Aldi overtakes Morrisons to become fourth biggest supermarket

[dutchman]

Rather than 'reduce' their prices, they've increased them for anyone without a loyalty card (and in many cases also for those who do have one).

I'm told this is standard practice at places like Tesco?

[rebbonk]

Tesco certainly does something very similar. One price for a loyalty card holder, higher for everyone else. A practice that I really don't like.

[dutchman]

I made a test purchase of a single bag of crisps from Morrisons as I've been stung before when it said one price on the shelf and I was charged another at the checkout. Although very hard to find on the receipt they did honour the loyalty card discount but it wasn't a single penny cheaper overall than it was before they raised the price for everyone else.

[dutchman]

Doritos back up to £2.50 at Morrisons!!!

I assume next they'll offer a 'reduction' to £1.75 for loyalty card holders only?

Morrison's value lager and bitter disappeared from the shelves months ago. The place is more like a convenience store than a supermarket these days. If I have to pay convenience store prices I may as well visit a convenience store and save myself a journey.

[dutchman]

Doritos back up to £2.50 at Morrisons!!!

I assume next they'll offer a 'reduction' to £1.75 for loyalty card holders only?

I was half right. They're back 'down' to £1.75 but it's the same price with or without the so-called loyalty card.

Also I didn't think the service could any worse, my god was I wrong! Half the remaining checkouts have been replaced by self-service tills. Only one checkout was open and when asked by the long queue of customers with full trolleys why they couldn't open another checkout the supervisor harangued them for not using the self-service tills!

[dutchman]

Same queue tonight, different supervisor.

This supervisor DID open another checkout which merely confirms the one on duty last week was totally wrong in not opening one.

And nobody is using the new self-checkouts which must have cost a fortune to install while the shopping trolleys are falling apart and not being replaced.

[dutchman]

I've had milk bought from Morrisons go off after a very short period before (especially during a heatwave) but yesterday was a first, it had gone off before I even opened it!

[rebbonk]

I'll not name any brand, Dutchman...

The issue is that whilst supermarkets generally correctly store milk at low temperatures, parts of the supply chain do not. We have just had a few 'warm' days where has the milk been stored?

[dutchman]

It's just one of ever-increasing annoyances that seem to affect Morrisons more than rival supermarket chains.

I suspect that when Aldi eventually opens nearby there'll be stampede of former Morrisons customers across the car park. Greggs seem to think so or they wouldn't have opened their new shop alongside.

[dutchman]

Morrisons CEO David Potts to step down as ex-Carrefour France boss takes over



David Potts, the retail veteran who steered the supermarket chain Morrisons into private equity ownership, is stepping down after nine years as chief executive.

He will leave in November, and be succeeded by the former head of the Carrefour France grocery chain, Rami Baitiéh.

Potts’s departure comes a little more than a year after the £7bn takeover of the retailer by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) cleared its final regulatory hurdle after an intense bidding war.

Morrisons said Baitiéh would “work closely with David Potts to ensure a smooth handover period”.

Sir Terry Leahy, the former boss of Tesco who is now a senior adviser at CD&R, thanked Potts for his “nine years of dedicated service to Morrisons” and its customers.

Praising Potts’s “extraordinary service”, Leahy said he had “skilfully led the renewal of the Morrisons brand as well as navigating several twists and turns during his tenure, including the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis”.

He said Potts left the company “poised for growth”.

The group’s most recent annual results, released in March, showed it slumped to a £1.5bn loss during its first full year in private equity ownership.

A substantial portion of the £1.5bn pre-tax loss for the period was related to finance costs of £593m, which included interest payments on external debt, as well as interest on its lease liabilities and interest payable on loans to group companies.

Potts’s remuneration during his time as Morrisons chief executive drew criticism over several years, particularly after a pay rise resulted in him being awarded a total pay package of £5.3m for 2017, a significant increase compared with a salary of £2.8m in 2016 and £2.3m in 2015.

His pay rose again to nearly £6m for 2018, and remained above £4m in the final years of the supermarket’s time as a public company.

His remuneration returned once again to the spotlight in June 2021, when Morrisons shareholders voted overwhelmingly against the award of millions of pounds in bonuses to Potts and other executives who missed profit targets during the pandemic.