Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Richard Hakluyt]

I mainly shop at Lidl and an upmarket NW store called Booths. These stores do vary quite a bit according to where they are located. I've noticed that the Preston Morrison's, for example, is vastly superior to the one at Sunderland. The local lidl near me has pretty good fruit and veg; but for cheese and meat it is best/essential to use Booths.

[Sheilbh]

God I love a Booths

[Agelastus]

God I love a Booths

I've heard of them being very good (I have an Aunt who lives in Macclesfield) but I live in the wrong part of the country...

[Razgovory]

What is Aldi like in Britain?  The one in my town is very cheap but smells terrible and everything is still on wooden pallets.

[Syt]

everything is still on wooden pallets.

That's what Aldi does.

[Zanza]

The "di" means discount after all...

[Josquius]

What is Aldi like in Britain?  The one in my town is very cheap but smells terrible and everything is still on wooden pallets.

Its not too bad in the UK. I've read some claiming the quality is higher than the standard supermarkets like Tesco et al.
I dislike their tactics of hiding expensive items next to cheaper items, laying out shelves in a non-standard manner to confuse, and making their own brands resemble real brands very closely....
But they're cheap and fine.

Certainly compared to Switzerland it seems better; Swiss Aldi was just horrific, do not trust the meat from that place.

[Iormlund]

Yeah, it seems ultimately just a pain in the ass. Choice is great but not when the choice isn't very meaningful.

I was being sarcastic.

I never HAD to find a new contract. I could have stayed with the previous one. But I have had the option to put a whole 5 minutes of work into it, and save some money.

Doubtful.

It is likely all companies are using the same infrastructure, for which they pay the same rate, fixed by a regulator. If you could pay that tariff instead of adding the vendor margins it would be cheaper still.

Privatized utilities have three big problems:

• It is usually inefficient and extremely expensive to develop infrastructure (eg. energy grid, water mains, pre-mobile telco networks). This means often companies merely act as intermediaries.
• Preventive maintenance and upgrades are very expensive, but will often have a RoI in decades. This does not align with a stock-driven business, which wants profit now.
• Lots of people live in rural areas, for which services are often economically deficitary.

[Syt]

making their own brands resemble real brands very closely....

A lot of the time their "knock offs" are produced by the same company as the branded version.

[The Larch]

making their own brands resemble real brands very closely....

A lot of the time their "knock offs" are produced by the same company as the branded version.

I don't get Tyr's disdain about supermarket brands, they're perfectly fine products and as you say they're produced by the very same companies that produce what he calls "real brands".

[celedhring]

making their own brands resemble real brands very closely....

A lot of the time their "knock offs" are produced by the same company as the branded version.

I don't get Tyr's disdain about supermarket brands, they're perfectly fine products and as you say they're produced by the very same companies that produce what he calls "real brands".

Not always. There are suppliers that produce exclusively white label products.

Doesn't mean they have to be shitty though. Branded products can be really overrated, particularly in commoditized industries.

[Oexmelin]

Scots judges rule parliament suspension unlawful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usDAv2Y14T0

[Josquius]

making their own brands resemble real brands very closely....

A lot of the time their "knock offs" are produced by the same company as the branded version.

I don't get Tyr's disdain about supermarket brands, they're perfectly fine products and as you say they're produced by the very same companies that produce what he calls "real brands".

Its the deception. The dark patterns at work.
There's nothing wrong with a supermarket own-brand. This kind of thing though is just wrong:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/floperry/completely-genius-aldi-and-lidl-product-names

I really don't think they're produced by the original company

[Tonitrus]

Iceland is a big chain that's everywhere, but as the name suggests, isn't really a proper supermarket, it specialises in frozen stuff. Cheap one. So if you lack time/money/desire to cook, you go there. We have stopped going to the one close to us a while ago. It's ghastly, really.

In my eyes, Morrisons and Sainsburys are largely the same. Acceptable if you don't have anything else closer, but no great.

ASDA is slightly better than those two, but largely the same category.

M&S is good for clothing but for groceries it's expensive with very little choice or variety. Seems to be cashing in on old people who have never gone to any other store in their lives.

Waitrose is the "high end" of supermarket chains. I am not sure if it's policy but I have never seen a non-white clerk (at least mingled with customers) at a Waitrose, ever. They are expensive but usually (far from always) the quality mostly matches the price.

TESCO IMHO is the best middle ground on quantity, quality, and price. It doesn't mean it's anything special, but in a closely matched race they come out front at least in the areas I have lived in.

Lidl isn't very good in terms of choices but they carry a lot of more "continental" stuff which is great, I won't mind once again living close to one of them soon. It is generally looked down upon by the natives.

Ohhh, I love these games. 

Iceland: Food/selection is meh...the one I've gone too doesn't seem dirty/crappy.  Just blah. 
Sainsburys: Also meh, but the best source of go-to Greek yogurt, and probably the best bakery cookies I've encountered.
Morrisons: I'd put it a notch above Sainsburys.  I like their pasties above others.  Actually sells a deli-made refrigerated veggie-combo pizza that doesn't have sweet corn on it.
M&S: Good.  Limited selection, but the store definitely has the modern/super clean atmosphere down pat.  Their vegetarian Kiev's are money.
ASDA: Walmart in the UK.  Fair selection/meh.
Waitrose: Items are expensive, but their atmosphere/feel does not reflect that at all.  Way too limited fresh bakery items (at the store here, anyway).  But does have some harder-to-find select items.  Ice cream selection is above average (yes, this is important  )
Lidl: Fair, cheap, and the one I go to is nice and clean.
Tesco: Very meh.  Just very meh.
Aldi's: Haven't been to one yet...from the outside, looks very much like it is for poors.
CoOp:  Between the Tesco Express and the mini-CoOp market, I go to CoOp much more.  Item quality seems way better to me.  They had a veggie pizza with a cheese that had a lemon-y tinge to it...was soooo damned good.  Their store-brand ice cream is also perhaps the best overall quality I've encountered so far.

[Berkut]

If it isn't Wegmans, it is crap.