service supermarket to get the other bits and pieces you need that Aldi don't stock.

That said, they do have some very good products, many of which seem to come from New Zealand.

I doubt that they would be competitive in the New Zealand market. Here in Victoria, they have a niche as the only discount supermarket chain (not counting the one Costco store in the middle of Melbourne) against Coles, Safeway/Woolworths and IGA. In New Zealand they would have head-on competition in the form of Pak'nSave, who apart from having a twenty-year head start, have a much stronger offering.

thecatsgoolies

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#923012 28-Oct-2013 13:20

stevenk:
jpoc: Aldo do that in their newer stores. I dream of the day when their Ozzie division feels that it has opened enough stores there and turns it sights on New Zealand. That will shock the existing operators.

They would probably burst out laughing... as I did the first time I shopped at Aldi.

4:30pm during the week (peak supermarket shopping time) at Braybrook (low-income area, good place for a discount supermarket, or so you'd think) and the shop was almost deserted. While they have some very good products, their range is so limited that you need to go to a full-service supermarket to get the other bits and pieces you need that Aldi don't stock.

That said, they do have some very good products, many of which seem to come from New Zealand.

I doubt that they would be competitive in the New Zealand market. Here in Victoria, they have a niche as the only discount supermarket chain (not counting the one Costco store in the middle of Melbourne) against Coles, Safeway/Woolworths and IGA. In New Zealand they would have head-on competition in the form of Pak'nSave, who apart from having a twenty-year head start, have a much stronger offering.

I miss Aldi. It was my home store for cheap wine and cheese when I lived in Germany and was a poor student ;-)

lxsw20

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#923050 28-Oct-2013 14:25

Lol @ complaining about the limited selection of shops in NZ but wanting Tesco to come over and kill the local market.

thecatsgoolies

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#923052 28-Oct-2013 14:32

lxsw20: Lol @ complaining about the limited selection of shops in NZ but wanting Tesco to come over and kill the local market.

Ironically The Warehouse sold a lot of Tesco products a good few years ago! Our market is just too small to sustain such a huge selection sadly. I'm waiting for IKEA to come here just so I can get me some meatballs :-)

richms

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#923054 28-Oct-2013 14:42

thecatsgoolies:
Ironically The Warehouse sold a lot of Tesco products a good few years ago! Our market is just too small to sustain such a huge selection sadly. I'm waiting for IKEA to come here just so I can get me some meatballs :-)

I want ikea for the scratch and dent section ;)

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jpoc

1043 posts

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#923191 28-Oct-2013 19:29

thecatsgoolies:
lxsw20: Lol @ complaining about the limited selection of shops in NZ but wanting Tesco to come over and kill the local market.

Ironically The Warehouse sold a lot of Tesco products a good few years ago! Our market is just too small to sustain such a huge selection sadly. I'm waiting for IKEA to come here just so I can get me some meatballs :-)

I don't think that we are too small. You can make a really good comparison to the situation with the UK and Ireland. The UK is way bigger than Aus but Ireland has very many similarities to NZ. Similar population with a similar distribution between one big million plus city a handful of other towns and lots of rural areas. In the last two decades Tesco, Aldi and Lidl have all found it worthwhile to use their UK operations as a base for moving in on Ireland. Of course, the UK is closer to Ireland than we are to Aus and the UK and Ireland also share a land border but even so, there can be hope. I did see a note in the Aus biz-press a few years back that Aldi have us on their radar but right now opening more stores in Aus is their priority.

thecatsgoolies

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#923347 29-Oct-2013 07:27

jpoc:
thecatsgoolies:
lxsw20: Lol @ complaining about the limited selection of shops in NZ but wanting Tesco to come over and kill the local market.

Ironically The Warehouse sold a lot of Tesco products a good few years ago! Our market is just too small to sustain such a huge selection sadly. I'm waiting for IKEA to come here just so I can get me some meatballs :-)

I don't think that we are too small. You can make a really good comparison to the situation with the UK and Ireland. The UK is way bigger than Aus but Ireland has very many similarities to NZ. Similar population with a similar distribution between one big million plus city a handful of other towns and lots of rural areas. In the last two decades Tesco, Aldi and Lidl have all found it worthwhile to use their UK operations as a base for moving in on Ireland. Of course, the UK is closer to Ireland than we are to Aus and the UK and Ireland also share a land border but even so, there can be hope. I did see a note in the Aus biz-press a few years back that Aldi have us on their radar but right now opening more stores in Aus is their priority.

Ah, as I was reading this, I was thinking Ireland is in Europe much closer in proximity. My ex husband used to say England was 'an industrial slagheap sited off the coast of europe'. He was right but boy, did we have choices! I left the UK mid 90's but was amazed when I visited the likes of Aldi's everywhere and Ikeas all over the place.

b0untypure1

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#923384 29-Oct-2013 09:22

Hiamie:
kingjj: Hey come on, give them a break! They don't hold a sale every weekend like some retailers, they obviously aren't used to being that busy........

I didn't even know they were having a sale - I dropped in there by chance.

They seem to have a sale every second week - at least judging by all the TV advertising I see and letterbox pamphlets I get!

They have been in business a long time, with regular sales, so surely they must know what to expect, and should have processes in place to deal with it.

\
they have a sale everyday except christmas day, my mates uncle is a manager there

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