Local co-ops

From Paul Clarke

Sunday, 11 September 2011

On Friday night I made the fatal mistake of letting my petrol get too low so I was forced to drop into the Co-op petrol station in Mytholmroyd paying £1.40 per litre for diesel.

So you can imagine how annoyed I was when I drove onto Halifax to find the small station just outside town offering the same petrol 3p a litre cheaper.

Then tonight I was in the Co-op and it was the usual chaos. I vainly looked for a basket at the front door...there was none. Page one stuff of managing a supermarket. So I wandered over to the tills and grabbed one for myself from the big pile hidden behind the tills.

In fairness there was actually some veg for a change although it seemed bizarre to have a 'buy tomatoes get a cucumber free' offer but then have no tomatoes on display.

I have to say the staff are really helpful and switched on these days but the stock issues are just as bad as when the regional manager came.

So we now have two overpriced Co-ops within a mile of each other and one is still the most badly stocked supermarket I have ever shopped in - especially galling when you remember it has a supermarket monopoly in town.

I know our friends in Tod don't want a Sainsbury's, but whatever you think of them at least they know how to run a supermarket unlike our option here in HB.

From Andy M

Monday, 12 September 2011

Paul - if within usual shopping times just and the co-op is out of veg, just pop down the road to the organic shop - they seem to always have plenty of variety.

Wonder why the co-op haven't thought of this?

From Rev Tony Buglass

Friday, 16 September 2011

I usually fill up at the Mytholmroyd Co-op filling station because it's local to me, and therefore convenient, and because I don't really see the logic of travelling to buy fuel for a few pennies less. More to the point, it isn't the most expensive garage around - I've noticed that the filling station in Friendly is usually a penny or two per litre more than Mytholmroyd. The Jet station on the way into Halifax is usually a penny or two less. I've seen cheaper fuel in Halifax, but I'd have to make a special trip to fill up.

My experience in living in different parts of the country is that rural areas and village/small town shops do tend to be more expensive than town centre or superstore prices. The questions are whether you actually save more by driving into town, and whether it isn't better socially to support local business.

From Greg Hobson

Monday, 19 September 2011

Hi Paul . . . you could pop to Morrison's in Todmorden, filling up at the petrol station just outside Tod on the way, thereby killing two birds with one stone, as they say.

From Paul Clarke

Monday, 19 September 2011

Greg, I do exactly as you suggest as I never do a big shop in our overpriced Co-op.

Tony, I hear what you say, but do you really count multi billion pound turnover operations like the Co-op and BP as 'local businesses'?

The Co-op ruthlessly use their so called ethical policy to excuse their pathetic operational performance. I wonder if the local green lobby think it is ethical for the Co-op to be in bed with BP at that garage? They are strangely quiet on this issue.

I don't drive miles to save a few pennies but I do find it annoying that we are paying top dollar when other multi nationals offer cheaper petrol nearby.

More madness this Saturday in the Co-op. Free cucumbers still on their own with the tomatos in the same offer on display elsewhere in the store.

But this week anyone who wanted to buy cases of beer had to have psychic powers as for some reason there were no prices on display. I don't think it is too demanding to have a price on goods in a store. Page one stuff.

I wonder when the Regional Manager is to come back as he promised when he fobbed us off last time?

From Rev Tony Buglass

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

"Tony, I hear what you say, but do you really count multi billion pound turnover operations like the Co-op and BP as 'local businesses'?"

Is there ever such a thing as an independent fuel supplier? My point is that there is one filling station in Mytholmroyd - if enough people were to go along to the Jet station at Warley or the Shell garage in Tod, it would soon close, and we'd all be forced to travel further to get our fuel. It's a local business insofar as it is here in the village, and employs people here.

As for the ethics of being in bed with BP - is any fuel supplier more or less ethical than any other? In my last appointment, the town had 2 filling stations, Total and BP. We were encouraged to boycott Total because they were involved with the junta in Burma. That meant BP, or a 10-mile run each way to the next garage. Sometimes you just have to play the hand you're dealt.

From Myra James

Tuesday, 20 September 2011

Paul Clarke asks when the regional manager is going to come back as promised. I think that opportunity came and went several months ago when I was one of only two customers who bothered to turn up at a meeting arranged at Salem Community Centre (advertised on HebWeb). It would be understandable if they are not in a hurry to repeat the exercise.

Hebden Bridge Web

Local co-ops