by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The annual survey looks at all aspects of the shopping experience – whether online or in-store. Co-op Food once again found itself bottom of the pile for in-store customer satisfaction.
Co-op Food received a satisfaction level of 57% as customers complained of items not being in stock, poor value for money and a small range of products. At the top of the rankings, Waitrose was named best in-store for the second year in a row with a score of 75%.
But a spokesperson for Co-op Food said: “This backward looking survey does not reflect the massive strides we have taken recently. Our prices are lower, our produce is fresher and our products more exciting than they have ever been.
Being in denial and out of touch was the problem that led to the fall of the communist parties in the Soviet Union, the German Democratic Republic (and other countries).
When you are being told by the people that this or that is wrong and that changes are required you do not stand there and claim that it is backward looking or counter-revolutionary.
This same attitude also prevails in the Labour Party and that is the very reason why the grassroots support Jeremy Corbyn but the self-declared elite are prepared to do almost anything to out the leader.
While the Co-Op Food stores on the high streets are indeed very convenient stores for the occasional purchase of those things that one may have forgotten elsewhere most people do, alas, not conduct their entire food shopping at the Co-Op but elsewhere. To this fact the Co-Op has to wake up and not stand there and tell itself how great it is doing.
I personally changed to doing my convenience grocery shopping from my local Budgens to my local Co-Op because the staff at the Co-Op are friendlier and more helpful. Those at the other named store were, and especially, managers and under-managers, obnoxious in the extreme.
However, if shoppers, in a national survey by a renown organization tell you that parts of your business is not up to scratch, and as to prices, in general, I have to agree, they are higher than many other stores, though with membership in the Co-Op the loyalty points, so to speak, add up much better than at, say, Sainsbury's.
So, a little advice here, dear Co-Op! Listen to what the survey says and do not quote other studies by yourself, or the Greens, or what have you. That is exactly the same, bar in politics, what the leadership of the German Democratic Republic did by denouncing the protesters in the Monday Demonstrations as counter-revolutionaries.
© 2016
