Dear Readers,
 |
| Brian Coppin |
I
don’t know if you shop at any of the 105 Food Lover’s Markets in South Africa,
because if you do I wonder if you have had similar experiences to mine
regarding their 'Best in Fresh Guarantee.'
Founded
by brothers Brian and Mike Coppin in 1993 they brashly claim their group holds
‘the honour of being South
Africa
I’m
sure you’ll agree with me that a brag like that takes a lot of living up to
especially when you are in the business of selling fresh fruit and vegetables,
products that can so easily go off.
For some years now I have been buying our fruit and veges
almost every Friday, first at the Food Lover’s, Tokai branch in Cape Town
I believe that no business can be expected to put something
right if you just complain to your wife and friends instead of a top executive,
who can do something about it.
As far back as March 2011 I emailed Brian saying that I had
bought some pre-packed beetroot and carrots from his Tokai store in packets
that you could not easily see through. "When we opened them at home," I went on, "the beetroot
was of a very poor quality and the carrots were mostly rotten because they were
so wet. I also bought five loose grapefruit and while picking these out I came
across four others that were rotten. You badly need better quality control."
He apologised, giving poor stock rotation as the probable
reason. He described this as "inexcusable" and told me that they sell about 70
tons of these two products every week with very few complaints.
“All our pre-packed products should have a sell-by date on
to ensure good quality and I have instructed the Buyers and Regional Managers
to investigate why this was not done, and to immediately ensure this practice
is adhered to,” he assured me.
Seven months later in November 2011 I told him that nobody
seemed to be taking any notice of him because I was having a job finding any
sell-by dates in the Tokai store. "This no doubt explains why there are
pre-packet items like mealies on the shelves with black mould on the ends," I added.
In
July this year I raised a series of questions with Brian in an emailed letter.
Here they are together with his reply and one from Regional Manager Demetri
Gaffley.
I
began by saying to Brian: "If your Long Beech Mall branch is anything to go by
it seems your stores are not living up to the very impressive undertakings your
group claims to live by.
"What’s
the point in your stores promoting the slogan ‘The Best in Fresh guaranteed’ when, at least one of them, puts
obviously vrot fruit and vegetables on the shelves at very reduced prices, as
if that suddenly makes them fresh. And
if your Long Beach Mall branch keeps
doing this, is this the general policy adopted by all your 105 South African
branches, as well as the others outside the country?
"On Friday 12/07/2019) when I was at your
Long Beach branch pre-packed, clearly rotten bananas were for sale at the knock
down price of R10 for two. Some time
ago this store had punnetts of what were obviously rotting waterblommetjies on
the shelf with the price reduced by 50%. They were removed after I complained.
"Your
website tells us that your business was built by you and your brother Mike on ‘traditional
family values of trust, honesty and integrity.’ You also claimed to be ‘South Africa
"Then
there is the case of the pears that are
too fresh to ripen. I have twice bought two different types of pears that
were just as hard weeks later, as when I bought them. But like the rotting
fruit and vegetables your staff was fully aware that there was a problem with
the pears concerned yet they still had them on the shelves. On the first
occasion many months ago I got the manager to come down from his upstairs
office and when I pointed to the tray of loose pears he immediately said: ‘Yes
I know they don’t get ripe.’ This was before I told him what the problem was.
More recently when I bought a different variety of pears that were pre-packed a
similar thing happened. This time it was another member of staff who told me
that these do not get ripe. If your
staff know that there is this problem with particular pears why are they still
kept on the shelves?
"On
another subject: Friday is billed as ‘Pie
Day’ at your Long
Beach branch, when pies are
usually sold on the basis of buy two and get one free. It strikes me as being
very bad business if you have a regular promotion like this and by around 11.30
in the morning the pie warmer is just about empty.
"After I complained to you on May 31 about the fact that
there had not been any steak and kidney pies for weeks you replied saying you
could not believe ‘we are offering service like this’ and you would personally
get hold of Demetri as well as the baking supplier to solve this problem of
‘piss poor service.’
"Your intervention brought back the steak and kidney pies
but the service was as bad as ever on ‘Friday
the pie day’ (12/07/2019) with the
pie warmer being just about empty at 11.30
in the morning. I bought the last three steak and kidney pies, which left
the warmer devoid of pies. All that remained were some sausage rolls at the
bottom.
"On the outside of your stores there are notices which tell
us you have ‘Best Quality’ and under
a ‘Best Service’ heading it says
that if the staff don’t live up to ‘your
expectations tell us about it and you’ll receive a R100 FLM shopping voucher.’
"Well for some time now I have been telling you about
how the your stores have not lived up to my expectations and not once has
anybody even suggested that I should be given any kind of shopping voucher. My
complaints to you were not motivated by the possibility of getting a voucher as
I only noticed this undertaking a couple of days ago."
I also asked: "Does
anybody ever get one of these vouchers?"And : "Is the Long Beach Mall
branch a franchise operation or one of your own?"
Here’s Brian’s
reply: "Thank you for your support and
letter. I am obviously very upset that the Fresh Produce team continuously
disappoints you. We at both Head Office and throughout the DC’S had a massive
drive around our guarantee for over 15 months now, and it’s disappointing that
you haven’t experienced any of the ongoing work being done.
"I can only once again apologize for the above and promise
you that every Buyer, Regional Manager, Distribution Manager and Marketing Team
will visit this store and get to the bottom of this. They are not living up to
the guarantee.
"I have also copied the Speciality GM, and Buyer and Baker
Specialist on the pie issue.
"I don’t know why you didn’t receive a voucher, but please
accept one of R300 for your inconvenience.
"We have given, and still give out 20/30 vouchers per month
and will continue to do so to live up to our guarantee.
"Long Beach
"I trust we can win you over as a satisfied customer once
again.
"Kind Regards,
"Brian Coppin." (He copied this to Karriem
Fredericks; Demetri Gaffley; Paul Rauch (FNV); Warren Minnaar; Vito Polera; Sandro
Gastaldi; Robin Wainright; Cecelia Wainright; Travis Coppin; Roxy Norman and
Bonita van Niekerk).
Shortly afterwards I
received this email from Demetri Gaffley: "I would like to answer the last
two 2 questions that Brian has not answered, and hopefully satisfy you.
Question: Is it acceptable to have pears on the shelf
that the manager and staff know don’t
get ripe?
The answer is NO.
Question: Is it your firm’s policy to discount fruit
and vegetables that are going off?
The answer is YES, and at this stage up to the
discretion of the store manager, but can be overruled by store
visits/inspections from Head Office. We reduce and markdown to clear, which
should be visible on price boards. As
for the bananas, the exact opposite, unacceptable for sale and not at any price."
He then thanked me for my valued feedback.
After receiving those two emails I decided to pay a special
visit to the Long Beach
They were few and far between I can tell you. There were
none on very perishable items like pre-packed strawberries, kiwi fruit or
papaya, whereas the same fruit at Pick n Pay a little further down the Mall all
had sell-by dates on their labels.
And
this is at a Group that trails behind Food Lover’s in the fresh league, if the
Coppin brother’s boast can be believed.
A
member of Food Lover’s staff told me they only have sell-by dates on fruit
salad and similar items that they make themselves, but not on pre-packed product
they get from their suppliers.
 |
| Founders Brian & Mike Coppin |
I
accept that fruit and vegetables tend to go off quite quickly and that if you
are in this kind of business it’s inevitable that some items might not be up to
standard on the shelves now and again. But that’s very different from trying to
sell something at a reduced price because you know it has gone off.
Also as
a shopper you have to wonder why one group doesn’t have sell-by dates on
certain items and another one, that has been in existence far longer, does.
Regards
Jon, the Consumer Watchdog who was extremely impressed with
the frank way Brian and Demetri dealt with my criticisms. It seems that running
a business like theirs is not as simple as pie.
P.S. They got the value of the R300 worth of vouchers
they gave me back with interest because I put them towards the R360 I spent on
12 R30 hamburgers. I handed these out to men waiting forlornly at street
corners in the rain for jobs that would never materialise.
P.P.S. It looks as though the Long Beach Mall manager
Karriem Fredericks either doesn’t get the boss's emails; he ignores them or he can’t
get the message through to his staff. When I was at this branch today (Friday
16 August) the pineapple shelf was half full with the most horrible looking
fruit. When I showed him two he said they were unacceptable. Half an hour later
when I was back in the store to buy something else somebody was busy removing
these. He had a trolley completely full, both top and bottom with ones he was
about to take away.
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