John K has made a good point re. supermarket and suppliers.
A very good friend of mine who is a wholesaler of fresh produce up until a few years ago was a salad grower, he had state of the art glass houses , and over a 100 acres of land for out door crops, he was approached by Tescos to supply produce to them, it did mean he was receiving a guaranteed price over a certain period albeit a low price it was a viable proposal in a market that was always so unpredictable, all went reasonably well, a growing programme was worked out for the following season with them wanting a minimum amount of celery per week, until that is they decided to have a promotion on celery, buy 1 get 1 free. Guess what ?
They said to him we want so many extra this week because of the promotion and your supplying the free ones!!
What did he do? told them to stuff themselves for 2 reasons, 1 it would throw the rest of the growing programme out, and he was giving nothing away. that was the end of the relationship.
Another local grower, who supplied potatoes to a supermarket, not Tesco,s had to invest a substantial amount of money in his facilities for grading, packing etc.. well over a £million ,
The very next year they dumped him and sent him under, they have no loyalty. ....
and did you know they only pay the majority of suppliers every 6 months, a nice lump of money to be invested earning a good rate while the suppler struggles.
Not my favourite places to be supermarkets
geoff
