The Vegan Society has just posted this on Facebook:
The Vegan Society
A message for all vegans in the UK: Are Tesco meeting your needs? They have asked us what they could do better for their vegan customers as part of a general review. Please let Tesco know - send an email to customer.service@tesco.co.uk (and a copy t...o media@vegansociety.com for Amanda Baker, our Media Officer). Do tell them you are vegan (put it in the subject line) as it means they can track the comments coming in!
I wrote them a long email and they gave what appeared to be an individualised response stating that within 72 hours I would be told what is being introduced newly to cater for our needs-woohoo! At last Tesco are finally listening. The reply also said "I can appreciate that it must be very time consuming and frustrating when shopping for Vegan products as of course there is no specific range and you of course have to check the ingredients of each item in the hope it is suitable for you.".
I'm posting specifically what I wrote here, just incase anyone wants any inspiration of what to send them... if we all request similar things and speak along a similar line they might take more notice... And I think it would be a cool idea to see what everyone else has sent them, so feel free to share!
To whom this may concern,
I am giving my feedback to Tesco as a public request to Vegans as advertised by the Vegan Society.
Out of some of the major supermarkets, Tesco is by far one of the worst for Vegans in terms of catering. Sainsburys has a large range of frozen Vegan products and often have big promotions on the Linda McCartney range which is largely Vegan. Sainsburys also does Vegan labelling, along with Asda who offers plenty of toiletries which are vegetarian friendly (and usually Vegan too).
Whilst Tesco can meet some basic needs (fresh and frozen fruit and veg) along with tinned items such as beans, Tesco's frozen range offers little for Vegans. Most vegetarian frozen foods are often non Vegan as they contain egg or milk, and Tesco seems to be selective in marking some products as Vegan and others as Vegetarian (when some of those Vegetarian products are clearly Vegan.
Morrisons also offers a brilliant vegetarian range, as does Asda. Both offer chilled meat substitute lines as does Morrisons. Products from the Redwood range are popular, and Tesco would see a boost in sales if it were to sell these products at a much cheaper rate than health food stores which often over price these specialist goods
I think also, there is a large gap in the market for Vegan and Vegetarian confectionary. Products like Vegan marshmallows which can only be purchased on the internet would sell very well in a supermarket as they would appeal to three main consumer groups - Muslims, Vegetarians and Vegans. Asda and Sainsburys also sell Halal Haribos which happen to be Vegetarian (and many of which are Vegan) I am surprised that Tesco does not stock these in the world food isle as they have become VERY popular amongst Vegetarians and Vegans.
I think to discover moreso what Vegan customers want from Tesco, they should look at specialist Vegan internet stores and also focus on Sainsburys, Morrisons and Asda's fresh frozen and take away Vegan foods.
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