The truth about Tesco. Ex-employee spills the beans

EX-TESCO EMPLOYEE WANTS TO SPILL THE BEANS
[submitted recently to local newspaper]

With the current debate regarding the possible further expansion of Tesco, and the possible siting of a Sainsburys store in the town, I wanted to write in to share some significant information that I vividly remember from working in Tesco 14 years ago, when I was 19!

I had incurred quite a lot of debts back then, so I had a day job working at a local radio broadcast equipment manufacturing company (this company is still going strong), and I took on a part-time shelf stacking job at Tesco, during the night. The job at Tesco involved working the "twilight" shift, working from 8pm til midnight, on £3.66 per hour.

Regularly, I would be asked to work overnight, which was paid at the same rate.

I discovered that workers would regularly be paid for less overtime than they had actually worked. Upon receiving a payslip and pay and finding that my hours were paid approximately 12 hours short (a short payment of over £40) I complained to one of the night managers, who explained that the reason for my shortfall was because the store had "run out of budget" (to pay overtime).

I took the matter to the Store Personnel Manager a few days later, and after I complained, she said "on this occassion we will pay you it". I noted that there was at least one worker during the night with Down Syndrome, and I was worried that this person with a naive more happy-go-lucky attitude to life, would likely not even know if the pay had been docked.

I was once in Cambridge Building Society, in Cambridge, (in 1999), and by chance the person before me in the queue was someone from finance dept Tesco, paying in 1 enormous cheque to save away some money - the figure (I saw) was the maximum that this building society would allow to have as a balance in it's account, and it just made me think - if I had my pay-packet deducted due to "run out of budget", and lots of other people did, and still do, then, certainly an organisation could afford to place savings in accounts like this !

It turns out, 12 years later, that the practice of shorting overtime is still be being used. About three months ago, I made posts on facebook, and several Tesco staff informed me that the practise is still widespread, at Tesco.

I personally do my very best to avoid shopping at Tesco, because I think their image of cheap prices and mantra of "every little helps" is a sophisicated illusion. I have often shopped there and thought, "if Tesco is so cheap, then why is my receipt total for so much, and why (in total) have I got so little to show for my money spent?"

I believe they make very small margins on products like value Baked Beans, eg a penny or just a few pence - and then on more expensive items, they rake in up to enormous margins. For example, I know for a fact that the inkjet cartridges that Tesco sell, are sold at enormously high margins, from previous experience running a national mail-order business in this area.

One time, I bought a packet of Vitamin C supplements at Tesco - it was labelled at the shelf at 99p, but when I came to the till, I was charged £2.99 for the item. When my complaint was poorly handled, I left my entire £50 or so worth of shopping at the till point, refused to continue the transaction, and walked out!

I placed one shopping order with "Tesco Direct", for about £60 - and upon arrival of the goods, couldn't believe I had got so little for my money! I also noticed that my debit card had been "tested" with a transaction of a debit of £1.66 prior to the actual transaction of the shopping - the £1.66 was never refunded or debited from the shopping bill total - it was simply kept by Tesco - the same I presume happened to hundreds of thousands of other shoppers too.

I have heard sadly that many farmers and company operators have endured great hardships due to issues of Tesco being unable to pay their bills on time, or reducing the amount that they are obliged to pay etc. In a few cases, farmers have committed suicide. I found on the internet details of an instance of a small business that contracted their services to Tesco in 2007, and is still waiting to be paid!

I avoid shopping at Tesco, and one of the main reasons is that I don't think they're that cheap at all. I have heard that the Sainsburys operation is run on different principles of management, but I hope that the small shops etc. of the town - which is where I always prefer to shop especially where better value is offered than Tesco - get supported, we don't need or want another massive superstore, I think.

Whilst given this opportunity to have my letter published in the local paper, may I pass on, from talking to local traders, that if rents, and taxes etc. are constantly being hiked up, then they will almost certainly be put out of business. I hope that the rents and rates will be verbatim reduced, and the nett rents and rates income total will be increased as a greater number of shops etc. are able to afford to exist, flourish, and pay a fair rate for their long-term survival in the competitive marketplace.

Instead, why not double Tesco's rates? Why not do that, for real? They can easily afford this, after all the profits and "savings" they have made.


[edit on 20-3-2010 by TheDailyPlanet]

Just one more thing. I vividly remember the store preparing for the run up to Christmas. There was a turkey that had been left outside the freezer room, god knows why or for how long, and there was what looked like blood etc. leaking from this Turkey, and someone was told to throw it back in the freezer room, so that it could still be sold! So they did, threw it back in the freezer room, and some poor soul somewhere had to eat that.

[edit on 20-3-2010 by TheDailyPlanet]

I applaud your stance. There must be no fear of voicing out, so long as one feels its is the truth. In an open society such as US, the other side too can either choose to ignore such claims or come clean with evidence that they had maligned.

Far too often, the Corporations had been misleading consumers and the public, and had been socially irresponsible, with regards to sharing its wealth. This cannot or be allowed to continue on. It is the people who make a company strong - its workers and the supporting public.

No point in exchanging valuables for trinkets. The red indians, the pacific islanders, the chinese masses back in the 18th century had done so stupidly and ignorantly - giving away labour, gold and precious minerals in exchange for whiskey, opium and cheap beads.

Today, americans and the world masses' are still doing the same. The Corporations wins again, till 2008 when SHTF in the economic crisis suffered all over the world. May more realize it....

It's good to hear someone coming forward about this sort of thing, I doubt tesco are an exception to the rule. I try not to spend any money in supermarkets but they ain't half convenient lol

My Mum was once buying our Christmas dinner turkey from Morrisons when she noticed that the USE BY date on it was the 22nd! According to their 'highly skilled caring bla bla' butchers, 'It'l be fine, don't worry.' hmmm..

Supporting local business is becoming very important to me!

There's nothing good about any of the large chains - ASDA Walmart has some terrible practices, for example. There's something particularly disturbing about the rate that Tesco expands.

The comedy series, Time Trumpet, did a good piece on the Tesco chain of supermarket going to war against Denmark. To be honest, give it another 25 years and this won't seem too far fetched.

Originally posted by SeekerofTruth101
I applaud your stance. There must be no fear of voicing out, so long as one feels its is the truth. In an open society such as US, the other side too can either choose to ignore such claims or come clean with evidence that they had maligned.

Far too often, the Corporations had been misleading consumers and the public, and had been socially irresponsible, with regards to sharing its wealth. This cannot or be allowed to continue on. It is the people who make a company strong - its workers and the supporting public.

No point in exchanging valuables for trinkets. The red indians, the pacific islanders, the chinese masses back in the 18th century had done so stupidly and ignorantly - giving away labour, gold and precious minerals in exchange for whiskey, opium and cheap beads.

Today, americans and the world masses' are still doing the same. The Corporations wins again, till 2008 when SHTF in the economic crisis suffered all over the world. May more realize it....

Not that I have an issue with the OP, but I am tired of seeing the "evil corporations" mantra repeated ad nauseum on ATS. Corporations are not evil - people are evil. Corporations are a legal entity and do not know the difference between good and evil, it's the people running them. And to assume that the people running all corporations are greedy and evil is plain wrong. Remember kids, businesses exist to make a profit. They also employ many of you whiners.

Many corporations are on the brink of bankruptcy right now. Just because a company has a lot of stores and a lot invested in equipment and such, does not mean they are "wealthy". Perhaps the bosses could use a pay cut, but if you are that outraged, go to Harvard and get an MBA, and work your way up to their ranks and do a better job.

The kind of stuff you're describing goes on at any business. It's usually middle management that's pulling that kind of crap to make their numbers look good.

edit: I can't post anything without a typo. cripes!

[edit on 20-3-2010 by AwakeinNM]

The Corporations many here commonly talk about are the huge numbers of mega super rich business entities that post amazing profits each year, pay their CEO fat bonuses, yet pay the rest of their staff miserly, rip off consumers and con consumers with their chest thumping tales of international social responsibilities.

Even when they fail, they are often the first to be prop up with taxpayers monies and bailout by them. They are deem too big to fail. Socialise debts but privatise profits entities - the bane of democratic nations!

The mom and pop shops are not corporations. The small and medium enterprises are not corporations. They too suffer under the hands of the Corporations. They win contracts, but they must give the Corporations 3 to 6 months credit, effectively funding the Corporations biz!

I am not outraged if the company had invested in equipment and stocks. I am not outraged even if he draws an out of this world salary. I am only outraged when wealth is not shared with the workers who made it possible, and is hoarded up.

The biz owner took risks to set up his biz. So he is entitled to his cut. But he must also not deny the efforts and toil by his workers, for without them, or the supporting public, he is nothing and would have gotten nowhere.

He has a debt of true social responsibility. He owes society for the opportunities given to him, for he was not born out of a rock in the middle of nowhere, or did he paid for all the roads built to facillitate his biz, just for starters on the debt to society issues.

What must I, an insignificant nobody, do to open your eyes to see the bigger picture right before you? Red or blue pill?



[edit on 20-3-2010 by SeekerofTruth101]

What I find too is that the quality of much of their merchandize is absolutely crap. Really it is. They used to be good value on things like Orange Juice, but now even that has been set on ramped up margins.

Face it, they're a disgrace.

You know if you want to shop there it's up to you.

It's very simple - if they don't pay an invoice, then hire a solicitor or an appropriate person, explain that oh yes you'll settle up Their bill, and then take them to the "cleaners". Meaning possible bankruptcy for Jack Cohen's empire, in my opinion.

And another one now employing speed-talking and shifty tactics is now Waitrose.

In addition, at Waitrose, you can buy a ream of 500 sheets of paper for about £4.99, and I can get it elsewhere for as low as, well, in the high pence.

So you can't shop there. What is going on? They are trying to put themselves out of business.

They got greedy, and now, Tesco have been exposed, haven't they.

The only reason I could ever shop there again is out of desperate necessity, and pity for the workers. Meanwhile I would be prepared to shoplift Tesco, even though it's against the law, if I felt it would speed up their departure from the market.

Incidentally, whilst shoplifting is against the law, stealing from your own customers is fraud, and you could call it shoplifting if you liked.

The police are called in if the value stolen (and you're caught) exceeds £9.99.

[edit on 21-4-2010 by TheDailyPlanet]

SeekerofTruth, you are clearly a very important person within this world, and the post you made was amazing.

I personally avoid shopping at all costs at the local Tesco, when I can help it. However the staff there are helpful etc However, I have now experienced great difficulties with the Waitrose supermarket, a division of the John Lewis partnership.

Here is the issue arisen:-

(a) They are selling 80g reams of paper at around £4.99. Some companies, including Viking Direct, sell pretty much the same stuff from around £1.49+vat.

(b) I paid for my goods with pound coins. Upon checking my change, having exited the store, I found I had been short changed. I returned to the store, and a supervisor was called, nice looking but porting a rather miserable manner. She said that the transaction I had made was a very unusual one (?) - ie paying for my goods with pound coins, she said this a high speed and I asked her to slow down. She said the cashier couldn't possibly have made a mistake (I hope SHE wasn't sacked), and implied that the conversation may be over.

(c) Upon protestation, and my request for the till to be counted at the end of the day, and providing my phone number for the store to contact me on, I never received a phone call, and considered myself to have been utterly ripped off.

I then went to local Coral with my last £2, put £1.20 on a horse (a favourite), praying that it would win, and thank goodness the bet came in giving me back the amount that I considered I had had "ripped off" of me.

[edit on 30-4-2010 by TheDailyPlanet]

"I believe they make very small margins on products like value Baked Beans, eg a penny or just a few pence - and then on more expensive items, they rake in up to enormous margins."

That is true, they are called "Loss-leaders" its an item that brings people to the store beacause it is so cheap, like 17p loafs of bread 10p bottle of lemonade etc.

They often lose money on these things, but most people will buy lots of other more expensive items. so the store makes a profit, on the individual visit.

It is common practice in all supermarkets.

Also Supermartkets, do rip off farmers.

especially Dairy farmers. many do not even make a profit from the milk they sell.

What a nightmare for the Tesco organisation, now that they have been exposed as renigade.

They make vast profits, and were seeking to make vast amounts more, whilst they kept many of their customers in poverty due to the ramped up margins on their goods, covered up by only making a penny or so on the baked beans.

I've worked for a major supermarket a few times before, and while I haven't encountered as much negativity as you have experienced, I applaud you for speaking out.
Where I worked there was a definite pattern of contradictions between what they publically state and what they actually do, and despite my NI number being perfectly ordinary and fairly easy to read I have on several occasions (worked for the same store on a few times, and this happened on two of them) been put on an emergency tax code because they got the NI number wrong, lost money that I earnt because of that and never reimbursed despite my protestations. It's a very sour atmosphere to work in. Customers are treated with suspicion at every turn without reason most of the time and yes, frozen goods are put back on the shelf despite being thawed out and possibly contaminated. What do they care? I buy things like fresh meat from local butchers whenever possible now.

Late last year when it started snowing heavily, staff were worried about getting home and the usual risks associated with snow fall, while the manager was very vocal about all the profit that she was about to lose. the same manager is also verbally abusive to staff members, rendering the atmosphere nearly intolerable. Needless to say I have since left and I'd rather lick a stinging nettle than work there ever again.

reply to post by TheDailyPlanet
Cant believe that people are so stupid to be told by tesco asda etc that they are actually saving money by shopping at their stores. As a single mum who has to watch every penny i shop around, I know this isnt really strictly the sort of topic for the site, but i just had to say what i thought, i shop in a frozen food supermarket called farm food there a tin of heinz baked beans is 39p in tescos and asda its 64p, i mean thats a hell of a diffrence, and as for lidl s its unbelievably good quality, what is going on with tesco ( and the other ones) how do they have so much power? Every little helps! yeah every little helps some bigwig to line his pockets.

reply to post by darkday


Atcually. i find the best place to shop on a budget. IS asda. you really dont need branded goods all the time.

those baked beans you can spend 29p a tin, on their own brand instead.

i do this for pretty much everything. and can save about 15 quid a shop.