Shopping

[BeansBeansBeans]

Our local ASDA has a lengthy traffic jam outside, with people trying to get in and do some shopping. I hate shopping (except record shopping), yet for some it's their favourite pastime, and they can't wait to shuffle round a packed supermarket on their day off.

What do you think of shopping? Necessary evil or retail therapy?

[Iain]

I don't mind it. When it's quiet. I hate it when it's really busy and crowded. I was in a shopping centre last Saturday for something completely unrelated to this time of year and I had to get out there as quick as I could. I felt quite claustrophobic with the vast crowds of people everywhere and seemingly going in the same direction to me! :s I don't know how people can handle it when it's like that.

[grassrootsracer]

Necessary evil. I prefer to do most of my shopping online. Except at races and concerts, I don't like crowds.

[RaceFanStan]

I usually try to shop during off-peak hours.
I do NOT shop on weekends as that is the worst time for big crowds. :eek:

[Drew]

Really? I'm about to head to Tesco, and I am pretty scared now :p :

[Daniel]

I hate ASDA. The one in Llandudno is full of moronic idiots who seem to be able to block you in every aisle. We went there last week and I was so fed up with people blocking that I practically pushed someone out of the way with the trolley. Sainsbury's is MUCH better. Morrison's is good too.

[J4MIE]

I try to avoid shopping wherever I can as I get too annoyed.

Although sometimes when it's really busy (as described above) it can be fun to try and rush as much as possible and curse at people for going too slowly, stopping in front of me, etc :D :up:

[veeten]

It all depends...

If it it nothing more than a trek to the supermarket for essentials (milk, bread, eggs, toilet paper, etc...), then it is better to do it early. Avoids the crowds and let's you get the bargains before everyone else does. :D

Bring a list of what you need, along with coupons. Go through the coupon packet in the sunday paper if possible, as this will save you money big time. :D :up:

[Iain]

I try to avoid shopping wherever I can as I get too annoyed.

Although sometimes when it's really busy (as described above) it can be fun to try and rush as much as possible and curse at people for going too slowly, stopping in front of me, etc :D :up:

You should try Tesco Online. I understand they're highly recommended. ;)

[Daniel]

Yes but Tesco online don't allow you to push people out of the way with trolleys.

[Ian McC]

Depends on what kind of shopping, don't mind a daytrip to Bluewater if it includes a meal and the cinema after.

[nicemms]

I hate shopping. Its so boring!

My advice: don't go shopping what so ever.

[millencolin]

i work in a shopping centre so i have a natural hatred of shopping

[MadCat]

I work in Sainsburys ....so shopping for food etc is the last thing i want to do!

Generally dont hate shopping but i dont really like it either .. unless its for me of course :p :

[Donney]

I get bored with shopping and claustrophobic when it's crowded, so it's fair to say that I don't like it.

[Hazell B]

I work in Sainsburys ....

Be glad you're not the manager of the Doncaster branch myself and another woman kicked off in just before the holidays. Member of staff annoyed us both, so we demanded a manager and he was about as much use as a puddle for bathing in :mark:

As somebody who's really bad at shopping of any kind, I don't mind it but aren't allowed to go alone very often :D

[BDunnell]

I only go shopping if I have to, and then try and avoid branches that I think will be especially crowded. It's no fun at all, even if I'm after something I particularly want.

[Dazz9908]

There's no place like home, there's no place like home. (Click my heels together three times.) open my eyes and bugger. I'm still downtown being drag from hear to there, by my wife.

Just love the place. Not.

Thats why I pay someone to go there for me with everything I earn. MY WIFE.
It' like prison to me. Old People stop in the middle of the walkways to talk and you can't get round them. Young hoods hang out and low the value of everything but the cost of things. Loud crap music in the fashion stores, Crap elevator music in the department stores.
Every man and their dog conjugate in one small area to do they same thing everyday. Drives me crazy. Oh don't i forget that we have to stop off at every womans fashion shop and look at every item the have, Not my cup of tea. ( gruppy old man hits the streets-Me)

[stevie_gerrard]

True Evil, i once spent two hours on a Tesco Car Park stuck in traffic :mad: the most boring hours of my life :p :

[J4MIE]

You should try Tesco Online. I understand they're highly recommended. ;)

Yes but I don't want anybody to get their hands on my sprouts!

Being honest, I don't think it's that bad really, but as with Dave Brockman, having seen people throw the items into the trolleys, it's a wonder we don't get more complaints. I have heard far too many bad things about online shopping and just wouldn't trust it.

At least I don't have a lift that the delivery drivers can crap in on his way up to me :\


True Evil, i once spent two hours on a Tesco Car Park stuck in traffic :mad: the most boring hours of my life :p :

Think yourself lucky that you didn't get a parking ticket for being in there too long! :s

[Hazell B]

Jamie, you've just reminded me about something :)

Tesco here in my home town are dishing out tickets to anyone using their car park for more than three hours. They post a letter demanding £60 or £80 direct to your house.

However, some people go there twice in a day - and the machines miss their first exit and second arrival. They get the fines and have to pay if they cannot prove they've been twice (via Clubcard use)

It also serves fines on anyone driving through the car park on the way to and from work (it's a common cut through when the railway line is in use and road closed, about ten times each day) and you simply cannot prove you drove in and out within seconds of each other.

So, if anyone on here get's a Tesco fine and they haven't been there - do not pay it! Nobody here is and they're going potty at Tesco head office. It's hillarious reading the excuses and so on from Tesco in the local paper after annoyed customers and drivers have their letters printed each week :laugh:

[BeansBeansBeans]

£60 to £80? Well, every little helps.

[jso1985]

Not that I hate it but unless I'm buying music, it bores me to death I usually go and buy the thing I wanted as quick as possible.
That's why I promised I will never ever go again shopping with a female

[jim mcglinchey]

[

Tesco here in my home town are dishing out tickets to anyone using their car park for more than three hours. They post a letter demanding £60 or £80 direct to your house.


I heard this story in a civil liberties context recently. Who the hell gives, or sells, access to a database to Tesco allowing them to link your number plate to a home address. Its a it much when a privately wned supermarket chain can start issuing fines, but then again Tesco will rule the world soon!

Happy New Year all!

[J4MIE]

I heard this story in a civil liberties context recently. Who the hell gives, or sells, access to a database to Tesco allowing them to link your number plate to a home address. Its a it much when a privately wned supermarket chain can start issuing fines, but then again Tesco will rule the world soon!

It's done through a number plate recognition system and then gets the registered keeper's details from the DVLA - "it's not just the police that have access to the details!" (quote from Tesco Q&A).

I don't know too much about it to be honest, just glad I don't spend hours in shops so no need to worry! :D

[Drew]

I've seen signs for this before in various random supermarkets, but I didn't actually know they scanned your number plate!

I take it you can just tell them to get lost and not legally have to pay it, then?

[J4MIE]

I take it you can just tell them to get lost and not legally have to pay it, then?

No idea... I don't aim to stay in my job long enough to find out! :)

[BDunnell]

It's done through a number plate recognition system and then gets the registered keeper's details from the DVLA - "it's not just the police that have access to the details!" (quote from Tesco Q&A).

This is a problematic area, because surely any private individual can get information on a car's registered owner in this way. The only difference is that Tesco and other big businesses have the money to make use of the information in ways like this.

Personally, I think it's really rather disgraceful, and I don't believe that a private company should be able to levy retrospective fines for disobeying the rules it lays down with regard to its premises.

[Hazell B]

It's one of those things where as citizens we forget Tesco had to pay millions to purchase land, build a store and car park then maintain it all, so we forget they should be allowed to charge for it's use when that use isn't of any other benefit to them.

How would we all feel if some random worker stuck their car on our drives each morning and we couldn't use it ourselves?

I can't blame Tesco for sending off fines. However, when they make so many mistakes, it's just poor customer relations. They pay a couple of quid for each number plate they link to an address, something we can all do these days, and do have large warning signs all over the car areas, so anyone saying they haven't been warned is an idiot or liar.

It's the unfair ones that we in this town are refusing to pay - which sounds like about 50% of the fines they send out judging by the local papers!

[CarlMetro]

To be fair to Tesco, it's the only place within about 20 miles of our town centre where you can park for free for up to three hours. The only other store remotely close to free is Sainsburys which is about three miles from the town centre and you have to show a receipt for a minimum £5 to prove you actually shopped in the store :rolleyes: Everywhere else charges around a £1 an hour.

The Tesco system is quite simple, park for free but don't take the p1ss. If you abuse the system then they'll take you to the cleaners and being that they own the land you're parking on, they are perfectly within their rights to do so. Granted their system does have it's faults as Hazell has pointed out but a simple explanation on 90% 0f those wrongly charged will see the penalty voided.

Moving swiftly back to the subject of the thread though...............

I quite enjoy shopping but can't just shop for the sake of it these days. I used to be able to wander around a shopping centre for hours, in and out of different stores, sometimes buying stuff, sometimes not. Nowadays I have to be going for something specific, will have usually down my research online and now where I'm going to purchase it from.

But to be honest, I purchase 90% of what I need/want online these days. Things like Amazon and Play have made it far easier to shop for music and dvd's.

We get virtually all of our groceries online, far easier when you have a two-year-old to try and placate whilst doing the monthly shop, only visiting the supermarket for fresh produce such as vegetables and things we run low of such as milk or bread.

Electronics or other major purchases such as holidays are usually cheaper online than in the High Street too, so I don't see the point in finding somewhere to park, queueing for ages, only to be told it's out of stock/not available etc, when I dcan do it all from the comfort of my chair cheaper.

[Freya J.]

Online shopping is great, but sometimes it is nice to see a product 'in the flesh' and see if you like it. I tend to see things in shops and then search online and buy.

[Hazell B]

Granted their system does have it's faults as Hazell has pointed out but a simple explanation on 90% 0f those wrongly charged will see the penalty voided.


I think it's the fact that you're seen as guilty and have to prove you're inocent (which takes time and effort, and then isn't always possible) that annoys people here, especially as Tesco designed their car park in this town
to be a short cut in the hope of grabbing more passing customers. From what I've read, Tesco's pwn penalty company isn't voiding anything like 90% either, sadly. They were taking a group of people to court until the local paper kicked off it's campaign.

Somehow that plan may have been dropped though :p :

[Dave B]

Quickly covering the car park issue: Tesco's Clubcard database is so vast and clever that to include your number plate and tie it in with your shopping trips would be a doddle. Of course, the civil liberties people would explode...

Anyway. Shopping for fun things good. Shopping for food evil. Go first thing in the morning or late at night and it's not so bad. Get the heavy bulky stuff online: the crates of beer, bottles of soft drink, bog rolls etc. But don't let bored uncaring shop staff choose your meat, fruit or veg. Never ever, as All Saints so wisely put it.

[Drew]

Online shopping is great, but sometimes it is nice to see a product 'in the flesh' and see if you like it. I tend to see things in shops and then search online and buy.

I bought a Christmas present for a friend from the internet. I was expecting it to be pretty small, instead it was in a huge box and had to carry it across campus, whilst making sure the person I bought it for didn't see it.

That's a problem with the internet. My sister buys clothes from the internet, I have no idea how she knows they will fit :confused:

[veeten]

simple, as most online shops have sections on their site that give equivalent measurements for garnments sold, and have a size adjustment chart. That way, you have a better idea of how it will fit. :)

[Drew]

simple, as most online shops have sections on their site that give equivalent measurements for garnments sold, and have a size adjustment chart. That way, you have a better idea of how it will fit. :)

All manufactures seem to vary, it's like shoes. Sometimes I'm a size 10 (UK) and others an 11 :\

I'd rather try clothes on and not buy them, than buy them, try them on and have the hassle of sending it back. Each to their own!

[veeten]

these go to 11... :p :

[Drew]

Haha, brilliant :p :