I’ve posted previously on here and on forums about how poor I think Budgens is and their tactical positioning in Chalfont St Peter. I’ve moaned about the fact that :
- They had 10 years advance notice of Tesco building a store in GX then only doing a refurbishment once their sales are hit
- Waiting so long to refurb and having such a shoddy store in comparison with competitors locally is just holding CSP customers in contempt and their local monopoly
- Their complaining that the Holy Cross revised plans included a supermarket and how outrageous it was – yet they were happy to put in a meat counter and coffee shop – which impacted other smaller local stores – putting the coffee shop meant taking valuable product space to hold better and more lines
- Producing marketing literature that says they price match with Tesco yet a bog standard pack of 5 crisps is the same as Tesco pack of six and Tesco give you a money off voucher
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t particularly like Tesco, I despise their corporate arrogance and monopolistic tendancies, however, Budgens defy belief. Tesco, who know a thing about marketing, specifically said they were going to have the GX store full of their ‘finest’ ranges as that is what the market wants. The final straw for my weekly top up shopping in Budgens in the last weeks is that they’ve introduced what looks like 1970’s branded ‘Supervalu’* range pretty much across the store.
Great use of demographic targeting that was – I expect this was foisted on the Manager by the parent company Musgrave – but surely as it is his store and it is his risk, he could choose quality branded or more local products instead of this cheap looking range. Second only to the dire Nisa range at Fishers.
Have a look at the full range here.
Phew feel better now.
*Yes that is how you spell it.