Tesco boycott

[steeve]

hi to everyone on this site... i have a three year old little boy with a lactose intolerance and are amazed at how Tesco seem to be alienating those who suffer from conditions. Please find below an email i have sent the customer service department at Tesco's expressing my anger at certain products no longer being available there. If i can pursuade just one of you to react in the same way i have, then i feel i have done well. (if it appears i'm angry, then its because i am - we're not normally, its just this kind of thing really annoys me.....)

Thanks for reading
Steeve

For the last 8 or 9 years we have shopped at either of your main stores in Norwich without any need to consider shopping elsewhere. Recent events have left us with no other alternative but to shop elsewhere for our groceries. We have a 3 year old boy who is lactose intolerant and therefore cannot have any products with dairy produce in them. Up until 3 weeks ago we found that the supposed largest supermarket chain in Britain more than accommodated the needs of his diet - we were able to get enough products to satisfy his dietary needs - we were able to get treats such as chocolate and cakes fairly regularly, as well as other products such as pasta and cheese that enabled him to experience the diet that his parents have, without causing him a reaction to any goods.
However, we have been amazed find that 2 of the items we, and I assume most other people who either have this condition or have children with the condition, have bought on a regular basis are no longer being stocked within your supposed largest supermarket chain....... the dairy free cheese 'Cheezly' and the dairy free chocolate buttons. With all the amounts of cheese that are stocked in your chiller cabinets, surely there should be room for a single line of an item that is incredibly important to anyone with this condition. The excuse, and that's all it can be, from the managers of the two large stores in Norwich when confronted about this, is that "it wasn't making enough profit!" I'm sorry, how much did your company make last year? The same excuse was given for the dairy free chocolate buttons when confronted about them. I see from the homepage of www.tescocorprate.com (http://www.tescocorprate.com/) that "Tesco runs a Cheese Challenge to help small dairies and producers get a listing and last year's winner was Cornish Blue which is now sold in 150 Tesco stores across the UK"; well bully for you lot; how's about enabling those who aren't able to taste the delightful products made by small dairies a chance to experience an alternative to their fine produce.
I know this letter will either be ignored by yourselves or that we'll receive a letter back from yourselves saying about how this is a competitive market and choices have to be made regarding profits etc. However, I am now making it my aim to ensure that as many people as possible do stop shopping at your stores - messages will be posted on as many websites specifically for people with such allergies and conditions that I can find.. if I can persuade anything over 20 people to stop shopping with yourselves, then I feel I will have done very well. With more and more people now having specific dietary needs, I would have thought (obviously in my naivety) that the supposed largest supermarket chain in Britain would be looking at expanding the products available for such needs, rather than cutting them back. I would have thought that this kind of move would stop more people shopping with you, rather than enticing them in and I sincerely hope it does

[jill]

Hi Steve

As I don't often shop in Tesco I think it would be in appropriate of me to send them an email without checking my local store. I do sympathise though as the comments that you make are similar to those that I encountered when a new sainsburys opened in our town. I emailed them to ask if they would have a decent free from range - the reply that they gave said it all depended on customer demand. From various emails on this site is does appear that large stores stock different goods up and down the country.

I do hope you get a reply, but I expect the answer will be very much what you were told in store. (We are the minority so we don't matter that much to them - all they are interested in is profits and targets).

[Copper]

I shop in 2 large Tesco stores here. One had the chocolate buttons in once and since then they have been out of stock.

Neither of these stores have ever sold dairy free cheese. I did buy some Cheezly once from a health food shop and thought it was vile.

Sainsbury are much worse than Tesco down here.

[cat3]

Hi I sometimes shop in Tesco and agree that as a minority group we are not well catered for by the likes of Tesco and other major supermarkets. A lot of the cheese substitutes have a long shelf life so you would think that they would be ok to stock for us.

I will contact my local stores and ask if they can do this but it is important that others do this too.

[cnc]

My store has never stocked either of those two so I don't feel that I'm in a position to comment about this. In general they're quite good and most items that I like seem to stay.
When I'm feeling a little better, I may try to send a general letter about the lack of choice they have, but having said that, the Tescos here has the widest range of dairy free foods in this area.

[Helen01]

I stopped shopping in supermarkets over a year ago. It saves me time and money. They only pay lip service to people with allergies. I was at a Coeliac group meeting yesterday where a representative from Sainsburys admitted that if something doesn't sell they will remove it as they are purely profit driven.

Supermarkets are bad for the environment and bad for the economy. When I look back to the days I did shop at supermarkets what a drudge it was. Now I shop online, in delicatessens, in my local convenience store and at farmers markets and food shopping is a pleasure.

You may think supermarkets are offering you a good deal but it is at their suppliers' expense or how else would they make such huge profits.

Make your feelings known here:

http://www.tescopoly.org/

Up the independents!!

[Copper]

I buy some things in two health food shops. I want them to stay in business.

[cnc]

I'd like to shop from markets and things, but due to my health I really don't have the ability to go to lots of places to get what I want, and a lot of these places aren't accessible in my chair. I find supermarkets in general very unethical, but without them I'd be really quite stuck. I use the local shops when I can (we have a nice butchers), but there's very few others near here (probably because of the supermarkets) and the health food shop when I go into town, but the market would mean several trips into town a week which I can't do.

[Claire Bear]

I have found that many stores have a dire free from section.

However, my local Asda do supply the dairy free buttons. I also found my local Sainsbury's had a big selection of free from products.

Maybe try there.

I agree though, that I would prefer to get some good quality products from the smaller stores.

[goose]

supermarkets tent to have a limited suply of foods availabile, and all shoved into one tiny space, i used my local health food shop for everything, more choice and variety, and at least they can order what u want if they can

[Abbie]

My Mum always shops at Tesco and I've never seen either of these products. Infact I've never heard of cheezly I'm going to have to go looking for that one.
I have had other problems with tesco though, they don't always list the ingredients correctly, on their own brand -in the orange box- jaffa cakes (My favourite thing ever) they had no milk ingredients listed, so I had been eating them, but then with no change to the ingredients listed under the allergy advice section it said: 'contains milk' I'd been eating them for ages after this message had been added without checking then one day I noticed but was confised because no milk ingredients were listed so I phoned tesco and the boxes had been miss printed and they had contained milk. They didn't appologise or anything.

I have found that a lot of the time supermarkets cheapest brands in white packets don't contain milk.


We usually shop at teso online and I have noticed more dairy free products appearing. I was very excited just before Christmas to discover they were selling dairy free chocolate spread which was something I'd never been able to have before and it's very yummy.

I usually find sainsburies is better, it has a larger free from section.

Abbie
x

[Copper]

Tesco have upset me again today :mad: They have stopped selling orange juice with added calcium. They gave no warning about this unlike the Supreme oat milk and cream.

I did see that this branch of Tesco has finally managed to get some dairy free chocolate buttons onto their Free from shelf.

We are going to Sainburys later this week. I never thought that I would have to trust them again.

We have a Waitrose within driving distance but it is not very big.

[jill]

Its ages since I visited our tesco, and since discovering that the Morrisons where I shop has also now started selling cheezly I think the only reason I need to go there now is for the chocolate spread.

[rebecca c]

I cant afford to shop at Waitroise all the time but I have never found they dont stock items becuase they are smaller. Also when we do shop there the boys eat more off their plates becuase the food is tastier.

[paranoidangel]

Copper - I found the same thing but it turned out it was because they were changing the packaging. So they might have it back in again now, but in a white box.

[milkymum]

My local tesco's stocks white and milk chocolate buttons that are diary, wheat and gluton free but I can not buy my daughter cheese or butter from there so I only buy things from there know if I need to. I know do most of my shopping at Farmfoods. Amazeingly nearly everything they stock is dairy free and is cheaper than super-markets. I have cut my weekly hsopping down from £40-50 right down to £25-£30 which I know doesn't sound like such but that extra money can go on other things you need or be put in a savings jar so birthday's or day-trips out. My daughters youghurts, butter and chocolate I buy from ASDA and her cheese, Tofu, smarties and when they get them in easter egg I buy from holland and barrett or rosemary's. Her milk I get on prescription to help lower the cost of her dairy free products but as a rule I make cakes right through to pies myself as then I know there is no chance they have been contaminated with any milk protein which I have found is somethingthat has happened in the past with food I used to buy from tesco's. That was the only explanation fo rwhy she had yet another allergic reaction just before the new year even though the packaging and ingredients never meantioned milk in them. I am very strict on cross-contamination and I make my daughter food completely seperate from everyone elses food and sometimes I even go as far as only cooking dairy free to make sure that there is no chance of mistakes if we have a baby-sitter in when me and hubbie have a might out which is very rare

[jlb298]

Hi Steve. Don't get me wrong, I'm not making excuses for the supermarkets. However, an alternative is the www.lactofree.co.uk (http://www.lactofree.co.uk) soft and hard cheese (big tesco's stock this) or tesco finest canadian mature cheddar. The finest one is matured for 3 years, during which the lactose is virtually completely digested by the cheese making bacteria. For chocolate, Lindt 90% cocoa dark chocolate is ok. I have extreme lactose sensitivity.

[Maryjo]

Hi Steeve
My local Tescos stock a good range of dairy free items ( so far) they have the choc buttons, choc cakes, biscuits and other treats and also Cheezly (personally I think it is gross). I'm wondering whether this is a local management decision ?