It's always a lot easier to find people to criticise than praise. The desire to effect removal from perches is a fundamental part of the British character.
If it were Asda or Sainsbury's in the limelight you can be sure that there would be just as many people lining up to provide anecdotes of how awful the service / attitude was in their local branch.
But I agree that one's own experience of a company does have an effect on one's judgment as to whether it would represent a good investment, and on a purely personal and anecdotal level my local Tesco does a very good job.
It's also the only local supermarket that's `open all hours', which is very useful, and its car park is always a lot busier than Sainsbury’s, which is just down the road. So at least customers in this area have voted with their feet.
I've also noticed that after a long period of drought with Clubcard vouchers I've started receiving ones that are accurately targeted at the products I buy regularly.
Although in cash terms these don't make a lot of difference, being of a mildly Scrooge mentality I can't deny that I do get some modest pleasure in chopping a fiver off my shopping bill now and again. The `something for nothing' technique does undoubtedly work.
Anyway, I don’t see that Woodford’s recent investment performance is all that impressive. If one looks at the progress of Edinburgh Investment Trust relative to the FTSE 250 it’s only more or less tracked it over the past 4 years that he’s been in charge - http://www.fool.co.uk/caps/quote/edin/chart.aspx?source=icasittab0000005
And I’m glad to see that Mr Market is equally sceptical about his `investment guru’ status, as the shares are up 1.5% today despite his comments.
Buffett 1 Woodford 0!
