Food waste by Morrisons

Morrisons Cafe in Aldershot, used to late afternoon, mark down their cakes to ensure none left.

Not anymore. Now official edict, no cakes to be reduced until last hour.

Staff used their initiative, judged when to mark down the cakes. They shifted the cakes, no waste.

But it appears, initiative is not welcome in Morrisons.

An overpaid fool descended on the local Morrison store, threw a wobbly when he saw cakes reduced half an hour before the official sanctioned mark down time.

Now one would think, this overpaid fool would have better things to occupy his mind, like service, strategy, that the food served in this cafe is often disgusting, but no, cakes reduced half an hour too early. He should have been praising the staff for showing initiative, not criticising.

For the sake of making the price, Morrisons would rather see food waste than stock cleared.

Morrisons café: confusion pricing and over-complex menu

Morrisons crude copy of J D Wetherspoon menu

It is easy to see why Morrisons is a failing supermarket chain.

Yesterday I had late lunch, scampi and chips, in their café.

Take a look at this, I was handed their menu.

WTF. Someone had copied J D Wetherspoon, and done a very very poor job.

The menu was so complicated, I said I would take it with me and look at it whilst I had my lunch.

Luckily I knew what I wanted, scampi and chips, and that is what I ordered. It was then a session of any questions.

They have introduced big menu changes in their café. Someone must have visited J D Wetherspoon, decided to copy their menu, and then done a very bad job. Not only have they copied J D Wetherspoon, they have also copied worst practices from phone companies and energy companies, confusion pricing.

It took me whilst I was eating my lunch to try to make head or tail of the menu.

Order scampi and chips after 4pm, and you get a meal deal, the main course and a free drink, in my case a pot of tea.

A good deal, no?

Er no, a blatant rip off.

Prior to this week, if you ordered scampi and chips after 4pm, you received a free pot of tea.

Now with tea time meal deal, you pay a fiver to get a ‘free’ cup of tea. That is with scampi and chips costing £4-75, you are paying 25p extra for what was previously free.

But it gets worse.

blatant rip off verging on fraud

Sitting at the table, I noticed scampi and chips was on offer at £3-75 (normal price £4-75). Had I ordered scampi and chips, then ordered tea and paid for it at 99p, I would have paid in total £4-74.

This is the level of dishonesty being practised by Morrisons, con the customer into thinking they are getting a deal, when in reality are overcharging, or charging for something that was previously free.

And if you think the menu complicated, spare a thought for the cashier.

Anyone wanting to eat in a supermarket, is either wishing to get through quickly before or after shopping.

Expect long queues at the checkout, as people try to negotiate their way through this complicated menu.

The menus does not even show tea, coffee, and cakes.

With this level of crass stupidity, it is easy to see why Morrisons is a failing supermarket chain.

Last year Morrisons reported a £176 million loss. Today Morrisons was the worst performer on the FTSE100, shares fell more than 10% at one point during the day.

• Morrisons restructuring sparks fears of new price war

Westgate three weeks on

Westgate is an ugly retail development on the edge of Aldershot town centre that is killing the town centre.

Three weeks on, how is it fairing?

The first week, Aldershot dead, the windy plaza more people than in the town centre, Morrison’s packed, more people than you would see in Aldershot in a year.

Since then, Morrison’s not busy, the windy plaza turned into a building site as the paving slabs dug up and relaid, last week awash with water.

Today, the windy plaza neither awash with water nor a building site. The work on the fast food restaurant chains which line the plaza due to open next month appears to have all but stopped.

Morrison’s all but empty. The staff seem no better than Asda, begs the question where do they dredge them up from, but then it is Aldershot.

Morrison’s cafe. No scampi, choose something else, then when something else chosen, told there is scampi.

It was disgusting. They must work really hard to make food this bad. At least there were a few clean tables, which makes a pleasant change.

A woman agitated, aggressive and turning violent. The cafe staff told to call security. They look at each other, anyone know where Steve is? No one does anything. I then spot a gormless looking security guard standing about ten feet away, doing nothing. I tell the cafe staff. They tell me if I am that bothered go and deal with it myself.

This goes on for abut 20-30 minutes whilst I am eating my disgusting scampi and chips (of which I leave half as so disgusting). It appears to be a woman with mental problems and a carer, at one point hands around the throat of carer.

Security guard gets bored watching, wanders off, comes back, then wanders off again. Eventually comes back. Seems more interested in chatting up checkout girl.

People are being endangered, objects thrown around. Finally security guard goes over.

I walk around the store, pick up a few things. I chat to the check out woman. She said she and customers were at risk.

I ask for the manager and tell him what was happening. If the security man could not cope he should have called for help, Police or maybe people who deal with people with mental problems. I said I would fire security guard.

Manager said he would investigate and thanks me. I said if security guard lies, check CCTV and you will see incident and security guard idly standing by.

Something had been thrown, maybe a pot of sauce or mayonnaise. As I left, and this was at least half an hour after the incident, this was still spilt on the floor for anyone to slip on, no attempt had been made to clean up the mess.

Three weeks on, and still no signs from Westgate for the town centre. No sign of leakage, people walking from Westgate into the town centre. The town centre as usual dead.

As I passed through Aldershot on Saturday on my way to Farnham I noticed a few stalls in the street but no idea what for as no publicity. I learnt it had something to do with Christmas lights being turned on.

The developer for The Arcade has lodged an appeal against refusal of planning consent.