Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about £10bn grocery merger

[denphone]

Sainsbury's and Asda in talks about shock £10bn grocery merger.

https://news.sky.com/story/sainsbury...erger-11349799

https://www.theguardian.com/business...deal?CMP=fb_gu

[RichardCoulter]

Well both have terrible customer service, but at least Sainsbury's doesn't use a foreign call centre.

Asda has a reputation for attracting the poorer working class types who wouldn't pay more for groceries even if they were better quality, so I doubt a conversion to Sainsbury's would work.

On the other side of the coin, Sainsbury's tends to attract the middle classes who can't afford or won't pay M&S prices, so Sainsbury's is used as a middle ground. Any willing to shift downmarket will already have done so to the likes of Lidl etc. They console themselves by saying that they are shopping continental as opposed to budget shopping

I wonder if they mean combining their purchasing functions, distribution etc to increase their buying power and achieve economies of scale, rather than the actual stores themselves?

[denphone]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Well both have terrible customer service, but at least Sainsbury's doesn't use a foreign call centre.

Personally l prefer Sainsbury's rather then Asda as Asda always seem to have items out of stock plus Sainsbury's fresh produce is far superior to that of Asda IMO...

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Well both have terrible customer service, but at least Sainsbury's doesn't use a foreign call centre.

Do you mean in-store or online/telephony?

I shop at both (both in NW Leeds), and have never had any bad, never mind, terrible customer service - I have found staff at our local stores friendly and helpful.

It's a shame you have had a bad experience.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Do you mean in-store or online/telephony?

I shop at both (both in NW Leeds), and have never had any bad, never mind, terrible customer service - I have found staff at our local stores friendly and helpful.

It's a shame you have had a bad experience.

The staff in stores are generally ok, it's the email side of Sainsbury's that I've had a problem with. I broke a tooth on some glass found in their own brand pasta salad (think I mentioned it on here). I initially wanted to warn them so that other customers weren't put in danger.

They ignored my emails, it was only when my solicitor became involved that they offered me £50, which didn't even cover my expenses, let alone compensate me for the pain etc, so I rejected their first out of court offer. I was surprised that Sainsbury's behaved like this.

As for Asda, you might as well call VM about your groceries, because you'd get as much sense out of them. When they try to answer emails it is hilarious though, one offered "a million apologies" and stated that the previous person would be "severely punished" for giving out the wrong information

[denphone]

More quotes and analysis of the proposed merger.

Richard Lim, from economics research consultancy Retail Economics, said the merger would be a "game changer in the UK grocery market of epic proportions".

"The potential tie-up would see the combined business take Tesco head-on," he added.

"This is quite audacious by Sainsbury's - given it has only recently bought Argos. It's symptomatic though of the restructuring of the supermarket industry."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-43933517

[pip08456]

Isn't ASDA owned by Walmart?

[denphone]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Isn't ASDA owned by Walmart?

Yes it is Pip.

[oliver1948uk]

I used to shop at Tesco and have earned through the Clubcard scheme many free trips for family, saving hundreds of pounds. A few years ago, they seemed to be getting expensive so I shifted my main shopping to Asda. Here I have built up over £100 in free shopping using an Asda credit card. I hope they don't stop that with the merger as you get far more with that than you do with Sainsbury's Nectar card, especially with the recent proposed complicated changes. I find the Asda prices reasonable and the quality of their own brand good. My only complaint is the running down of the tills in favour of 'do it yourself' which I refuse to do. My local 24 hour Asda shuts all the tills at 9pm. If I need to shop after that I go to Tesco who have one till open I think until midnight. I think the prices at Tesco have come down recently. Sainsbury's I find on the whole more expensive.

On a few occasions I have had cause to use Customer Services at all three supermarkets. Every time I have been treated courteously and the problem sorted.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by oliver1948uk

I used to shop at Tesco and have earned through the Clubcard scheme many free trips for family, saving hundreds of pounds. A few years ago, they seemed to be getting expensive so I shifted my main shopping to Asda. Here I have built up over £100 in free shopping using an Asda credit card. I hope they don't stop that with the merger as you get far more with that than you do with Sainsbury's Nectar card, especially with the recent proposed complicated changes. I find the Asda prices reasonable and the quality of their own brand good. My only complaint is the running down of the tills in favour of 'do it yourself' which I refuse to do. My local 24 hour Asda shuts all the tills at 9pm. If I need to shop after that I go to Tesco who have one till open I think until midnight. I think the prices at Tesco have come down recently. Sainsbury's I find on the whole more expensive.

On a few occasions I have had cause to use Customer Services at all three supermarkets. Every time I have been treated courteously and the problem sorted.

Really? Do you get points on your ASDA card purchases from ebay etc?

Originally Posted by pip08456

Really? Do you get points on your ASDA card purchases from ebay etc?

AFAIK, if you pay with the Asda Card you get cashback, rather than points.

---------- Post added at 16:07 ---------- Previous post was at 16:06 ----------

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Well both have terrible customer service, but at least Sainsbury's doesn't use a foreign call centre.

Last time I had to use Asda's telephone customer service, they were not foreign.

[pip08456]

Originally Posted by Paul M

AFAIK, if you pay with the Asda Card you get cashback, rather than points.

---------- Post added at 16:07 ---------- Previous post was at 16:06 ----------


Last time I had to use Asda's telephone customer service, they were not foreign.

I can use points for purchases so basically the same as cashback.

This old belief that somehow Sainsbury's isn't a place where poorer people shop is wrong we do 90% of our shopping at Sainsbury's and they have a product range to fit any budget we mainly shop there as quality of goods even the budget brands has been better for us. We don't have an Asda where i live so this wouldn't really affect us.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

This old belief that somehow Sainsbury's isn't a place where poorer people shop is wrong we do 90% of our shopping at Sainsbury's and they have a product range to fit any budget we mainly shop there as quality of goods even the budget brands has been better for us. We don't have an Asda where i live so this wouldn't really affect us.

l quite agree Rizzy as every time l mention to my Mum that we went to Sainsbury's or are going to go there her answer is its dear in there to which l reply its no dearer then anywhere else..

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Last time I had to use Asda's telephone customer service, they were not foreign.

I haven't called them for many months as I couldn't be doing with their foreign call centre.

After what you wrote, I called 0800 952 0101 and, hey presto, someone English answered!

It does seem that they've dumped them, result!

---------- Post added at 22:05 ---------- Previous post was at 22:04 ----------

Originally Posted by denphone

l quite agree Rizzy as every time l mention to my Mum that we went to Sainsbury's or are going to go there her answer is its dear in there to which l reply its no dearer then anywhere else..

It is dearer, but sometimes it's better quality.

To check for yourself you can compare a typical basket at mysupermarket.com.