Comments on: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” or how to be surprised in a well-known shop

By: xavier

xavier — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:47:10 +0000

I will do it.
But it was not my birthday (to help you I am a Leo).

By: xavier

xavier — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:46:27 +0000

More info on request? I think they are aiming to make it a space with no one to answer the questions of the customer.

By: xavier

xavier — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:45:03 +0000

To be honest, they are also testing it for spice and coffee (hence the big space).

As for the air, light and freshness… I don’t know but if I get back there I will try to see if I can sneak and check.

By: xavier

xavier — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:43:32 +0000

As far as I remember, there was no expiration date (but I am not 100% sure, only 95%).
I might get back or be able to have a small batch of it before the end of the month and I will let you know what I think of these teas.

By: thedevotea

thedevotea — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:30:19 +0000

Buy some stuff.
Get your friends to buy some stuff.
If you like the concept and they are testing it,, you need to vote with your wallet.
And Happy Birthday!

By: jackie

jackie — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:05:19 +0000

I agree with @peter about the question whether clear containers affect the contents. Are they UV light resistant? Also, you said they sell coffee and spices too, I imagine coffee gets far more bins than tea? Like @jopj I wonder if there is any expiration date labelled? Or more info on origin available on request. But all in all, I'm envious because we don't have anything like that here. Wegmans has a slightly similar set up (smaller though,) it's a nice grocery store chain, but sadly not within our shopping trip range. The store Pete mentioned that offered teas locally, stopped selling these due to lack of demand I understand. It was exceedingly well priced though. Almost too low if you compare the costs there, to what that company generally charges for their teas. I never quite understood why the teas were so cheap in this store.

By: peter

peter — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 16:17:50 +0000

Aha! Yes, good to see some retailer paying attention!

That looks great, thanks for sharing that picture. We had a grocery store here in town that used the same devices to sell loose tea a couple years ago. They had three containers, and they only did it once. We bought tea from them that way on two occasions, before they were emptied out. Once they were gone, the store chose not to use them again. Not sure why – the tea came from Frontier Natural Foods Co-op and as a result, was expensive and may have had an impact on why the grocery store didn’t bring the tea back once it was gone. I think the store focused too much on selling premium, organic, fair trade loose tea instead of properly testing loose tea in general – there is a significant price differential that the two different categories fit into.

Anyhow, looks like Auchan has invested quite a bit of money, time and effort into their little test (the presentation in your picture is about 100 times larger than our local store attempted). I especially like the clever hopper on the floor to catch the overflow and mess to help keep the aisle clean. Would be interesting to see how their testing goes, I certainly think they are on to something.

Also, seeing the clear containers reminded of the same thought I had when our store did it – while it looks good, I wonder about light, air and freshness. I wonder what the tested storage time in those types of containers is?

By: jopj

jopj — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 22:25:27 +0000

Xavier
Thanks for showing us this display. The concept is very interesting. I am eager to hear your thoughts about the tea. Also are their any expiration dates listed?