What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

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Charlieb
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What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by Charlieb » September 21, 2017, 2:51 pm

The Tesco/Lotus store near the Nong Khai highway is undergoing major changes. The changes do not look like they are for the best. They seem to be discontinuing a *LOT* of items and trying to move stuff around where it is almost impossible to find anything.

In speaking to one of the clerks she indicated the store has been sold and that is why the changes. Anyone have more info?



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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by stereolab » September 21, 2017, 6:17 pm

Charlieb wrote:
September 21, 2017, 2:51 pm
The Tesco/Lotus store near the Nong Khai highway is undergoing major changes. The changes do not look like they are for the best. They seem to be discontinuing a *LOT* of items and trying to move stuff around where it is almost impossible to find anything.

In speaking to one of the clerks she indicated the store has been sold and that is why the changes. Anyone have more info?
I advised last month that they had discontinued the Tesco Finest Range stocks, and another U.K. Based display of soups etc. The shift supervisor I spoke to had no idea they had even had such displays. They were there for 2 years.!!!! I have no reason to visit this store now, especially with the on-going roadworks. They did do a very good job of hiding around the store, all the unsold Finest stock.

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by macca46 » September 21, 2017, 6:18 pm

It has been like that for two weeks now who knows only time will tell T.I.T.

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by the-monk » September 21, 2017, 7:24 pm

The same seems to be happening at the Old Big C , they scaled down the Foreign Food aisle, less and less choice, less brands. The Casino Brand reduced to a minimum. What a shame some pretty good products. Where are all the Rich Farangs where are they shopping ? Have a nice day/evening.

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by Drunk Monkey » September 21, 2017, 8:36 pm

I know of two importers who sell dry food products to Tesco and both have commented that the orders have been drastically reduced over the last few months as the company scaled down the foreign foods going to locations further afield ...ie outside Bkk , Patts , Phuket etc ...indeed TIT .. very soon

VAT @ 7% is now applicable on all imported dry foods where as in the past most were not subject to this .

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by tamada » September 21, 2017, 9:03 pm

I was never impressed with Tesco-Lotus, even in a prime tourist trap like Pattaya but wasn't happy to see the 'one-stop' imported food stand up here being removed and stuff ratholed wherever they saw fit. Same with Big C which is now one and half sides of an aisle. I am making the most of their purge of stuff near the sell-by dates and snapping it up. Same goes for Tops who had about a dozen packets of S&P sliced bacon reduced from 80 baht to 40 baht/pack yesterday. However, very insightful to hear that Tesco cutting back on selling imported goods further afield. Weren't they struggling a few years back and the Tesco bit of the partnership either bailed or rejigged their commitment? Sign of the times last year when the Tesco-Lotus on Nua in Pattaya gave up a big chunk of its floor space to Marathon, a pretty good sporting goods store.

Anyway, seems like the quarterly 'red cross parcel' run to Pattaya in the pickup will need to be reinstated!

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by alanhass » September 21, 2017, 10:51 pm

I hope they don't get rid of the Tesco brand jars of curry sauces and bolognese sauce.


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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by jimjay » September 22, 2017, 12:41 am

Charlieb wrote:
September 21, 2017, 2:51 pm
The Tesco/Lotus store near the Nong Khai highway is undergoing major changes. The changes do not look like they are for the best. They seem to be discontinuing a *LOT* of items and trying to move stuff around where it is almost impossible to find anything.

In speaking to one of the clerks she indicated the store has been sold and that is why the changes. Anyone have more info?
Well if it's been sold that says it all. Whomever sold it off likely got out at the right time.

I bet Tesco execs running the Udon ops were none too happy about the road / bridge/ underpass construction that's begun, which puts a choke on traffic flow through that area for like 3 years + delays (like the current delay with electrical authority).

Sales were probably sluggish to begin with, so look for more "outlet stores" taking up the floor space, and Tesco reducing it's leased space by a third or even half. Most of what they make their cash on is pretty set now so they know what they can dump, and likely ditch a TON of the useless workers.

Probably moving all their stuff toward the right side of building in line with their loading docks / utility area of the facility.

Left side will probably be where new tenants are added. if any. Still the place swamped with people on any given day, but a bit of consolidation will help the books.

If they ditch the Tesco brand curry's and Korma user "alanhaas" just mentioned I'll whimper. Time to find a recipe for it.

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by Chuchi » September 22, 2017, 12:15 pm

tamada wrote:
September 21, 2017, 9:03 pm
I was never impressed with Tesco-Lotus, even in a prime tourist trap like Pattaya but wasn't happy to see the 'one-stop' imported food stand up here being removed and stuff ratholed wherever they saw fit. Same with Big C which is now one and half sides of an aisle. I am making the most of their purge of stuff near the sell-by dates and snapping it up. Same goes for Tops who had about a dozen packets of S&P sliced bacon reduced from 80 baht to 40 baht/pack yesterday. However, very insightful to hear that Tesco cutting back on selling imported goods further afield. Weren't they struggling a few years back and the Tesco bit of the partnership either bailed or rejigged their commitment? Sign of the times last year when the Tesco-Lotus on Nua in Pattaya gave up a big chunk of its floor space to Marathon, a pretty good sporting goods store.

Anyway, seems like the quarterly 'red cross parcel' run to Pattaya in the pickup will need to be reinstated!
I wish I was that lucky,I can just see me telling the missus I'm of to pattaya for 2 jars of Branson pickle. :cry:

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by tamada » September 22, 2017, 1:09 pm

Chuchi wrote:
September 22, 2017, 12:15 pm
I wish I was that lucky,I can just see me telling the missus I'm of to pattaya for 2 jars of Branson pickle. :cry:
You can always say it's for 3 jars of the stuff... makes it a bit more credible, no?

Reminds me of the guy who comes home late to the very angry wife and he breaks down miserably and says, "It was the new girl at the office, she needed help with her computer and it got late and then we found security had locked us in and well, she's young and pretty and it was getting hot with the air-conditioning turned off so we sort of undressed to keep cool and then,... well, one thing led to another and started kissing but we ended up making mad passionate love on the boardroom table. I am so, SO sorry! Forgive me PLEASE!"

The wife responds, "You lying piece of ----! You think I'm stupid?! You've been playing poker with those useless buggers in the bloody mail room again, haven't you?!"

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by RLTrader » September 22, 2017, 5:49 pm

Sorry, didn't read all the comments.

Only thing I can say is "Hate it" WTF can't find anything.

I see at last visit they have people with (not sure what you call them, slung over their shoulders, with something written in thai) figured there to help find stuff. Ask one WTF, she said make new, I said like old.

Have not noticed anything that I buy going away, just can't find it. Ask about where the fu3k the eggs went, followed her on a long journey across the store and found a little stack, where did the rest go? I passed, buy local.

When I was a kid in the barren North East of America, work for a grocery distributer and learned why they move stuff in grocery stores, to make you look and buy things you didn't come for.

Seems to work, but you also end up with a lot of angry customers. :(

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by tamada » September 26, 2017, 1:03 pm

Dropped by yesterday and it has only gotten worse. There's boarded off areas and the aisles have been shortened and totally shuffled around while a wide, central and mostly empty 'crosswalk' has materialized. Unless you were buying meat, fruit, veg and stuff from the bakery, you were wandering around in ever decreasing circles. Coffee and tea moved back and center next to soaps and shampoos... and NO signage. Gave up looking for shoe polish as it looked like they hadn't moved it along with the shoe racks.... at least that's where Big C has theirs.

Wandered down the automotive/DIY aisles and someone has decided to arrange products based on price. Yes, that's right, there's 60, 70 and 80 baht shelves and it means that car light bulbs and tools all can be found in 3 separate locations depending on the price rather than having all the light bulbs together or all the tools together. Only works if you know what you are buying and what it will cost. The fact that these attributes largely don't exist in your typical local shopper does mean more people wandering around a bit lost... but probably buying something that they didn't need anyway.

Looks like RLTrader has cracked it!

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by stattointhailand » September 26, 2017, 9:45 pm

For years and years the BIG failure with that branch was that they consistently employed staff who didn't 'have a clue how to pack a bag ..... even when you arranged the stuff in order for them leaving gaps between various items cold/frozen/tins/warm/soft bread etc etc ........... now I cant find half the stuff so theres nowt ta put in the bloomin bags :twisted: :irked:

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by stattointhailand » September 30, 2017, 3:43 pm

Returned yesterday with small shop list of "run of the mill" items.
Left about an hour later with only about half the items, and having walked up and down every aisle about three times looking in vain for the rest.

Just to P*ss every off that little bit more, you now have to wait about 30 secs longer for your change at the counter whilst droopy draws at the till gives you a stamp card and works out how many little stamps to give you with your change.
The stamps are torn from a sheet with approx 400 (20x20), and as you would expect from Tesco she proceeded to tear of 1 x strip of 7 stamps, 1 x strip of 6 stamps, 1 x strip of 2 stamps and three single stamps (6 x 3 block would surely have been easier and quicker) :roll:

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by macca46 » September 30, 2017, 6:11 pm

I gave them a big miss this week traveled a bit further to old Big C got every thing I wanted except tinned sliced Pineapple can buy it every where else but not Big C TIT.

I do not worry about the Elephant Stamps.

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by choi choi » October 5, 2019, 5:54 pm

Just been to Tesco Lotus (Nong Khai road one) No Spuds!
That's the third time I have been there in the past and no hab!
Never heard of a big supermarket with no spuds!
The manager's ------!

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by tamada » October 6, 2019, 11:43 am

I was shopping at Decathlon in Pattaya which is upstairs alongside Tesco-Lotus on the North Pattaya Road. Out of curiosity, I decided to check their aisles to see if they had down-sized and mixed their UK import products with local stuff like they have in Udon and I can confirm that they have. If the much larger farang shopper contingent is of no account to tesco-Lotus in Pattaya, IMHO there's absolutely no hope of Udon's branches being any better.

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Re: What's going on with Tesco/Lotus

Post by dragonz » October 7, 2019, 11:08 am

A while ago on another thread i said that it looked to me that tesco and bigc were struggling with no customers but of course was ridiculed by the usual suspects Who said the shops were always packed ( they sometimes were by the rice farmer sightseers). Tesco put all their prices up a year or so ago by about 30% nearly overnight and then stopped selling the western items i used to buy as in tesco tea bags and tesco onion gravy granules . I then found a newish makro on the nong khai road only 30kms from me , get there 20 min , udon makro same distance 60-90mins so i have been shopping there for a few months.
What a difference , should have gone there long time ago .Used to spend 4.000-5,000baht a week in tesco spend 4,000 baht every 2 weeks in makro . Have cheese , pitza bases and pitza sauce pasta sauce, spaghetti sauce all cheap in big packs at a fraction of tesco prize .
Tesco also shrunk their shop moving the tills back and putting more mobile phone and watch stalls in ??They put a huge tshirt shop at one end and i never seen i customer in there since it opened.Never shop there again .I think they are either going to shut or change drastically . I read that they make more money renting the small stands and shops than they do on the goods they sell

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