Sugar shortage !

[beeno]

Someone has to say it.....
You might not of got all you wanted ' but "Every little helps" !!!

Hi Jed,
That is true, but I have decided to get a little help from another supermarket since a few years back!

 

[beeno]

Hi all,
Since we are all having a rant peripherally connected with our little darlings in terms of our super market shopping on their behalf I would like to add that the just-in-time concept is obviously dead in the water. Bare shelves everywhere and staff have no idea when the next consignment is due or what's on it. Exception possibly B&Q but they still have bare shelves. Pre-ordering i.e. get your money before you get the goods, or wait and build up demand for special purchases which the suppliers pay for is the way things are going.

 

[Into the lions den]

"Shortage" in the sense that there is nothing she can do to increase supply. Her stock level is set by algorithms at head quarters. She is even told which shelf it goes on and the length of shelf it will have.

Worldwide, white sugar prices are near the lowest they have been in the past year. Currently around 570 US dollars a tonne compared to October 2011 when they rose to over 700. If there was a shortage the price would be rising. As I wrote earlier, it's a low margin commodity. 57p a kilo if you buy in thousand tonne quantities for delivery in a couple of months. 80p a kilo when it's in small packets on your local supermarket shelf right now. Add in the cost of packaging, spillage, transport, staff and buildings and there's not a lot of profit in getting it there.

Plus that headline price for sugar is usually for semi refined. Still a lot to be done to it before its the clean white crystals in your sugar bag.

Yes, todays price IS down a bit. Does not mean there is no shortage, its just that the 2012 shortage is not quite so marked as the 2011 one. The world price is still historically relatively high.

 

[wood blewit]

HERE HERE superb analysis alanf forgotten about the sugar debate but i wud go to Bookers
cash n carry for cheaper than most and the bigger your order the happier they are , and if u take a pallet load they deliver free within a 15 mile radius,,,,,,

 

[nosmoking]

The medics among us might disagree.

SORRY! Wrong spelling................... Hypocrite

 

[REDWOOD]

Bookers sugar for 1kg bags x 15 worked out @ 73p a kg last year, this year 76.6p a kg, not much of an increase from last year but still cheaper than anywhere in Swansea.
Last Christmas I went to a supermarket to buy glucose syrup and was told that due to the high demand of customers making Christmas cakes we have run out and will not be getting any more in until the new year, whats wrong with supermarket managers cant they adjust stocks for Christmas demands or do they adopt the suck it and see approach

 

[Baggyone]

I'm in for 100kg of sugar this year so there's no way I'm gonna buy that in kg bags! Bookers in the big bags for me regardless of the price. Plus its beet and that may be grown just round the corner.

I do like messing up the whole stock thing for supermarkets though. LOL.

 

[Smuffles]

I do not like TESCO....... but needs bee when the devil drives!

Midday today.. as I was passing anyway... I went into Tesco's out of town store at Callington Cornwall (Kelliwik Kernow.. for those west of Bodmin !)

I picked up 7... 5Kg bags of white granulated sugar priced reasonably at £3.99 per bag, I then asked the nice security guard, who always likes to follow me around the store, if he could find out if there were any more 5Kg sacks in the storeroom?

I was then met with the Store Manageress and two minders who politely informed me that there is a sugar shortage and really I was being very greedy and depriving other shoppers by taking ALL the sugar !

I was told that in no uncertain terms that really I should be restricted to 6 bags at a time.... I WAS DEPRIVING OTHER CUSTOMERS !!!!


TESCO... get your act together !

I worked for Tesco for 9 year up until recently and I suggest you complain to customer services 0800 505 555 its totally unprofessional of her to say that. Shes probably more worried about having out of stock items than giving you good service sadly.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I worked for Tesco for 9 year up until recently and I suggest you complain to customer services 0800 505 555 its totally unprofessional of her to say that. Shes probably more worried about having out of stock items than giving you good service sadly.

But about par for the course with tesco employees

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Bookers sugar for 1kg bags x 15 worked out @ 73p a kg last year, this year 76.6p a kg, not much of an increase from last year but still cheaper than anywhere in Swansea.

You must have missed the offer then - just a tad over 73p a Kilo there on offer last month. Cheaper than the loose 20 kilo bags at 75p - they also had a notive on the bulk sacks that customers should only take four

 

[Alabamaeee]

Big supermarkets loose money on sales of beer but there is a mountain of it in the aisles at all times.

 

[waverider]

Makro currently works out at £0.75p per 1kg T&L cane sugar.

Recently got 25kg bag of granulated cane from a cash and carry for £16.89 (£0.67).

 

[alanf]

Big supermarkets loose money on sales of beer.

Evidence? Tight margins perhaps. Usual practice is to rotate offers around the discount deals they get from the largest brew factories. Lower profit on beer is gained back on high margin crisps, snacks and pizzas. All tracked with 'loyalty' cards.

 

[Into the lions den]

Evidence? Tight margins perhaps. Usual practice is to rotate offers around the discount deals they get from the largest brew factories. Lower profit on beer is gained back on high margin crisps, snacks and pizzas. All tracked with 'loyalty' cards.

Not beer, but even more relevant to us......was at a major packers home base about a fortnight ago, and they were actually packing product for a major supermarket at the time.

A no frills honey line, pure Chinese actually. They were asked how it could be being retailed att he price it was at on the shelves, and the answer was that it couldn't be sold profitably att hat price. The jar had recently gone UP to retail at 99p from 69p, and even at the higher price was still marginally less than the packer was charging for it. The supermarket was loss leading by over 30p a jar prior to that.

A supermarket that uses a lot of orange in their banners etc.

 

[alanf]

The supermarket was loss leading by over 30p a jar prior to that. A supermarket that uses a lot of orange in their banners etc.

Wasn't that range reworked a couple of years ago to stem the drift to Lidl, Aldi etc? A strategy shift then, I had noticed they have been raising the prices of some of the lower tier by substantial percentages. Tinned peas from 10p to 15, items at 20p up to 40 and so on.

 

[Into the lions den]

Wasn't that range reworked a couple of years ago to stem the drift to Lidl, Aldi etc? A strategy shift then, I had noticed they have been raising the prices of some of the lower tier by substantial percentages. Tinned peas from 10p to 15, items at 20p up to 40 and so on.

No idea. Was just the story as told to me by the MD at a certain Wallingford packing plant.