General Chat

I remember working as a Saturday girl in woolies during the sugar shortage. I drew the short straw one saturday and got the job of filling the sugar shelf, back in the day when Woolies sold food. I didn't make it to the shelf most of that day, priced it all up in the stock room, then brought the trolley down...and didn't even get there before it was empty and I'd have to go back up to get the next lot!

I have worked in supermarkets before but the was before they did BOGOF.....we used to stand there with our yellow stickers....price something up & then run, cos people would fight over the stuff......& that was in Chelsea lolol

upps sorry getting side tracked here

You're obviously not as cynical as me Julie lol. Mind you when you work in certain places they become real eye-openers, and you realise how these things work..

Nowt to do with stock levels, its the supermarket price wars more than anything, luring customers in. While they are in morrisons buying up the buy one get two free crisps, they will be buying other things too...

'scuse me, but me an Uzzin are taking a trip down memory lane at the mo..what a small world.

When i see anything thats BOGOF..i just think they have over stocked & need a clear out

I won't mention the rows we used to have lol our whole gang got outed from the canteen once ! but there was so many of us working there they could do with out us at the time.
But yes mucky wet and at times ruddy hard but the fun and laughs I had in that place.

Cold, wet, mucky, and wouldn't get by elf n safety these days. But we had fun lol.

And some good rows too! lol

lol what a small world I missed you by a year good old Shroppies eh?

Uzzi nooo...I'm talking about Shropshires. Never made it to Greens lol

What a small world!

How long ago did you work there? I was there in 78 to 79

TW I don't envy you the celery plant I used to work for shropshires packing (as well as a few others in E Anglia) and avoided the celery when ever possible. Used to pack cabbages or little gems instead but same thing M&S got the biggest then Sainsburys etc etc

Uzzi, I used to work in a celery packing plant, packing for all the supermarkets. M&S always got the biggest ones, Tesco the next size down, Sainsbury and Waitrose the next and Safeway slightly smaller. It was graded by how many we could get in a box, so size 18 would fit 18 to a box, always four boxes in front of us. When we'd packed the day's quota for M&S we then had to trim them down to the next size, the waste celery sticks going to the canning line for soups. Own brand would come last in the day, but strangely enough, they would end up in Tesco or Sainsburys, at a higher price than the supermarket branded. Same company, same field, and probably the same packer!!!

SylviaG the stories I could tell about fashion stores lol I used to work in a sewing shop ...what didn't make M&S made the markets etc We did the same stuff for so many different brands

same as working the land really M&S took, some the The others, and the crap went to the markets ,,they all came out of the same sh*t

I worked for a distributor of childrens shoes. We'd sell wholesale at £18 to the retailer, but the RRP was £38.

We sold to Amazon and they went below the RRP, and the retailers went mad! I had to take all of those phone calls...needed a week off after that, but we dropped the Amazon account PDQ.

I don't know what the mark up is these days, but back in the late 70's I was a ladies wear fashion buyer for a large chain of shops.

We would have summer print tiered skirts made up by the thousand for £2.00 each, sell them pre sale for £7.99 and then cut them to £4.99 at sale time.

We couldn't get them made quick enough and they were all made in London East End, not imported.

Tee shirts, imported via a Manchester wholesaler we got at 50p each, sold at £1.99. Sold out every time.

It is very hard for me to buy clothes knowing what I know.
Stick to classic styles, buy in winter sales for next winter etc.

SylviaG

SueMaid - the food distributor I used to work for would simply reduce the price to one supermarket to keep their business from time to time - so they could sell them exclusive new lines.

Products had a three day turn around and had to have at least a 75% shelf life from time of production.

Rare for there to be surplus because of the 'just in time' system ...... but mega stressful for the buyers ..... that's why I left - on my last month the computers crashed and I had to buy and sell over £1m of stock completely blindfolded!! ..........arrrrrrrgh

The biggest profit making product when I had a shop was birthday cards, 200%.

Ive always been cynical. Me mum owned a shop so I knew the mark up prices to small shops, yes we had to make a living.

I also owned a leased pub and payed more for my beer than rented pubs. and they needed us to work as they got rent of us rather than pay a wage !

Thats where I am better shopping online for asda...

I can see how the multi's and the rollbacks savings are adding up

Great when they cover the cost of delivery.

I'd go to the store itself but it's two buses, and I can't carry lots of heavy shopping, and Hagar can't do it, so it's online for me anyway

I'm terrible nowadays.

I walk round Asdas tutting at the special offers saying

*nope....only saving 2p...not worth it....*

I know exactly what things usually cost and it's very tricky for them to pull the wool over my eyes ...though dif story a couple of years ago.....xx

Well I'm glad its not just me then...lol