Intersting programme was on tonight on how Tesco deal with their suppliers.
Hope the link works. The Report Tesco: Trouble at the Top
You pay us and we keep using you. Its straight up extortion. 
I’m sure no similar arrangements exist with transport suppliers.
They’ve got the suppliers by the danglers…the suppliers usually get loans for bigger premises more machinery etc to keep up with supp & demand…pull the pin 2 years down the line and leave the suppliers on there are…seen it happens few times
All retail businesses are the same, the key is volume if you have for example a supplier who supplies bread to a supermarket for say 30p a loaf and makes a pre tax profit of 5p a loaf when all the costs have been factored in, for example marketing business rates corporation tax staff salaries buildings equipment utilities insurance the list goes on and on.
The supermarket then sells the loaf for £1 taking 70p, now consider the costs to the supermarket, transport staff salaries marketing building costs utilities tax, rent and so on who has the highest costs?
The bakery doesn’t own a huge estate of stores or employ nowhere near as many people or run DC’s (an average sized chilled DC costs around 1 million a week) or run ad campaigns or promotions.
So the profit margins are small for all parties look at the turnover of Asda then look at the profit in comparison a massive difference.
Some of the branded suppliers have a higher profit margin than the retailer, people have faith in brands and will pay for a known name as a perceived guarantee of quality some brands command a 40% margin.
If you own a bakery and can bake a million loaves a week at a profit of 5p a loaf and if you can do the same with chickens tins of beans or whatever that’s how it works, the only drawback with this model is the end product is of poor quality and small suppliers struggle to compete even branded food which tasted good 20 years ago now tastes like cardboard.
I consider myself to be an average bloke, but one thing I won’t tolerate is poor service and poor quality the 2 things that seem to be the most obvious in today’s british supermarket all the short staffing and bullying of suppliers has bitten them all on the bottom, the bottom end of the game is booming Aldi Lidl based on price, the top end like Waitrose (my personal favourite) and M&S based on quality, bash the big 4 if you want learn about how they work first.
I for years have collected from a supplier who if he gets a order of 1,000 of his products will make 1500 just in case he gets another order in and it saves changing the line over,on a daily basis there’s pallets of surplus stock left over that you can take with you ,there literally chucking the stuff at you ,I used too in the old day es take pallets of it back to our depot too feed the masses ,but loads of it went in the skip,day after day.
These companies are being squeezed but maybe that’s a good thing ,it will focus them on becoming more efficient,stop the wastefulness,
Personally I couldn’t give a flying sasauge how the big 4 work,profit margins etc…you don’t work for 1of the big 4 by any chance if your a truck driver your talents are wasted…there advertising down your way for fulltime trumpets.
They’ve driven costs out of their business and put it on someone else’s - famously charging their suppliers for everything from preferential (yeah right) contracts and where their product is put in the store!
Parasites! Hope one does go under - might make the others change their ways.
As for the low enders, has anyone looked at their supply chains and where they source from? It may surprise you but it probably won’t!
When I worked on fridges, I used to visit a factory that made ready meals for the big four. One day everyone was on their best behaviour because Asda “were in”. They used to visit regularly and carry out audits on everything - production, staffing (including pay), supply chain, storage - and if they could spot any saving they would tell the owners that they could save so much by doing this, so we’re cutting the price we pay for the product.
As Richard Nixon was fond of saying “When you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”
Girlfriend works for tesco as a team leader at a small express store. At the end of the day they throw 5 or 6 black bin bags of cakes, bread rolls etc out if they aren’t sold that day.The money they throw away every day is stupid.
They been told up to Christmas they cant have the heating on in the shop in case it affects the xmas chocs penny pinching more like.
Always said they were a zb supermarket, guess I was right, ha:)
Daytrunker:
Girlfriend works for tesco as a team leader at a small express store. At the end of the day they throw 5 or 6 black bin bags of cakes, bread rolls etc out if they aren’t sold that day.The money they throw away every day is stupid.
They been told up to Christmas they cant have the heating on in the shop in case it affects the xmas chocs penny pinching more like.
id think you could live off those throwaways, what you would spend on food put to one side and could have a fantastic hol. thats what id do anyway
And the supermarkets save money by getting haulage companies delivering to the RDCs to act as a portable cold store. Tesco at Crick was notorious for taking 4+hrs to unload you.
Sure it happens in retail all the time, not just Tesco, and no doubt the bigger they are the worse the practices.
Driving down cost is of course their business but surprising thing here (to me anyway) was they were calling a meeting with a bloke and saying “See that invoice you gave us for last month… how about we just don’t pay it?” Guy replies"But I need that money and you are effectively asking me to give you 42k". Response comes “Well you can do that, or we can discontinue your line”.
So he refused and they followed through on the threat. Put him out of business because what they have, and he needs is Volume. (Like in the 5p a loaf example above)
Interview with a (ex) Tesco buyer who explained these “supplier payments” where they just say look, how about we just don’t pay.So suppliers are basically being made to make payments to keep contracts.
Would you call that a bribe? Begs the question when it comes to existing, particularly bigger suppliers… Are existing suppliers bribing to gain contracts? Or are they being extorted to remain in business? Moot point but its all decidedly grubby and Mafioso.
The scandal here was that Tesco were then off setting the liabilities on their books by including these payments, whether received or not yet, to give a false report of the companies balance.
Yes. The extra £250m received was supposed to be “below the counter” like any other protection racket - not stuck through the books as “amounts owing”! Major “oops” there by the looks of it! 
On the staff side of the business, there’s already a movement to get workers to PAY for work - Umbrella, salary sacrifice, low base pay, too many deductions, insurance excesses payable - you name it.
What I’d like to know is where do these ivory tower knobends go to get their own food? Surely not in their own stores, unless it’s a “freebie” lifted off some spilt pallet?
The last place I’d expect to see the “company high command” walking about is on the actual shop floor!
Daytrunker:
Girlfriend works for tesco as a team leader at a small express store. At the end of the day they throw 5 or 6 black bin bags of cakes, bread rolls etc out if they aren’t sold that day.The money they throw away every day is stupid.
They been told up to Christmas they cant have the heating on in the shop in case it affects the xmas chocs penny pinching more like.
I’ve seen them do similar late at night when noone (but me) is looking in the big stores. A couple of people will quickly pop out of a closet, with big bags which say ‘contaminated’ and start taking bakery items OFF THE SHELF and sealing them into these bags and then carting them off. It annoys me so much, and badly want to know what it’s all about because how can one moment it be salable, and the next its contaminated. Also how is it cheaper to put it in a bag and throw it away than to discount it to a few pennies like they do with all the branded cakes / bread e.t.c.
Rant over, sorry!.. 
I was brought up with “It’s a sin to waste good food” attitude.
Supermarkets - They are the 9th tier of Dante’s Inferno with their endemic, but so unnecessary waste! 
I asked a store manager once “Why do you not price it up cheap at the day’s end?”
He said "Because we’d get the store full of hangers-on that’ll only come at the end of the day for the cheapies…
FFS is that how it’s to be now then? - Turning away customers “cos they don’t look well-heeled enough” all the while we get told that it’s “racist” to call someone a 3.14-ie or refuse to get a non-Brit with a criminal record a job?
I’m sure that if ALL supermarkets flogged off their excess perishable stock at the end of each day - There would be no need for “food banks”, and the Supermarkets would get that warm feeling of “having put something back” into society. As opposed to “going around your back, and sticking something rather different up it…”
Morrisons cut their stuff to 9p - and here’s an article about the “hangers on” that’ll be waiting to buy it.
Yes, it certainly was intrresting. Unfortunately not suprising. Theyre a loathsome outfit, and deserve all theyve undoubtedly got coming to them. Its a shame the ordinary workers will suffer with the tossers.
Winseer:
I’m sure that if ALL supermarkets flogged off their excess perishable stock at the end of each day - There would be no need for “food banks”, and the Supermarkets would get that warm feeling of “having put something back” into society.
As someone who pays little attention to use by dates, If I knew that if I went into my local Tesco Express late in the evening there would be a wide range of decent goods at bargain prices, I’d never bother going to buy perishable stuff at full price. And i’m someone who earns a decent living. The more people that do that, the more stuff they will end up having to reduce.
From a business point of view, that’s not great is it? What they should do is get their stock controls in order.
rob22888:
Winseer:
I’m sure that if ALL supermarkets flogged off their excess perishable stock at the end of each day - There would be no need for “food banks”, and the Supermarkets would get that warm feeling of “having put something back” into society.As someone who pays little attention to use by dates, If I knew that if I went into my local Tesco Express late in the evening there would be a wide range of decent goods at bargain prices, I’d never bother going to buy perishable stuff at full price. And i’m someone who earns a decent living. The more people that do that, the more stuff they will end up having to reduce.
From a business point of view, that’s not great is it? What they should do is get their stock controls in order.
Their reluctance to bow to human nature means they throw it away and lose 100% on it instead.
I’m sure there’s no kind of “insurance payout” for all this stuff they throw in the skips… It’s a straight loss to the books.
If I were running a multi-million pound business - I’d want to create as many happy customers as possible - especially f I’m likely to lose money anyway. This creates brand loyalty after all. Is this not what M&S and Waitrose have that Tescos ‘do not’ right now?
Why are people so loyal to Waitrose and M&S for example, where you can pay double the price for exactly the same product? Who goes across town to pay double for exactly the same item?
They skip food as well, but they keep it under wraps, and keep the shop front clean so no one realises what damnations are going on behind the scenes…
Meanwhile, back at Tescos - “■■■■■■■ off as many as possible”, whilst “losing the maximum amount” - just seems plain daft to me!
Speakersrock:
Daytrunker:
Girlfriend works for tesco as a team leader at a small express store. At the end of the day they throw 5 or 6 black bin bags of cakes, bread rolls etc out if they aren’t sold that day.The money they throw away every day is stupid.
They been told up to Christmas they cant have the heating on in the shop in case it affects the xmas chocs penny pinching more like.I’ve seen them do similar late at night when noone (but me) is looking in the big stores. A couple of people will quickly pop out of a closet, with big bags which say ‘contaminated’ and start taking bakery items OFF THE SHELF and sealing them into these bags and then carting them off. It annoys me so much, and badly want to know what it’s all about because how can one moment it be salable, and the next its contaminated. Also how is it cheaper to put it in a bag and throw it away than to discount it to a few pennies like they do with all the branded cakes / bread e.t.c.
Rant over, sorry!..
Because its baked fresh before the shop opens at 6 its classed as Fresh produce so can only be sold on that day and yes its a shocking waste of perfectly good food which gets skipped every day
I actually worked with the supermarkets for years…As a supplier. I know the whole lot from top to bottom.
I am on pre mod, so I shall not post what actually happens as the owners of this website would have kittens 
I will post what actually happens if I get the go ahead…Much like how supermarkets like to work