Interesting Facts

Anyone who was attended the sessions on food waste in Kitely will not be surprised to learn that supermarket giant Tesco has revealed that it generated 59,400 tonnes of food waste in 2015. (To put this into perspective this is the equivalent of nearly 119 million meals. In their defense, they are the only supermarket to publish the figures, and they have pledged to redistribute all edible food waste from stores to charities by the end of 2017.)

I like accents, I think they make language interesting and varied, but all accents are not equal, and it seems supermarket chain Morrisons agrees with me.  They issued a callout for actors with northern accents to feature in a campaign for the supermarket, but they went on to specify that “nobody from Liverpool” should apply. (The advert, which appeared on the Casting Networks International website, read:- "These films will focus largely on people’s facial expressions. Therefore, it’s vital that their faces have character – something interesting and captivating that will make the film watchable, but nothing glaringly obvious, and we don’t want caricatures. We want quirks: freckles, bushy eyebrows, etc. They should all be warm and likeable. They should be proper working-class people, but not at all like the characters from Benefits Street. They should not sound or look posh, and we should skew towards northern accents." It concluded: "And nobody from Liverpool, please....

Supermarket shoppers in the UK are being wished a Merry Christmas - by self-service checkouts. (Supermarket chain Tesco has introduced a festive message to customers so that when their payment has been accepted they hear a jovial “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!" I hope they've programmed it to ignore anyone who has bought painkillers. What if they've bought condoms!)

If you think you have a frustrating job, think again: A Tesco supermarket in Wrexham, North Wales, is advertising for a Christmas Lights Untangler. Christmas is coming! (The idea is that people will bring in any troublesome lights to have them unravelled.  The successful applicant, who must be passionate about Christmas, will be trained to unravel 3 metres of Christmas lights in 3 minutes, for £ 6.70 an hour. I hope people will tip him or her, that's barely enough to buy a cup of coffee in the UK.)

Just to prove that your tone of voice really matters, supermarket chain Tesco is replacing the “irritating and bossy” female voice on self-service tills. Instead shoppers will hear a “friendlier, more helpful and less talkative” man. (How about getting rid of the things altogether?) The Sun came up with a translation of what this machine talk really means:- Unexpected item in bagging area. Translates as "Are you trying to nick something." Approval needed. Translates as "A surly teenager will be over to check you're old enough." Please wait for assistance. Translates as "We will come over when we can be bothered."

A dozen roses in the UK could set you back anything from a whopping £44.99, to a mere 3 quid. Here's a list of the War of the Roses:- Lidl - £3 Asda - £5 Tesco - £5 Morrisons - £5 Sainsbury's - £5 Marks & Spencer - £12 Interflora £44.99  (Shall we call that £45?) Gentlemen, if you do go for the Lidl option, might I suggest you remove the price tag? 12 x Fairtrade® red roses from M&S?  £22.00.

Supermarket chain Tesco is the UK's largest private employer. (They employ around 330,000 people in 3,146 stores. Of course the coal industry used to employ over 1 million people in 1908, and that figure is down to about 6,000 today.)

Supermarket store Asda charged a customer £450 for a loaf of bread. (The receipt, which contained their motto 'Saving you money every day', showed that the loaf of Roberts multigrain bread, advertised for 69p, had set him back £450. How could this have happened? The customer used their self-service checkout. Now I know why I don't trust them.)

The supermarket chain Morrisons has banned under-16s from buying caffeine-infused energy drinks. (The ban will only apply to drinks like Red Bull, that contain at least 150mg of caffeine per litre and has been introduced amid health fears about extreme caffeine intake by children, and staff have been instructed to challenge any customers who look under 25.)

According to a poll conducted by Populsus, even banks are more popular than the 'big six' energy giants in the UK. (Only the tobacco industry, and payday loan firms were less popular. Supermarkets were the most positively viewed companies with a "Like" rating of 58.6. They can't have included chocolate manufacturers in the list!) Source

According to http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/press-releases/voucher-mad-britain/0007241/ , more than 1,500 vouchers are redeemed in UK every minute. (That's 2.23 million discount vouchers every day, and this saves Brits, on average, £2.7 billion every year.  Across the country the figures vary, Londoners seem to be the keenest; here is the City Savings League:- City Monthly saving London £71 Cardiff £65 Edinburgh £60 Liverpool £57 Manchester £51 In Germany there aren't as many voucher offers, I guess because Aldi couldn't cut their margins without going the same way as Schlecker.)

UK supermarket giant ASDA is going back to pounds and ounces on fruit and veg for the first time in 16 years. (Customers asked for the return of imperial measures, as seven in ten shoppers said they still get confused by metric weights. Now they will be able to buy a 1lb punnet of strawberries, which under EU laws would weigh 453.39 grams.)

powered by ODEO According to market researchers TNS, 85% of UK households have a loyalty card. (Loyalty cards are issued by supermarkets and department stores, they entitle you to freebies or cash simply for shopping. Of course, retailers get something in return: they record information about what you buy and build up a profile about you. And the most annoying thing of all is that every time you go to pay you will be asked "Have you got a ..... card?")

Tescos supermarket takes 31p in every pound spent on food shopping in the UK. (And they are spreading. Coming to a community near you. You have been warned!)

In the UK TV licences have been sold at Post Offices for more then 60 years - but will not be sold there after July. (Seemingly you will be able to buy them in supermarkets - like everything else.)