SUPERMARKET SHELVESReaders have spotted that some of their favourite brands are disappearing from Tesco – it may be good for the supermarket giant's bottom line, but it's bad for consumer choice
OKAY, SO IT’S not the end of the world when the stuff we like inexplicably disappears from our supermarket shelves but it is still pretty infuriating and the apparently random way in which the State’s most powerful retailer has discontinued some products of late has made many people see red.
One reader is so annoyed by Tesco dropping certain products that he has started a gentle campaign of civil disobedience. He messes up shelves and pushes the stock he doesn’t like behind the ones he likes. It is, in truth, a faintly ridiculous campaign and one which has gone presumably unnoticed by anyone except the poor unfortunates who have to tidy up after him.
While we don’t endorse his defiance we understand his frustration, as do many readers. Last month we posted a short piece on our blog about the absence of some products from Tesco’s shelves and the response from readers was huge – close to 80 people got in touch to moan.
The two best mainstream pastas in Ireland are De Cecco and Barilla – they’re also the best-selling brands in Italy, an endorsement which is good enough for Pricewatch. But can you get them in Tesco? Not any more. The only pasta Tesco sells are own-brand options, and pastas made by Roma and Napolina.
“I used to love the jelly beans from the Jelly Bean Factory, an Irish Company, but they vanished about a month or so ago,” wrote one reader. “I noticed recently that all the Discovery Mexican range is gone. The only choice now is Tesco own-brand or Old El Paso. Discovery’s sauces were way better,” said another.
Several readers bemoaned the disappearance of Linda McCartney’s vegetarian products. “Before the big ‘change’ in 2009 which involved dropping dozens of ‘popular brands’ and moving to a lot of low-priced products, you could get any of the four varieties of Barrys’ tea,” another reader said. “Now you can maybe find one variety, or two if you’re lucky, often on the lowest or highest shelf.”
“Sno yogurts have also disappeared,” wrote someone else. “A lot of the milk that went into these yogurts came from local farms, so I used to buy them. I am very curious to know why this has happened?” Ace bleach, Ecover, Inversoft toilet paper, Royal baking powder, Roses Lime cordial, Robinson’s Hi-Juice, Buitoni pasta sauces – the list of products readers complained about being dropped was long.
So, what’s the story? How much of it is down to shifting demand and how much of it is down to the change in its supply system? Much of Tesco’s stock is now sourced in the UK and then shipped over to a warehouse in north county Dublin before being distributed across the country. Do these distribution changes mean Irish shoppers are now more likely to be offered what is popular in the UK? Industry sources have also suggested that Tesco may be taking certain brands off its shelves to send a message to suppliers and producers about its power in order to drive down prices – smaller suppliers who are too stretched to lower their prices sufficiently get dropped.
Tesco is known to drive hard bargains with its suppliers. Earlier this year this newspaper revealed it had been demanding millions of euro from suppliers in return for the continued stocking of their products on the supermarket’s shelves. It told individual suppliers they must pay up to €500,000 in order to have a presence in its 119 stores around the country. Suppliers have also complained about the demands made by other large retailers but says Tesco’s were bigger in scale and breadth.
A number of producers who do business with Tesco were willing to talk to Pricewatch but all declined to be identified. One described Tesco as “a law unto themselves. We have people calling us to say they can’t find our products on the shelves but we have not been told what is going on by the store,” he says.
“It is very frustrating. I honestly don’t know if they are being cute hoors, trying to put us under pressure and drive prices down or if it is down to incompetence. Things have gotten so much tougher for us all since the Change for Good campaign was introduced and there have certainly been casualties.”
Last year, Tesco rolled out a massive price-cutting campaign which, it claimed, would see prices across its stores fall by an average of 22 per cent. The Change for Good campaign was forced upon the store because the flow of shoppers crossing the Border in search of better value had seen its business drop in some Border counties. It was able to drop prices by centralising its distribution system, buying for the Irish market from its international suppliers and putting pressure on local suppliers to lower their prices.
We contacted Tesco to see if it could shed light on the disappearing products. In a statement it said it offered customers “a wide choice and like all retailers the range of products offered are determined by demand from customers. Tesco is one of the biggest supporters of the Irish food industry, buying over €2 billion worth of Irish food products each year.”
Other supermarket chains have noticed changes in Tesco’s stocking system and have taken advantage. Superquinn has started stocking many of the products delisted by Tesco. “We can’t really win the price war against a company the size of Tesco but we can win on range and offer products that they have delisted. The pressure Tesco is putting on some suppliers means they are decamping to the UK and we are trying to bring them back,” says James Wilson, Superquinn’s trading director.
He cites the example of De Cecco. It is the “biggest selling pasta in Italy so we want it on our shelves.” He points out that if Tesco is reluctant to deal with a certain supplier, it makes it easier for Superquinn to do so. “We do support Irish businesses but we also negotiate hard because we have to. If we don’t our prices will climb too high.”
A producer of a well-known Irish brand tells Pricewatch that Tesco was “not so brazen as to say straight out ‘do this or you’re off our shelves’ but you are given little reminders along the way about the power they have and they can shift the goalpost in the middle of the year, irrespective of what is agreed at the start of a year.”
Another producer agrees. “We do business with the biggest supermarkets in the world, and while Tesco doesn’t play hardball more than anyone else, there is a difference. When you reach an agreement with a German or a US retailer, that agreement is final. With Tesco there are always surprises.”
Another fact of life, however, is that retailers big and small have no choice but to respond to consumers’ demands, eventually. According to retail sources, Tesco, more than most retailers its size, is responsive to complaints. “If the consumer complains loudly enough and often enough about the disappearance of a certain product then Tesco will listen,” one source told Pricewatch. So if the products you like have disappeared make sure your voice is heard. After all, every little helps.
