SMBS/Lordship Lane - Great Shop!

[ths0105]

I visited SMBS on Lordship Lane for the first time today (on recommendation by Franklins). They are a couple of doors down from the Cheeseblock and stock a fabulous variety of organic/vegetarian and natural food products.

It's quite unassuming from the outside but a real treasure trove on the inside!

[NewWave]

Agreed-We always go there when we can't get to Wholefoods Market

[PandG]

It's a brilliant shop, become a regular for us! Even know what to do with chia seeds now too!!!

[Mustard]

It's been there for at least 20 years. Same family as the Cheese Block and late lamented Indian Mischief veggie restaurant.

[sbain]

Yes - Its a fab shop and the people there are lovely. They always greet my two boys by name and ask after them.

[Sue]

I had been going to SMBS for years.

I stopped going there after they charged me six pounds for a small piece of fresh ginger.

I probably wouldn't have noticed as I was buying quite a lot of stuff. I only noticed because I saw the person at the till rang it up without weighing it, so I wondered how he knew what to charge.

Sorry to say this, but I thought it was deliberate. When I asked "how much was the ginger?", he immediately said "oh, I have overcharged you."

The correct price was something like 35p.

:(

[Dopamine1979]

A boycott seems a bit harsh, Sue!

:)

It's a nice shop.

I pop in there from time to time. I wanted scotch bonnet peppers once and they didn't have any so I had to go to ..... Rye Lane (but that's a whole different thread).

[simonethebeaver]

It seems a bit like a nose/face interface to stop using such a great shop because they accidentally overcharged you, Sue.

[Sue]

simonethebeaver Wrote:

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> It seems a bit like a nose/face interface to stop

> using such a great shop because they accidentally

> overcharged you, Sue.

xxxxxx

I don't think it's "accidentally" overcharging to fail to weigh an item and then to charge six pounds for it when it should have been a few pence.

As it wasn't weighed, how would they know what price to put in to "accidentally" overcharge me? It's not like somebody had misread a price ticket.

It was only by chance that I noticed it hadn't been weighed, as I was busy putting things into my shopping bag.

[simonethebeaver]

That's quite an accusation to make.

[Sue]

simonethebeaver Wrote:

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> That's quite an accusation to make.

xxxxxx

It's an accurate observation. If you think there might be some other explanation, then what could it be?

The person behind me in the queue saw it too, and spoke to me about it outside the shop.

I posted about it on here at the time.

ETA:

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?30,1206741,1206741#msg-1206741

[calculus]

There's absolutely no way the guys in there would intentionally try to rip you off. They're a local family business who depend on their integrity to continue to thrive, and they have it in bucket-loads.

[Sue]

What is your explanation for what I experienced then, calculus?

Before this happened to me, I would have agreed with you completely.

ETA: I don't think you can judge integrity on the fact that people seem really nice and friendly and have businesses. A few bad experiences with tradespeople working on my house have shown me that, unfortunately.

ETA: If anybody can come up with another plausible explanation for my being charged six quid (exactly six quid, by the way) for a small unweighed piece of ginger, I will very happily apologise unreservedly to SMBS for dissing them on here.

[StraferJack]

Sue

It would seem there are two possibilities here

1) The ?being doing this for years? staff made a mistake and instead of weighing a tiny bit of ginger, mentally calculated a small value and then mistakenly entered a much higher amount. Maybe they were distracted and had something worth 6 quid on the brain. They had a funny moment or something

2) With a regular customer, who had a small number of items so would easily spot any mistake, they overcharged one item by well over a fiver in they hope they wouldn?t notice, and wouldn?t blab about in the age of the EDF and twitter?

If a shop is scamming punters (and this isn?t the first shop you have accused of this) surely they would nickel and dime na?ve looking customers.

I think you have to accept it was a (bad) mistake on their part. If you are regular there you should have some rapport with Amit and the guys there by now and be able to have a word and get it cleared up, no?

[Sue]

StraferJack Wrote:

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> If a shop is scamming punters (and this isn?t the

> first shop you have accused of this) surely they

> would nickel and dime na?ve looking customers.

>

> I think you have to accept it was a (bad) mistake

> on their part. If you are regular there you should

> have some rapport with Amit and the guys there by

> now and be able to have a word and get it cleared

> up, no?

xxxxxx

a) I don't recall ever accusing any other shop of scamming punters?

Apart from the Co-Op sometimes having different info on their till to what is on their shelves, and therefore overcharging at the till, but that is something entirely different.

What are you referring to?

b) This happened in October (apparently, given that that was when I posted about it). If I had been going to "have a word" I would have done it then. Frankly, I was so extremely gobsmacked that I didn't. What would I have said? There was no "misunderstanding" as far as I could see. It would have been extremely embarrassing.

Your first possibility is - just - possible, but not I would suggest plausible.

I'm not (or wasn't) that "regular" a customer. Although I had been shopping there for many years, I tend to buy things in bulk which I can't easily get elsewhere, and rarely bought fresh things there, so maybe went in every month or so. I don't have a particularly extreme diet, so most of the things I eat I can buy elsewhere when doing other shopping.

I only got the ginger there because I was buying other stuff and it was convenient.

I didn't have that small a number of items. If I hadn't happened to spot that the ginger hadn't been weighed, I might well not have noticed anything amiss, given that most things in SMBS are not cheap so I wouldn't have been expecting a tiny bill.

Also, if memory serves, although they do now give till receipts (which they didn't do in the past) the receipts have individual prices on, but not what those prices refer to, so again on glancing at the receipt I might well not have noticed anything wrong.

Anyway - let us hope that - whatever the reason for it - this was an isolated incident.

[StraferJack]

a) I don't recall ever accusing any other shop of scamming punters?

"Sadly, because I like the Co-Op, from bitter experience I have learned to check that the prices shown on my till receipt are the same as the prices shown on the shelf - because often they aren't.

And I have never yet been undercharged - always overcharged "

to me that reads as an accusation (or at least an insinuation) of systematic scamming - but I accept if that's not what you meant. But you can see why people might read that into it?

"I'm not (or wasn't) that "regular" a customer."

vs

"I've been shopping in SMBS for years. "

again, that seems a tad disingenuous

as is:

"Yesterday I bought a few things in there, including a smallish piece of ginger.

Had I been buying more things, or had I not been paying attention, I might not have noticed. "

vs

"I didn't have that small a number of items."

You might be able to say you have worked on tills and NEVER had a bad day at the office. But I have - I've charged people several quid for a splash of cordial - and have been mortified when customers pull me up on it. But to suggest I did it deliberately would have pissed me off

[StraferJack]

"If anybody can come up with another plausible explanation for my being charged six quid (exactly six quid, by the way) for a small unweighed piece of ginger, I will very happily apologise unreservedly to SMBS for dissing them on here."

is the 6 quid so important? Couldn't you be asking the same question if it was any other amount?

the more likely question is "if someone is spending 15-20 quid, how likely are they to notice an extra 6 quid on the bill"

answer: EXTREMELY likely.

you surely agree with that?

do you think they do it a) rarely? b) often? c) just to you?

[Sue]

Strafer Jack, I really don't want to string this out, however since you have gone to the trouble of looking up my past posts:

1. I hardly think individual check-out people are going to help along the Co-op's financial situation by ringing up incorrect amounts on the till. It's not as if they would make any money out of it themselves.

I assume the till amounts are all generated centrally.

Other people apart from me have said that they have had similar issues with the Co-op.

It's completely different to what happened at SMBS, so to say "this isn't the first shop you have accused of this" is totally untrue.

2. I can see how you might think shopping somewhere for years is the same as being a "regular customer", however that's a matter of definition. Perhaps I should have said "infrequent", as I shop there (or did) "regularly" every month or so.

3. Like you, I have worked with money. I twice accidentally short-changed people when I was selling plants at a plant fair. In both cases the person noticed and in both cases I was mortified, particularly since in one case the person clearly thought that I had done it deliberately.

But that's a somewhat different scenario to selling something for which you don't know the price until it has been weighed, not weighing it, but ringing it up at completely the wrong price regardless.

4. The importance of the six quid is that it is a vast amount to be charging for a small piece of ginger. But yes the issue would be the same if it was any other amount. It just added to the oddness that it was exactly six pounds. Most shop prices are not in round figures. I'm not sure why you're asking.

5. I don't know whether "anyone" would notice an extra six quid on the bill. It's easy to spend quite a lot at SMBS. As I have already said, I might well not have noticed had I not noticed that the ginger was not weighed.

6. How would I know how often they may do it, or to whom? Why on earth are you asking that? As I said, let us hope this was an isolated incident. And I'm not so paranoid as to think they singled me out. What a weird thing to say.

Can we leave it there now please?

Except, if the man behind me in the queue who saw what happened and then spoke to me about it outside the shop is reading this, it would be great if you could give your interpretation of the incident on here, because from what you said at the time it seemed to be the same as mine .....

[PandG]

Here goes Sue again slagging of anyone and anything just wants to get her name on all the posts on the EDF it seems to be - just check all her other posts and blimey there are enough to last you a lifetime!

[alice]

maybe intended to enter 60p ?

[Newbie9]

Do you people not have anything better to do than continuously comment on this thread?

Sue- I think it was an honest mistake. It seems like this ?6 has really affected your life. If it makes you feel any better I can give you ?6 to spend on as much ginger as you like.

People take a chill pill! It's not a big deal. move on!

[KidKruger]

Can I have ?6 too please, been a lot on my mind lately and what with stress over the lawn I laid this week it's all been a bit much. ?12 would sort the lot instantly.

Thanks in front.

[Sue]

PandG Wrote:

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> Here goes Sue again slagging of anyone and

> anything just wants to get her name on all the

> posts on the EDF it seems to be - just check all

> her other posts and blimey there are enough to

> last you a lifetime!

xxxxxx

Erm, pots and kettles I think, PandG - or perhaps you don't consider this post as slagging me off?

As somebody who has lived in East Dulwich for over twenty years, who contributes to a number of local community events and who has been posting on this forum since 2006, I think I have every right to post on here when I like and what I like.

This is a forum. If you don't like what I post, then I believe there is a facility to block my name so you don't have to read it.

ETA: If you click on my name, you can read all my posts. Perhaps you'd like to share with us all what percentage of them are "slagging off anyone and anything". But you won't, will you?

[Sue]

Newbie9 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Do you people not have anything better to do than

> continuously comment on this thread?

>

> Sue- I think it was an honest mistake. It seems

> like this ?6 has really affected your life. If it

> makes you feel any better I can give you ?6 to

> spend on as much ginger as you like.

>

> People take a chill pill! It's not a big deal.

> move on!

xxxxxx

Blimey. Who knows whether or not it was an honest mistake? Nobody except the person concerned.

This is a thread about SMBS. I posted on here about my experience in SMBS. If another poster had done that, I would have been grateful for the heads up so that I could keep an eye when things were being rung up in there in case another "honest mistake" was made when I was doing my shopping.

Newbie9, you criticise others for posting on here and continuing the comments, and then do the same!!! FFS it has not "really affected my life". I have a very happy life thank you. This incident has not affected it at all.

Alice, he cannot have intended to enter 60p as not having weighed the item he would have no idea what the correct amount should have been.

KK, sorry to hear about your lawn :))

[StraferJack]

Sue

The reason people are giving yuo a hard time is because you have spent a great deal of time and energy insisting there is something shady going on you. You are using language which is shifty (as per my post where I tried to illustrate why) and accusing a business of illegal activity, without proof

You also say "you really don't want to string this out"

But (can anyone see where this is going?) you also said

"ETA: If anybody can come up with another plausible explanation for my being charged six quid (exactly six quid, by the way) for a small unweighed piece of ginger, I will very happily apologise unreservedly to SMBS for dissing them on here."

People have tried to do that and I don't see any apology forthcoming

again - I say to you, these guys do fruit and veg all day. I say the reasonable explanation is he looked at a knob of giner, rounded up or down to 60p and accidentally rang in an extra digit

Are you saying that is not possible or even likely?