Demand/Surge pricing coming to supermarkets soon
Discussion
Wiccan of Darkness said:
Tesco would be bonkers to do this, the s
t storm I created over the milk-gate fiasco was apocalyptic. Milk-gate was an offer, any 2 mix and match £3 (4 pints was £1.54, 6 pinters more) but I bought 2 pints for me and a single one for someone else who only wanted 1 pint. Charged £3 under the offer. Should have been £1.30 or so. Raised hell.
I stopped shopping at Tesco when I saw an offer for mixed seafood - £3 each or 3 for £10.
You are joking, right...?t storm I created over the milk-gate fiasco was apocalyptic. Milk-gate was an offer, any 2 mix and match £3 (4 pints was £1.54, 6 pinters more) but I bought 2 pints for me and a single one for someone else who only wanted 1 pint. Charged £3 under the offer. Should have been £1.30 or so. Raised hell.I stopped shopping at Tesco when I saw an offer for mixed seafood - £3 each or 3 for £10.
Roofless Toothless said:
What's the difference between this and the holiday industry putting up prices during the school holidays?
We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
Because parents have no choice - cant take kids out of school.We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
With supermarkets you can vote with you feet - this is why Tesco took a hammering a few years ago when everyone (including my household) switched to Aldi/Lidl
Roofless Toothless said:
What's the difference between this and the holiday industry putting up prices during the school holidays?
We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
It depends if you consider it putting up prices during holidays, or discounting during less busy times. Flights and hotels have a very specific shelf life. If you have an empty bed/seat, thats money lost for ever.We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
We did a city break in Vegas a staying in a suite in Mandalay Bay, for less than £500 per person all in. There is no way that was making money.
98elise said:
It depends if you consider it putting up prices during holidays, or discounting during less busy times. Flights and hotels have a very specific shelf life. If you have an empty bed/seat, thats money lost for ever.
Or maybe, making a small profit at less busy times and making a big profit during school holidays.hornetrider said:
Kermit power said:
Personally, I think it's a great idea, as the chances are most of the impact of this will be to bring prices down...
Yes! Because the corporations running supermarkets want to make less money! They are very charitable and the implementation of this technology at great cost is to reduce prices for the consumer! All hail the benevolent corporate overlords!
They use this to simply put prices up and try to screw you, and all that will happen is that one of them will turn round and very publicly bring prices down on a few key items to encourage people to shop with them instead, knowing that most people will go there to take advantage of the lower prices but also buy more stuff at standard prices whilst they're there, rather than buying it elsewhere.
Supermarkets are, strangely, not actually as stupid as you seem to believe they are. They know full well that everyone has a limited budget, so the best way for them to increase their profits isn't actually to just put all their prices up, but to figure out ways to get you to spend the budget you were going to spend anyway with them rather than with a competitor.
Just look at what has been happening over the last few years. By and large, Waitrose and M&S have been doing just fine, as their customers tend not to buy on price first and foremost - although Waitrose do still quietly price match to Tesco on a lot of stuff - but the other major supermarkets have really been suffering from the arrival of Lidl and Aldi.
If you seriously think that Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have a plan to win back the customers they've been haemorrhaging to Lidl and Aldi by just using variable pricing to make you pay more for things just when you need to buy them, then you can have your
back for free. 
Dindoit said:
Wiccan of Darkness said:
I stopped shopping at Tesco when I saw an offer for mixed seafood - £3 each or 3 for £10.
You showed themWe shop at Aldi - honest and transparent. Also do a top up shop every couple of weeks at one of the usual suspects but I avoid Tesco as much as I can. If you actually look at most of the prices in Tesco, sainsbury etc, instead of doing some mad blind trolley dash, they're a joke - way over what they should be.
They'd have to be insane to try variable pricing as I think any publicity around it would harm their business - their shareholders won't be impressed I'm sure.
This would affect folks like us who tend to stock up when stuff is on offer by tracking normal purchases by such as mysupermarket app. The offers are usually on for days, sometimes weeks, so it's easy to spot such as a deal on at Morrisons, say, somewhere we don't normally shop, but easy to call in when passing.
The other thing, as others have pointed out, they make things confusing enough now, for example Sainsbury's are buggers for mix and match offers where not all the products are available eg the offer is on a dodgy sized packet that isn't on the shelf but one very similar is.
The other thing, as others have pointed out, they make things confusing enough now, for example Sainsbury's are buggers for mix and match offers where not all the products are available eg the offer is on a dodgy sized packet that isn't on the shelf but one very similar is.
Supermarkets are good at getting at the contents in your wallet.
A biscuit tin away from the biscuits, xmas time for example, go check the biscuit aisle and you will find more for your £ of the same brand. Put the expensive one away from where the shopper can compare easily. Most cannot be bothered to go check.
Shoppers are their own worst enemy.
A biscuit tin away from the biscuits, xmas time for example, go check the biscuit aisle and you will find more for your £ of the same brand. Put the expensive one away from where the shopper can compare easily. Most cannot be bothered to go check.
Shoppers are their own worst enemy.
hornetrider said:
Kermit power said:
Personally, I think it's a great idea, as the chances are most of the impact of this will be to bring prices down...
Yes! Because the corporations running supermarkets want to make less money! They are very charitable and the implementation of this technology at great cost is to reduce prices for the consumer! All hail the benevolent corporate overlords!
MarkRSi said:
That's probably why some Tesco stores have been testing out scan as you shop systems, which at present seems a bit pointless compared with the normal/self service checkouts.
It's the only way the wife will get me involved in a 'big shop'.Self checkout is fine if you have a few items but hopeless for lots of stuff. Scanning and bagging as you go saves soooo much time and hassle plus you can check the prices of stuff as you go to make sure they've updated properly. Then whack the scanner in it's holder thingy, pay and straight to the car.
Won't shop at a supermarket that doesn't do this and don't say online as the wife likes to feel and prod the fruit and veg before buying - yeah, I know but life's too short to argue
andy43 said:
Dindoit said:
Wiccan of Darkness said:
I stopped shopping at Tesco when I saw an offer for mixed seafood - £3 each or 3 for £10.
You showed themWe shop at Aldi - honest and transparent. Also do a top up shop every couple of weeks at one of the usual suspects but I avoid Tesco as much as I can. If you actually look at most of the prices in Tesco, sainsbury etc, instead of doing some mad blind trolley dash, they're a joke - way over what they should be.
They'd have to be insane to try variable pricing as I think any publicity around it would harm their business - their shareholders won't be impressed I'm sure.
Don't these businesses understand that self service tills only (as opposed to fully staffed tills and the option of self service) reduce sales in the long run, the optional buys stay on the shelf and you stick to buying fewer things as each item increases likelihood of the till having a tissy fit requiring assistance from a staff member. Aldi and Lidl know the value of a good cashier and pay them accordingly and the rest of the big boys wonder why we go there - no self service and stable pricing.
Kermit power said:
You do realise there's such a thing as competition, don't you?
They use this to simply put prices up and try to screw you, and all that will happen is that one of them will turn round and very publicly bring prices down on a few key items to encourage people to shop with them instead, knowing that most people will go there to take advantage of the lower prices but also buy more stuff at standard prices whilst they're there, rather than buying it elsewhere.
Supermarkets are, strangely, not actually as stupid as you seem to believe they are. They know full well that everyone has a limited budget, so the best way for them to increase their profits isn't actually to just put all their prices up, but to figure out ways to get you to spend the budget you were going to spend anyway with them rather than with a competitor.
Just look at what has been happening over the last few years. By and large, Waitrose and M&S have been doing just fine, as their customers tend not to buy on price first and foremost - although Waitrose do still quietly price match to Tesco on a lot of stuff - but the other major supermarkets have really been suffering from the arrival of Lidl and Aldi.
If you seriously think that Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have a plan to win back the customers they've been haemorrhaging to Lidl and Aldi by just using variable pricing to make you pay more for things just when you need to buy them, then you can have your back for free.
To answer you regards the intelligence of large brand supermarkets then I'm afraid they often behave very stupidly.They use this to simply put prices up and try to screw you, and all that will happen is that one of them will turn round and very publicly bring prices down on a few key items to encourage people to shop with them instead, knowing that most people will go there to take advantage of the lower prices but also buy more stuff at standard prices whilst they're there, rather than buying it elsewhere.
Supermarkets are, strangely, not actually as stupid as you seem to believe they are. They know full well that everyone has a limited budget, so the best way for them to increase their profits isn't actually to just put all their prices up, but to figure out ways to get you to spend the budget you were going to spend anyway with them rather than with a competitor.
Just look at what has been happening over the last few years. By and large, Waitrose and M&S have been doing just fine, as their customers tend not to buy on price first and foremost - although Waitrose do still quietly price match to Tesco on a lot of stuff - but the other major supermarkets have really been suffering from the arrival of Lidl and Aldi.
If you seriously think that Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have a plan to win back the customers they've been haemorrhaging to Lidl and Aldi by just using variable pricing to make you pay more for things just when you need to buy them, then you can have your
back for free. Also very immoral institutions.
I work in manufacturing, not exclusively in food facilities but mainly in food and dairy, Tesco particularly, although others are guilty of this, is plagued with graduate employees who often appear during customer audits.
These people ,generally, have no concern whatsoever, or knowlede of the industries in which they meddle.
Their only concern is to come to the management of their companies attention and further their career. The best way to do this is to come up with a really clever idea which no-one else has thought of.
I'll give you some examples, some of which were implemented to the detriment of the facilities concerned.
Preventing bacteria from entering milk at the source, ie farm, removing the cost of pasteurisation.
Now apart from the fact it is currently illegal to sell unpasteurised milk this would mean sterilising the field and stopping grass from growing, sterilising the cow who, being dead, would be unable to produce milk. Still proposed quite seriously by one bright young thing post audit.
Wearing hair nets etc at all times, not just in production areas, This was implemented.
Prior to this any employee caught wearing a production coat, hair net, beard snood or production boots outside the clean area stood out like a sore thumb and would be made to dispose of disposables and permanents to ensure no cross contamination.
Afterward they experienced huge cross contamination issues due to employees returnig from break and neglecting to change, they tried to get around this by having lo care and hi care gear, along with supervised hygeine barriers which obviously raised their costs and they started losing money.
A competent manager was brought in who promptly restored things to the previous measures.
Reducing the alarm level on bacterial swabs below the accepted industry norm and instituting a deep clean for every detection. Again implemented.
Industry standards were as high as the testing would allow without generating 'false positives' swabs are taken once per shift and processed within 3 days.
Each period of production generated 2 periods of deep cleaning for non existant bugs, fortunately sanity prevailed before closure.
Increasing the temperature and or time of pasteurisation to increase the shelf life of the product.
In this instant I was treated to her senior auditor suggesting she google UHT and pointedly telling her to run any suggestions by her seniors before piping up in public.
Large cheese production facility in North Wales was set up with incompatible systems by a multinational and failed to produce, it did however have excellent packaging facilities.
The production side failed and the kit was sold off cheap but to prevent closure the local management, strongly backed by the workforce, bought out the packaging side and gained a few reasonable contracts.
I was asked to manage the bid for one of the top 3 giving them an almost exclusive contract, brilliant factory where all the staff went the extra mile daily, good facilities and well maintained and cleaned kit.
The plan was to borrow to comply with the 'rules' (pretty much made up on the spot) of the customer.
I declined and strongly advised walking away with a viable business, they went ahead and after a hell of a lot of really good work they showed compliance and won the contract.
For 3 months.
Which was when an accountant realised other companies who did not follow all the silly conditions could do it cheaper.
Packaging firm went bust.
Roofless Toothless said:
What's the difference between this and the holiday industry putting up prices during the school holidays?
We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
Because I can choose if I want a holiday, I cannot choose if I need to eat.We seem to have gone along with this for enough years. Just call it 'supply and demand' and everything is OK.
thepeoplespal said:
Don't these businesses understand that self service tills only (as opposed to fully staffed tills and the option of self service) reduce sales in the long run, the optional buys stay on the shelf and you stick to buying fewer things as each item increases likelihood of the till having a tissy fit requiring assistance from a staff member. Aldi and Lidl know the value of a good cashier and pay them accordingly and the rest of the big boys wonder why we go there - no self service and stable pricing.
And very quick to open tills if it gets busy.Edited by voyds9 on Sunday 25th June 10:00
voyds9 said:
Because I can choose if I want a holiday, I cannot choose if I need to eat.
I may have misunderstood - but this isn't about if you take a holiday or if you shop for food.It's about when you do these things.
Take a holiday in peak season - prices are higher. Similarly, shop at peak times - prices may be higher.
Many things already use such a pricing structure - e.g electricity prices (that's why things like Economy 7 work), public transport (especially trains) with off peak travel being cheaper than peak travel, cinema tickets, landline charges, car parking charges, happy hour in pubs, free entry to clubs before a certain time.
Whether supermarkets can make it work in practice is another matter.
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