Shoreham-by-Sea is a reasonably small town. It has a large supermarket in the north used by people from the town and from the continuous conurbation of Lancing to the west and Brighton & Hove and Southwick to the east. Let’s call this supermarket “Tesco”.

People, of all sorts, complain that shops like “Tesco” are in so many markets and in so many locations that they are killing smaller shops. Shops like Sainsbury Local and Tesco Express are cited for particularly attention. Smaller shops exist in Shoreham.

One particular shop in Shoreham town centre we shall call “Somerfield”. While this shop is part of a national chain it has a smaller number of shops and, in this case, is in the centre of town. You would think, then, that customer service would be their leverage - their way of retaining custom in front of the advancing monolith of competitiveness. But no.

Someone has approached me because they won a prize in “Somerfield”. They won a free packet of Digestives Lite! On returning to the shop to claim the prize is was discovered that the store does not sell Digestive Lite. Not to worry, any reasonable shop would allow you a similar product in its stead. Well, full marks to this point, they did.

But then there was a warning - there may be a difference in the price… there was. The voucher which was for £1.03 was worth more than the biscuits. Despite there being a purchase for £0.69 for washing up liquid on the same receipt, the tight staff cut the £0.45 extra from the cost of the voucher so that the biscuits were free rather than discounting the purchase by the whole £1.03.

These are small amounts and not worth spending any time over (the time this post has taken to be written could have been spent earning more than 45 pence) but the principle niggles. I cannot understand why a company would so deliberately nit pick over small amounts like this. The person who has approached me will be talking to Somerfield about this and I will publish the result here, but the temptation is to go somewhere where your custom is appreciated be that the local butcher, green grocer and fish monger or “Tesco”…

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Posted In: Political