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Tesco store chucks unsold bikes in a skipTesco Logo.jpg

Tesco store chucks unsold bikes in a skip

‘There’s wastage and then there’s this,’ says delivery driver who spotted them
by Alex Bowden
Wed, Nov 18, 2015 17:12
12

A Tesco store in Manchester is reported to have thrown thousands of pounds worth of unsold bikes into a skip, rather than giving them to charity. Tesco have said it was a genuine mistake and that the store would offer bikes to local charities and groups in the future.

An agency delivery driver spotted the skip full of bikes at the Tesco Extra on Chester Road in Stretford. He told the Manchester Evening News that there were at least 24 bikes, estimating their value at around £4,000.

“I was making a delivery and I saw a skip full of bikes. It was diabolical, it’s disgusting. They’re all brand new bikes, some of them still in the boxes. There’s nothing wrong with them.

“There are people out there struggling to make ends meet and Tesco are getting away with throwing these bikes away. I don’t know how they can do business that way. How can they look people in the eye when people are struggling and they’re throwing away bikes coming up to Christmas?

“I counted at least 24 bicycles – perhaps £4,000 worth of stock. There are people that restore old bikes. There are orphanages, old people’s homes, even their own employees who could take them home for their families.

“There’s wastage and then there’s this. This is enough to make a bunch of kids cry. At this time of year especially this is absolutely shocking. If people don’t complain then they’ll just keep getting away with it. It must be happening all around the country.”

A Tesco spokesman said that it wasn’t a policy, but a decision made at store level. “Our Stretford store chose to dispose of a number of three-year-old, ex-display bikes that had parts missing and could not be reduced to clear or offered to colleagues. In future, we will ensure any similar items are first offered to local charities, as we do with a large range of products.”

Back in 2010, Tesco set its sights on the bicycle sector, opening a ‘Bike Shop’ concept. After a BBC Watchdog programme had highlighted the dangers of flatpack BSOs – bicycle-shaped objects – an assembly service seemed to be a means of addressing common concerns relating to a supermarket selling bikes.

Tesco said it would keep an eye on performance and that the concept could be expanded, but there has been little evidence of this – indeed the stores in which the Bike Shop concept was launched no longer advertise the service.  

At the time, Richard Perks of the consumer research consultancy Mintel told road.cc that Tesco’s approach to bike sales would most likely follow a standard supermarket approach. “The classic supermarket strategy would be to cream the market – introduce ranges of bikes geared to the lower end of the market, make sure they are very price competitive (by buying in bulk) and aim for volume sales.”

Tesco
Stretford
Alex Bowden

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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12 comments

Avatar
burtthebike | 9 years ago
2 likes

Having worked on some Tesco bikes, I can confirm that the skip is the best place for them, and puts them out of reach of innocent victims.

And £4,000 worth of Tesco bikes would be 4,000 bikes, not 24.

Avatar
Jem PT | 9 years ago
1 like

The crazy thing is that it would be cheaper for Tesco to give these bike away rather than chucking them bikes in the skip. Pretty dumb management. And they wonder why their profits are down!?!?!?

Avatar
Toffeeblue | 9 years ago
1 like

its a shame and maybe from now they'll donate any future stock to charity, a lesson learned, or even could be used for parts, the cost of the labour to build them isn't free wherever there made, some people think there bso bikes but not everyone wants or can afford in our economy a carbon fibre bike which is basically glued together for the sake of saving a gram or two, well done road cc good article.

Avatar
Cumisky | 9 years ago
5 likes

Not sure why Road.cc chose to remove this snippet of information from the story, but all the bikes were toddler bikes or younger child, no adult, and all BSO.
Sure it doesn't take away from the fact that this was needless waste, but it does seem to be that Road.cc just jump on the bandwagon of anything with the slightest bicycle connection for copy, even if it has no real relevance to the publication.
I was particularly annoyed when they published a story about the Paris attrocity a day or so ago, purely because a musician used a bike to pull his instrument, that wasn't journalism, if was a sad attempt to use tragedy for copy, clickbating at its worst.

Come on, sort your house out, if you report something, include all the facts, don't cherry pick!

 

Avatar
HarryTrauts | 9 years ago
0 likes

Some years ago I bought a 16" wheeled bike for my son from Tesco in Cirencester for £7.50.  They needed the space in the warehouse so priced them to sell.  I needed to make a few alterations, but it was a bargain and I gave it away once he'd grown out of it so it was win-win-win.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
2 likes

Probably the best place for them, in a skip.

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DaveE128 | 9 years ago
2 likes

The cynic in me thinks that they realised how lethally flawed their BSOs were (perhaps following some customer complaints) and did half of the right thing and skipped the unsold stock. However, it would be embarrassing and costly to admit it. I find it hard to believe that they had 24 ex display bikes. I've never seen many bikes on display in a Tesco.

Perhaps a charity could have done something with them, but chances are even the frames are too shoddy to be useful. If the dropout alignment was far enough off, for example, the bikes would never work reliably.

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to DaveE128 | 9 years ago
0 likes

DaveE128 wrote:

The cynic in me thinks that they realised how lethally flawed their BSOs were (perhaps following some customer complaints) and did half of the right thing and skipped the unsold stock. However, it would be embarrassing and costly to admit it. I find it hard to believe that they had 24 ex display bikes. I've never seen many bikes on display in a Tesco. Perhaps a charity could have done something with them, but chances are even the frames are too shoddy to be useful. If the dropout alignment was far enough off, for example, the bikes would never work reliably.

Extrapolate much ?

Avatar
whobiggs replied to DaveE128 | 8 years ago
0 likes

I find it hard to believe that they had 24 ex display bikes. I've never seen many bikes on display in a Tesco.[/quote]

 

If they were ex display/damaged/parts missing then surely they wouldn't be still in boxes!

Avatar
giff77 | 9 years ago
3 likes

Guaranteed that some middle management bod has been leaned on by a senior manager and made the call to clear a corner in the warehouse. Rather than investigate on what recycling schemes there are, he/she has just skipped them.

 

 Whatever people's view are on BSO's the frames could be stripped down and better components put on or simply built up to either sell or donate to youngsters in the community. Who knows, a future Chris Hoy could emerge as a result. 

 

Avatar
badback | 9 years ago
1 like

Average of £166 per bike. Blimey BSO's are fetching a bit these days !

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Dr. Ko | 9 years ago
6 likes

Cannot make up my mind between:

- Should have donated to Bike relief 

- Best solution for BSOssad

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