Supermarket Price 'Establishing'

[Mr Happy]

I can't believe this is even making the news - surely you have to be fresh off the boat from the island of Gullible if you actually believe that "special" offers are anything more than hiked prices one day, discounted the next. It's a game that the retail sector play year in, year out.

So much so that for certain products, you just have to wait for the next "discount" cycle to come around, and you'll get it cheap again (Halfords with their Professional 150pc toolkits which bounce from £99.99 to £149.99 every 6 months or so etc)

I guess it takes all sorts though!

Link Here (BBC News / Panorama)

[wolves_wanderer]

All this shows is that people are incapable of thinking for themselves, either through doing simple mental arithmetic or reading the price tickets which have prices per 100g (for instance). Is it really a surprise that pre-packaged produce is more expensive than loose items? Really?

[jmorgan]

Do the sums on the fly, big box of X in a special offer or two smaller boxes of X but the same volume together as the big box, cheaper. Been like that for a while now.

They are trying to play us and wining. Bit like the bit where they swap all the stuff around from one side to the other, leading you by the nose. Or pricing per kg on one product and g on another brand.

But I bet it pays off otherwise it would not be done, so you cannot really blame the hassled person with 2.4 kids and a mortgage on semi up Sunnyside Close with room for an extension to be switched on, other wise it would all be fair and square.

[Jasandjules]

Every year it becomes clear that people are even more stupid than I thought......

[Maxf]

Some people are stupid. Some people aren't supid, as such, they just need a bit more help with stuff like this.

So, I skim past it as I know it already but if it saves someone getting ripped off by Tesdaburys then great.

[MX7]

I think everyone knows this happens.

What I've noticed recently is that the shops put "Compared to our Scottish stores", in what is probably the smallest text they can get away with, so the supermarkets have taken the new Scottish legislation about discounting as an opportunity to claim that far more is discounted in it's English/Welsh shops.

[RedWater]

wolves_wanderer said:

All this shows is that people are incapable of thinking for themselves, either through doing simple mental arithmetic or reading the price tickets which have prices per 100g (for instance). Is it really a surprise that pre-packaged produce is more expensive than loose items? Really?

I'm such a scrooge that I even check if the per 100g info is correct - which it often isn't!

[Ozzie Osmond]

Mr Happy said:

I can't believe this is even making the news......

I agree. A truly pitiful non-news story.

Mind you, if people can't compare the price of 2x250g products with 1x500g product, especially when the cost per unit is printed on the label, it's yet another indication of the lamentable output from our schools.

[Digga]

Ozzie Osmond said:

Mr Happy said:

I can't believe this is even making the news......

I agree. A truly pitiful non-news story.

Mind you, if people can't compare the price of 2x250g products with 1x500g product, especially when the cost per unit is printed on the label, it's yet another indication of the lamentable output from our schools.

Often, the need to make any calculation is negated by the fact that the cost per unit of measurement is listed in the small print of the display ticket. And still the mongs hoover the overpriced 'bargain' packs up.

Listen, whoever said life was supposed to be fair?

[Mr GrimNasty]

They've had some 'astonishing' offers in the COOP recently, e.g. a bag of caramels costing £8 'originally' - but it's our lucky day and now less than half price apparently! Almost as believable as Tesco's bit of Salmon was £20, now £10.

[anonymous-user]

Ozzie Osmond said:

I agree. A truly pitiful non-news story.

Mind you, if people can't compare the price of 2x250g products with 1x500g product, especially when the cost per unit is printed on the label, it's yet another indication of the lamentable output from our schools.

People who graduated from our schools over the last 40 years!
I think these offers, like energy tarrifs, phone tarrifs, internet prices and TV package price structures are allowed by regulators because if each provider was forced to sell to more transparent prices it would become most evident who is the least expensive on average, leading to unsustainable price wars and an eventual monopoly for the respective victors. Best keep us confused so we really don't quite know who is cheapest and then they all get a reasonable slice of the pie.

[jmorgan]

The other one is putting special offers of, say biscuits, near the pasta. Check the biscuits, wander to the biscuit section to find out they (the ones by the pasta) are more expensive than a comparable type. Not trying it on are they.

[Fittster]

jmorgan said:

The other one is putting special offers of, say biscuits, near the pasta. Check the biscuits, wander to the biscuit section to find out they (the ones by the pasta) are more expensive than a comparable type. Not trying it on are they.

So the same product has different prices, depending on it's location in the store? So they must have different bar codes.

How do the shelf stackers know which packet to put in which location?

[Otispunkmeyer]

Best I've ever seen, haribo, 2 for £2 or 99 p each.

Also with nutrigrain bars. You could get 2 boxes of 12 for cheaper than the special offer box of 18 at tesco.

[MonkeyHanger]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

The tins are about half the size they used to be (when i were a lad etc) too.

[jmorgan]

Fittster said:

How do the shelf stackers know which packet to put in which location?

Rest is answered above. I expect the shelf stackers are allowed to put anything anywhere they like. Or.....

[Mojooo]

There is a disctinction between 'playing the game' and just using outright misleading pricing indications.

One is OK whilst the other is not. I think there is a mix going on out there.

Quite a lot of price legislation has been removed as part of deregulation. And as there is no legislation to force shops to show previous pricing it can be very hard for peopel to work out which products have rpeviosuly been cheaper etc in such a fast moving marketplace.

[0a]

Now they are banging on at ASDA 'wow' offers and saying they have to been reduced in price in order for them to be promoted.

Why is this the case?

As the OP says you have to be very stupid indeed to get an email or see a banner on a website that says "great price" or similar from a Supermarket and think that, in my opinion.

[Mr GrimNasty]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

But they're so moreish. And I have no self control. Would 36 packs in one evening be fatal - what price your life?

[ZeeTacoe]

If you can't go from kg to g quickly you deserve to be ripped off.