Tops is now bottom

[Orton Rd]

Forget the sticking on of paid labels on every item bought- and signing the same on no bag days and the hi so in front who always has some coupon on their phone that never seems to work leading to endless head shaking and calls for the supervisor, today I was cheesed off enough to decide to go further to foodland instead. At foodland almost all the items are priced up, never a queue and the staff are polite, it's like going back 20years here.

Tops had special offers on today, now you have to be careful check the item the sign is in front of is actually what is on sale and the dates of the offer, if in doubt take a photo. Now what would most people think was on offer here? Bega cheese right at 139 baht from 199? well yes but not the one the sign indicates but another stuffed at the back of the next row where is says 275 baht, misleading or just incompetent? I always imagine careless. One item I bought I forgot to take a pic of reduced special offer, at the till no reduced price. Mistake, I let the cashier go back to the shelf to check, comes back and says no reduction. I would have staked my life on it being on offer, go back and the price label has disappeared, not the first time that's happened. Always take a photo and never let them go back to look alone!

 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Orton Rd

[robblok]

Cant you read ? I mean it says dairyworks edam slices.. not bega. 

 

Its not nice but easily avoidable. 

[smutcakes]

Christ you must be bored. How can anyone let a simple trip to the shops turn into such a drama. 

No wonder they want rid of expats, taking photos of offers... painful stuff.

[Jingthing]

Are they a PUSHY bottom though?

I agree it's wise to take a picture of offers that you're buying. That has saved me time fairly often. For some reason promotions on APPLES are a problem at Tops to keep straight. 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

11 minutes ago, smutcakes said:

Christ you must be bored. How can anyone let a simple trip to the shops turn into such a drama. 

No wonder they want rid of expats, taking photos of offers... painful stuff.

Don't be silly. Taking photos makes sense. It saves everyone's time including those waiting in line. 

 

To add, 2 for 1 offers are much more reliably honored than standard discounts. 

 

Another obvious thing to do is to check the bar code number on items against any sign. Things are often all mixed up and it's easy to see an item discounted or not next to a sign and the sign isn't for that item. But you can't do that if the sign is missing, which it often is. 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Jingthing

[OneMoreFarang]

I don't go to Tops anymore since I saw that they took chicken which was properly packed outside of that packing to put it on ice in the walkway so that everybody could touch it, sneeze on it, etc.

Never again - at least for nothing that is supposed to be fresh.

[tgw]

1 minute ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't go to Tops anymore since I saw that they took chicken which was properly packed outside of that packing to put it on ice in the walkway so that everybody could touch it, sneeze on it, etc.

Never again - at least for nothing that is supposed to be fresh.

quite the tenderfoot eh?

any bacteria the chicken could pickup while unwrapped will easily be killed when it's cooked, or even better, fried.

[watcharacters]

10 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't go to Tops anymore since I saw that they took chicken which was properly packed outside of that packing to put it on ice in the walkway so that everybody could touch it, sneeze on it, etc.

Never again - at least for nothing that is supposed to be fresh.

 

8 minutes ago, tgw said:

quite the tenderfoot eh?

any bacteria the chicken could pickup while unwrapped will easily be killed when it's cooked, or even better, fried.

 

What if he eats it eaw?

 

[Lacessit]

43 minutes ago, smutcakes said:

Christ you must be bored. How can anyone let a simple trip to the shops turn into such a drama. 

No wonder they want rid of expats, taking photos of offers... painful stuff.

Now now. It's important to remember those of us that can no longer entertain ourselves with various activities have to have an outlet for their pent-up frustrations.

[OneMoreFarang]

13 minutes ago, tgw said:

quite the tenderfoot eh?

any bacteria the chicken could pickup while unwrapped will easily be killed when it's cooked, or even better, fried.

Please google chicken and salmonella.

 

Why would anybody in a supermarket deliberately expose meat? That is a very stupid idea!

[grollies]

22 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Please google chicken and salmonella.

 

Why would anybody in a supermarket deliberately expose meat? That is a very stupid idea!

I kid you not, our friend down the road has started air-drying raw chicken meat, similar to the beef-drying process. I live in a rural (very rural) area and have virtually stopped eating out now after my last bout of food poisoning. There are one or two places I'll go for noodles but thats it.

 

Mind you I'm enjoying my new cooking hobby.

 

Sorry, bit off-topic.

[DannyCarlton]

32 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Please google chicken and salmonella.

Jeez some people must lead boring lives, Googling chicken? Almost as bad as photographing price tags in Tops. 555

[canuckamuck]

To avoid signage confusion I always try to compare the number on the product UPC code to the number on the sign. It's usually there in small print somewhere.

[bkk6060]

43 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Please google chicken and salmonella.

 

Why would anybody in a supermarket deliberately expose meat? That is a very stupid idea!

Do not disagree, but come on.  99% of the people here have no idea about Salmonella.

There is no Health Dept. here and they are not educated on bacteria this type of food exposure is done and accepted country wide.  I am always surprised why there are not more sick people. but I suppose their bodies get use to it.

 

 

[Pattaya46]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

I don't go to Tops anymore since I saw that they took chicken which was properly packed outside of that packing to put it on ice in the walkway so that everybody could touch it, sneeze on it, etc. Never again - at least for nothing that is supposed to be fresh.

That's not because one staff in one Tops had this bad action that you should condemn all Tops shops 

I am in Pattaya and never saw something similar in the Tops I frequent.

[Orton Rd]

 

 

2 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

To avoid signage confusion I always try to compare the number on the product UPC code to the number on the sign. It's usually there in small print somewhere.

That's not much help when they take the special offer card away. Once in Tesco they nipped back and actually cut an offer out of a display board. These checkouts are all in the dark ages, as well as the other waits like people giving the member numbers 3 times, the hand scanners often don't pick up the bar code and then have to be tapped in. Aldi have one of the best and quickest systems, like lightening compared to here. Can't imagine them trying to save plastic then sticking paid stickers on every item people have bought.

[OneMoreFarang]

2 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

That's not because one staff in one Tops had this bad action that you should condemn all Tops shops 

I am in Pattaya and never saw something similar in the Tops I frequent.

Obviously I don't know in how many Tops that happens.

But it was a couple of trays with ice in the walk way to make this place look more like a fresh market.

It was definitely not just the idea of anybody in that place. I guess it must have been a supervisor or more likely a manager.

And if a supervisor or a manager in a fresh food supermarket does not know about salmonella risk then they have the wrong job or whoever employed them make a big mistake.

We don't talk about Somchai with his street food vehicle, we talk about a big well knows supermarket chain. It they don't know or don't care then that is at least for me a reason not to buy there.

I buy basically all fresh meat in Foodland and I have good experience with them.

[tyler28]

I've got to agree with the general gist of the OP. Despite its hi-so pretensions, Tops has got to be the dreariest major supermarket chain in Thailand. Even the unabashedly "lo-so" Big C and Tesco Lotus to a far better job of keeping things in stock, keeping checkout lines moving, and so on.

[Youlike]

10 minutes ago, tyler28 said:

I've got to agree with the general gist of the OP. Despite its hi-so pretensions, Tops has got to be the dreariest major supermarket chain in Thailand. Even the unabashedly "lo-so" Big C and Tesco Lotus to a far better job of keeping things in stock, keeping checkout lines moving, and so on.

Many times we shop in Tops to get in a line of 30 minutes at the cashier.

 

Already told my wife we have to check the lines first before shopping...we won't wait that long anymore and just walk out.

[chickenslegs]

5 hours ago, robblok said:

Cant you read ? I mean it says dairyworks edam slices.. not bega. 

 

Its not nice but easily avoidable. 

I think you are looking at the wrong sign.

The one lower down on the photo reads Sale 139 and is attached to the shelf of Bega cheese.

Edited August 31, 2019 by chickenslegs
clarity

[Jingthing]

You'd be surprised how often "Tops" turn out to be bottoms. 

[robblok]

36 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

I think you are looking at the wrong sign.

The one lower down on the photo reads Sale 139 and is attached to the shelf of Bega cheese.

Then i really looked wrong but that picture is then taken horribly the readable sign is on top the others are hard to read. 

[josephbloggs]

6 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Don't be silly. Taking photos makes sense. It saves everyone's time including those waiting in line. 

 

To add, 2 for 1 offers are much more reliably honored than standard discounts. 

 

Another obvious thing to do is to check the bar code number on items against any sign. Things are often all mixed up and it's easy to see an item discounted or not next to a sign and the sign isn't for that item. But you can't do that if the sign is missing, which it often is. 

Wow.  If ever I feel life is slipping me by I can cheer myself up by reminding myself there are people going around supermarkets taking photos of offers and comparing bar codes.  

I would say you should get out more, but actually you probably shouldn't.

[Jingthing]

Wow.  If ever I feel life is slipping me by I can cheer myself up by reminding myself there are people going around supermarkets taking photos of offers and comparing bar codes.  

I would say you should get out more, but actually you probably shouldn't.

Funny.
Today I got a significant extra discount that I can't account for.
Likely an item I bought had a promotion but the sign was missing.
Enjoy!

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[tgw]

6 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

Please google chicken and salmonella.

 

Why would anybody in a supermarket deliberately expose meat? That is a very stupid idea!

555

if YOU googled salmonella, you would know these bacteria die at 71 °C.

[tgw]

6 hours ago, watcharacters said:

What if he eats it eaw?

well, I ate Eaw before, but I wonder what this chick has to do with the topic? she was hot enough.

[DaRoadrunner]

I fail to see the point of the "paid" sticker, especially when you have just been given a till receipt? Am I missing some Thai logic here?

 

As for the chicken, it's ok so long as you have a work permit to cook it.

Edited August 31, 2019 by DaRoadrunner

[Number 6]

I rarely go to Tops any more despite being there last night. I'll buy steaks at the best Tops but everything else is overpriced. When I'm there I'll check the discounted stuff which is never discounted despite being a day before expiry.

 

I'm not at all pleased with beef in Foodland. The cut, packaged meat looks like it's been sitting. Too lazy to hunt down and pay for a really decent US steak.

[Number 6]

10 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Funny.
Today I got a significant extra discount that I can't account for.
Likely an item I bought had a promotion but the sign was missing.
Enjoy!

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

I've had this happen to me as well. No idea why.

[DannyCarlton]

1 minute ago, Number 6 said:

a really decent US steak.

Is that not an oxymoron?