Supermarkets - Are you getting the best deal?
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions
Big supermarkets have a record number of special price promotions at the moment - more than 8,000 deals. Sounds like good news for the consumer, but the reality is that these special offers are actually saving us less money than they used to. So what is going on?
Supermarket chains spend millions developing techniques to persuade you to part with your money - and it's very effective. A recent Which? report said that two-thirds of supermarket shoppers tend to spend more than they had planned.
Surely we're all a bit savvier than that? Watchdog set up a test to try and find out.
In the Watchdog Supermarket Challenge, three teams of shoppers - the Students, the Analysts and the Spenders - were given a shopping list of six basic items to purchase, for the cheapest price.
What they didn't know was that our test store was rigged with the type of special offers and promotions which can be found in all the big supermarkets. However, these deals won't always give you the best value for money. So the question is, would our shoppers be seduced and end up spending more than they needed to?
We also showed video footage of our test to academic Jeff Bray, an expert in consumer spending habits: "Shoppers are manipulated by supermarkets. Because it's an offer they have to have the deal."
When it came to the first list item - strawberries - we laid a classic trap, two punnets for £3. All the teams were attracted by the offer, while only one of the Spenders, Chas, spotted that there might be a problem with it: "We don't know how much they are normally, do we?"
Offers like these appear to be helping us save money. But as our expert says, that's not always true: "They're immediately drawn to the strawberries with the big red ticket - 2 for £3.
The consumer doesn't spend any time assessing the actual price of the product and whether it really does represent good value or not."
Even when the deal is better value, the chances are that this type of offer - along with BOGOFs ('buy one get one free' deals) just make you buy more food than you actually need, so you end up throwing it away. That's why, this summer, the Government said it wanted the supermarkets to scrap deals like this.
The next item on the list was pasta. We placed the cheapest packet at the bottom of the shelf and placed a more costly but flashier looking alternative at the end of the aisle. Both the Students and the Spenders snapped up the pricier pasta. The analysts weren't convinced, but only because they didn't fancy that type of pasta.
Tomatoes came next. The teams came across the problem of not knowing whether packs of tomatoes or loose ones were cheaper. It's often difficult to work out the best value because supermarkets are allowed to price loose fruit and vegetables by the kilo, but packs per item. In our test, only the Savers had the maths know-how to calculate that in this case it was the pack that was cheapest.
For expert, Jeff Bray, "This is a classic case of the retailer not being as clear as they could be. The supermarket could easily give a by weight price on the packaged item as well, but you have to wonder why they don't."
A multipack of toilet rolls saw our shoppers wrestle with yet more maths. We might be led to assume that buying in bulk saves you money - but not in this case. It was actually the smaller pack of loo rolls that provided the best value. But only two of our teams realised.
We tried the same trick with cola. Individual cans worked out better value than the six-pack but this time, all of our teams spotted the best deal.
The final test was red wine. Supermarkets often feature big cuts in the booze aisle but are the deals always what they seem? In the case of wine reduced from £8 to £5.50, it's important to question how long the wine was really sold for at that higher price. Sometimes, it's only a few days but supermarkets still make a big noise about bringing the price down.
They get away with it as long as they display a sign explaining what they've done. We displayed a sign showing that the higher price only lasted seven days, but it's so small, all our shoppers missed it.
In this case, only our Students resisted the deal.
"When it's on offer very often at £5.50 instead of the original £8 price, it really does beg the question what that bottle of wine's actually worth," says Jeff Bray. "And it's almost deceptive practice by the supermarkets to have it so often at a discounted price."
If all our teams had managed to find the cheapest deal on all the list items, their shopping total would have been £11.96. However, in each case, they all spent more than they needed to. The Students spent £21.10, the Analysts £14.52 and the Spenders, £21.27. The savvy shoppers came out on top but even they were seduced by not-so-special deals that we based on real promotions in big supermarkets.
Stephen Robertson from the British Retail Consortium told us:
"What we see in supermarkets is that products are clearly displayed, clearly priced and yes... occassionally things happen whereby, as your example shows, the multipack is, unit price, more expensive.
"Big supermarkets carry about forty thousand products so mistakes do creep in. I've been in retail for a long time and I know that mistakes do creep in.
"Retailers set out to delight their customers. We're blessed in this country with a reallly competative set of supermarkets and they succeed by having happy shoppers who become loyal. There's no milage in a supermarket pulling the wool over customers eyes."
What kind of shopper are you? Do you find you are seduced by supermarket offers? Find out how you could save money by being a savvier shopper.
Let us know about your shopping habits. We can't publish any new allegations but if you have anything else you want us to investigate please send us your story.
Related links
BBC Raw: Understanding percentages when you're shopping
BBC Raw: How to reduce your monthly outgoings
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~49~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Couldn't agree more. I drink becks alcohol free lager which was on sale for £2.85 per 6 pack. Now on "special offer", 2 for £6. Deal or no deal? No deal.
Complain about this comment
if you go to [name removed for legal reasons]they have their own orange juice for sale at 86p each or 3 for £2. But they also have a four pack priced at £2.91. So if you gao 4 loose ones you SAVE 5p.
Complain about this comment
What are you making such a big deal about !! OK they make mistakes about a few prices. The choice and quality in the UK is fantastic compared to the rest of Europe. You do not know when you are well off.
Complain about this comment
Supermarkets are in the market to make a profit, would people rather they go out of business? If people are stupid enough to fall for their marketing tricks then thats their fault, its not exactly complex maths or is this symptomatic of the types that moaned during maths at school? 'Whats the point, i dont need maths in real life'. . .
Complain about this comment
[Supermarket removed] prices on Nescafe Gold---100g jar for 2.60 or 200g jar for 5.79.....
saving 50p buying two small ones.....
Complain about this comment
I always carry my mobile with me which has a calculator, when I'm buying things like toilet roll or nappies etc, I work out the cost per item, or I will look at the cost per weight etc, I am always trying to save money. One thing I find really difficult is when they put 'treats' at the end of the isles, I always end up spending more money then I should. This week I'm trying the shop on line.
Complain about this comment
Supermarkets are always ripping you off if you do not check your prices regularly, my experience was with frozen chicken breasts, My , local [supermarket removed] normally sold these certain packs of chicken breasts for 2.99 a pack normally but when they put them on offer for bogof, they doubled the price to 5.98.
Complain about this comment
when I go shopping I always look for mis priced items, i got an 8 pack of chocolate bars for 16p, being a chocoholic I purchased all they had 43 packs! saved £86 as they should have been £2.16
Complain about this comment
At the shop I go to you can buy individaul cans of tomatoes at 48p or a 4 pack at £2.49!
On a plus tho, they did once have a deal on packs of tea - £3.15 a pack, or £3 for 2. I bought 2!
Complain about this comment
the guy Ann was interviewing should be a MP only he wouldn't answer a question. oh i had to look at a 2 for 1 deal for ages before i realised that it was cheaper to buy 2 separate packs and not the 2 wrapped together. at my local [supermarket removed] store.
Complain about this comment
I have always been very careful about prices in supermarkets, doing the maths in my head or using my mobile phone calculator for the harder sums. I have noticed two main supermarkets now removing their scales from the fruit and veg areas, so you can't weigh the packs anymore!
Complain about this comment
What a ridiculous article - virtually every supermarket displays a 'price per 100g' or per unit, a very simple and fast way to ascertain which pack, brand, offer etc represents the best value for money. Supermarkets are profit-making companies - this is surely not a surprise to anyone - of course their objective is profitability, why would they be expected behave otherwise? Supermarkets give clear pricing - if customers are too dense to look for the information or choose how they budget you can hardly blame the retailer.
As for Anne Robinson’s questioning of her guest – of course the man is paid by the retailers – it is a retail association – however is it not us, the customers who provide their profit and therefore his salary?
Complain about this comment
I've been checking the prices in supermarkets for a long time, you have to be very careful with 'special offers'. As more and more small independent traders go out of business the consumer is going to have less and less choice. I am fed up with feeling ripped off even when I know what the supermarkets are up to. The people most likely to lose out are the elderly as they would never think that their local supermarket is using these dishonest tricks.
Complain about this comment
I went to [supermarket removed] in (MK) on Wednesday of this week and bought 2 x 40 packs of PG Tips for less than 1 x 80 pack of PG Tips that were on offer and have bought several times washing powder and diswasher tablets cheaper in 2 x smaller packs than 1 x larger pack on offer. If you look very carefully, quite often organic or smaller packs work out cheaper than packs on offer, I have bought Green & Blacks Organic cocoa powder cheaper in [supermarket removed] than a well known non organic cocoa powder on offer before and it's the same with organic and non-organic veg. I always look at all the products now as the 'on offer' goods quite often are not cheaper than buying the same quantity of the same goods in different pack sizes, if there is something on offer I look to see what else is on the shelf as it normally means there is something cheaper of better quality for the same product available.
Keep it going supermarkets, cause I get a very good deal when you put things on offer cause it now makes me look harder at whats there :)
Cheers
Donna
Complain about this comment
Why does Ann seem to think that everyone wants to buy bigger items? As a single person, living alone, I am delighted that now I can get a better deal occasionally from a supermarket by buying the smaller item!
Complain about this comment
The gentleman from the BRC is off his trolley, is he really telling us that his members who have all the data on our shopping habits through store cards do not have the technology to look at the price divide by the unit/ weight. This should generate an exception if the larger quantity is in fact more expensive than the lower quantity.
Simple maths, if their true intention is to give us good value, alas I think the not. Obviously they will say it was purchased at a higher price therefore they cannot.
Lucky for me my mental arithmetic is ok, I think everyone should carry a calculator around.
Better still let the scanner be programmed to tell us the unit price.
Complain about this comment
This report is a joke. Supermarkets are not here to make you happy. They are here to sell you products. If you accept the price, then do not complain. They must show a unit price for products. Who of those "poor" customers is actually checking that? Customers are lazy and Watchdog is using that to just blame companies for everything.
Complain about this comment
I enjoyed Anns interview with the guy the Super-Markets pay to represent us, sorry them (Note: Reg Holingsworth is not a great role model to base yourself on).
Clubcards & Loyalty Cards turn our purchasing habbits into Personal Data, and therefore, any pricing mistakes they make are technically "personal data", which, as personal data would be covered by the Data Protection Act !
Any mistake should be rectified quickly, and will be very easy to find and rectify !
Complain about this comment
All the supermarkets I visit also price fruit and veg in lbs and kgs so you have no way of making a true comparison of the prices of loose and pre-packed goods. Who believes that's a mistake?
Complain about this comment
If you shop in Tesco, the product price label on the shelf edge displays not only the product price, but it gives the price unit. This could be the price per individual tin in a multi pack, per sheet of toilet paper or per 100 grams. This gives customers all the information that they need to compare product against product, price against price.
Watchdog should do more research I feel before making such sweeping generalisations. It does seem almost fashionable to have a go at supermarkets, but if one is doing what Watchdog says should happen, then give credit where its due!
Complain about this comment
I could not believe that someone from the British Retail Consortium could not work out in his head the price of goods when asked by Ann - she asked him twice. Was he just evading the question or did he really not know how to work it out without a calculator? How do these people get these jobs?
Complain about this comment
I'm going to go slitely against Watch Dog in this case. If you saw two products, one a cheap brand Coke, another a high end Coke and the high one was on a buy one get one free, but the cheaped one was not. Could it been taken as abit unfair to compair a higher end product to a lower end one, plus to asumme just because the lower end product is a better value to you, it is better value for everyone? Maybe some one is having a party and prefers the higher end coke, so the higher end drink would be better value for them, or some one likes the higher end drink, so that then maybe better value for them. I just feel it maybe a bit unfair to assume because it is bad value for you, it must be for everyone.....
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Surely these deceptive practices, by not just supermarkets, but other retailers as well, could be considerd criminal deceptions.
It is a bit like buying items off Ebay that look great value for money until you look at the shipping costs. I recently purchased or was about to purchase a 2 pack of Phillips shaving gell at £4.99 with a shipping price of £2.99. I was about to order 5 packs until I discovered that the shipping charge would be £14.95. Luckily for me a quick email to the seller resulted in an eventual shipping charge of £4.95.
I know that Ebay frown heavily on sellers trying to make money out of exorbitant shipping charges and actually stop sellers from doing this.
Maybe we also need legislation to stop other retailers of using these decptive practices. Or does such legislation already exist?
Complain about this comment
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
'RETAILERS ATTEMPT TO GET CONSUMERS TO SPEND MORE MONEY SHOCK'
I think this is the most trivial non-story I have ever seen on a consumer programme. Robinson's hectoring of the retailer, backed up by her braying rentamob in the gallery was painful to watch. Interview me, Robinson! I know I'd put up a better fight than that straw dog you put up there. Of course, as I'm not a retailer, I'd be able to get away with saying what I'm sure he wanted to say all the way through the interview:
'Of course supermarkets try to get consumers to spend more money. Of course they try and get them to choose goods with a higher unit cost. Of course big packets aren't always cheaper. And if you are too stupid to realise this, and too stupid to notice the price per weight sign on the shelf, then you may well end up with a poor deal. Now stop bleating on about it.'
Complain about this comment
Bought a few of 5 pk of dairy milk multipack advertised as 2 for 2.50 at asda went to the tills it was 3 for 4. I found something was wrong as i was paying more than i orginally thought. As the 3 for 4 on the tills costed more @ 1.33/ each pack than 2 for 2.50 @ 1.25/each pack on the shelf. I went to customer services they overrided the system and I got a bargained for. This time the tills were wrong and shelf was right. It is so easy for someone to turn a blind eye on this and not know.
Complain about this comment
With so many products on sale in superrmarkets people have to make judgments about value for money based on quality as well as quantity. So the warning about wine was apposite. But when it comes to working out which size is best value it's a simple arithmetic calculation ( not maths and certainly not rocket science ); if you can't be bothered or are unable to do this then remember the phrase CAVEAT EMPTOR. Anne's interview was outrageous, bullying and harassing her guest, never affording him the basic courtesies nor giving him time to finish his answers. If that wasn't enough, there was a sort of rent a mob egging her on. I'm looking for serious consumer journalism from this programme not facile bear-baiting
Complain about this comment
Something I have noticed in my local petrol stations on a fair number of occasions is prices displayed on the shelves NOT coming through at the tills. You have to watch the screen like a hawk as they scan the items, and then challenge them if you see a price that doesn't look right. It has now become so common that the staff don't even check what you're challenging them on, and just amend the price on the spot. How often do we call into these places for a few things and not even bother checking the total we pay.
Imagine my shock when my weekly local main chain supermarket did not give me the discount offered on soup at the end of my receipt! I checked previous ones and found the same mistake on 3 weeks out of 4!! The supervisor who checked this for me tried to tell me that the offer wasn't on every week, despite my friend testifying that it WAS on every week, as they had remarked how good an offer it was, EACH WEEK. It seemed to be agreed that the offer price sticker had been left on the shelf "by mistake" over all those weeks!!!
I remember my mum diligently checking off every price on her till roll every week when she got home from shopping, but those were the good old days when prices were stuck onto every item and entered manually. She was looking for human error. Today we trust machines too much, and the programmers of those machines WAY too much.
Complain about this comment
If you go to [supermarket removed] have a look at the pepper corns, they have a small pot and one twice the size for less money! The [supermarket removed] is great at pricing with their melons, they do whole ones for £2, half for £1 and quarters for 50p, I can't eat a whole melon before it goes off and love that I am not getting worse value by buying what I can eat. I hate that [supermarket removed] has great offers if you buy lots of meat at the moment, I don't have a freezer so can't take advantage of them.
Complain about this comment
"If you shop in Tesco, the product price label on the shelf edge displays not only the product price, but it gives the price unit. This could be the price per individual tin in a multi pack, per sheet of toilet paper or per 100 grams. This gives customers all the information that they need to compare product against product, price against price."
err no it doesn't. The problem is when you have a product that could be priced in many different ways, such as per item, per 100g, per lb etc. there is nothing to stop the supermarkets from labelling different versions of a product in different ways making them impossible to compare. It is ok on the vegetable isles because they have scales and I can do the maths but elsewhere it is impossible to compare them. It gets even more complicated when the price on the packet is different to the price on the label and then you have to take into account all the offers. I can accept that mistakes do happen but sometimes pricing (especially of packed and loose veg) is over complicated.
Complain about this comment
[Supermarket removed] are selling a small jar of English mustard (100g)for 49p the larger jar of English mustard (190g) is just 48p & there are many more examples like this, couscous 500g 66p - 1000g £1.38.
I always check the 100g price if there are different sizes!
It doesn't take that long to do & over a year can save a fair bit of money.
Another tip is don't buy your Meat & veg there, go to a butcher for your meat and to a market for your fruit & veg. The quality of the meat is far superior and Fruit&Veg is normally last longer and there both cheaper!
Complain about this comment
Lucky enough I am old enough to be able to calculate without a calculator - we used to call it mental arithmetic.
I always double check when I spot a special offer away from where its normally displayed just to make sure there is a genuine saving.
I live very close to three large Supermarkets so there is genuine competition between them.
There is still some real savings to made provided you only buy what you can use { I know that may sound stupid but I know that some people will buy on impulse }
Overall I have to be fair and state that unit prices are a lot cheaper than they used to be on a pro rata basis { before Supermarkets } but of course you still have to watch it.
I have seen times where the special offer was not all that special.
Complain about this comment
if you look online you can often find vouchers and money back offers for supermarkets especially tesco. we do a lot of our shopping online as a lot of the time it works out cheaper with discount codes and most offer free delivery so you save on petrol.
you can even use online comparison shops to compare the prices of the supermarkets [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]to make sure you get the best price. Im finding I use the online vouchers and get the shopping delivered more and more, perfect for big busy families and the elderly who cant get out much.
you still get all the offers, collect your points and can refuse any 'substitutions' the store picker gives you in case the item is out of stock.
Complain about this comment
All those saying that Supermarkets are really helpful by putting the price per 100g etc on the label should look a little closer!
In my local store I get 'price per 100g' for one product and then 'price per item' for another has 'price per kg' - hardly helpful for comparison is it? Surely a blanket 'price per 100g' would be best and the most help?
Complain about this comment
In Romania we have a recent law that says: Is obligatory to put also a price by weight for every food product. So it's very easy to see the price difference between packaged products. I will not be able to do the calculation with 0.65 * 13.452 there.. for every product :)
Complain about this comment
Quite right. [supermarket removed] yesterday were selling 2.5 litres of screenwash at £1. Or 5 litres for £3!
Complain about this comment
Tomatoes - If your supermarket was 'representative' then the loose would have been better value cos no matter how many packs I look at of any fruit or veg there is always one 'bad' in the pack, at least with the loose I know I'm getting the same number good ones.
I'll admit that I do get caught up in these deals but I always ask myself the question 'do I honestly need x packs or will 1 do?' especially with stuff like fruit,veg and meat. Tins and packets can last forever so I take advantage cos I know I'll eat them eventually.
Complain about this comment
Who do need a mobile to do the sum up in supermarkets?? Brains can be useful from time to time :-).
It is the busines law, people want to buy quality and good price while supermarkets want to earn money.
If people are stupid enough, they are going to pay expensive, if they are clever enough, they are having good stuff by few money. That is.
Complain about this comment
I recently bought two tins of chocolates at [supermarket removed] on offer at two for £10. The offer has since expired and the chocolates are back to the regular price of £5 each!
I also notice at Halloween that they bring in large buckets of Swizzels sweets obviously aimed for the trick or treat market. I think they slap on a price of £19.99 and then had a stickers saying they are now half price at £9.99, I perhaps i could understand this if they sold them all year round and at the higher price but they never sell these at any other time than Halloween!
Complain about this comment
I drive my wife mad checking the prices. They mislead not only on special offers but on everyday purchases. I am always drawing the manager's attention to anomalies in the pricing of multi-packs. Check out the price of chilled [brand name removed - vegetarian] mince in a fancy box against frozen in a plastic bag. They also use the shelf edgers in a misleading way, eg: a single pack will be priced at £?? per 100 grams but a multipack could be priced at £?? per kilo. Easy enough for aware people to work out but a lot of old people are still struggling with decimalisation and can't be bothered doing the sums.
Complain about this comment
Only yesterday i bought some sweets [supermarket removed], 3 for £2 was the offer, and 67p a packet... i realised that there wasn't going to be much of a saving, but i thought i'd go for them anyway, buying all three packets.
I went to the till paid for them, and i saved 1p... just 1p... i suppose its a saving, but i wouldn't have bought three packets if there wasn't a huge offer there. Nevermind, i'll enjoy my fudge!
Complain about this comment
I watched this item on Watchdog with great interest as I've long held the belief that supermarkets deliberately blur pricing information.
One of the most common practices is with packaged produce such as tomatoes, bananas, etc. They don't show a weight, they dont' show a price per kilo. In order to draw a comparison with a loose product is necessary to weight the packet, make a minor deduction for packaging and then attempt to work out the cost per kilo, something only people with a keen head for figures can do accurately without a calculator.
A recent example [supermarket removed]was 'Market Value' bananas which were, from ecollection, 89p per pack with a gross weight of approx 1200gms which gives an approximate price of 74p per kilo. Loose bananas were 49p per kilo. What's most offensive about this is the fact that these prepacked bananas were labelled 'Market Value' giving one the impression that buying 'in bulk' provides the best value.
Another tactic I see employed regularly is how unit costs are displayed. A recent example ... Olive Oils. [Supermarket removed] own brands show a price per litre, whilst most of the more expensive oils are priced per 100ml. It's surpising how many people don't know how many millilitres there are in a litre, thus making it difficult to compare.
A pet hate is the deliberate 'over pricing' of produce so that it can then be offered at a discount, one of the most common of which is strawberries which are on sale at half price for most of the season.
It's a con and something should be done to prevent it.
It's becoming difficult to know the true value of anything nowadays as you get the feeling that artificially high and unrealistic SRPs are set purely so retailers can offer the products at supposedly bargain prices!!
Complain about this comment
And another thing ....!
I believe the supermarkets should be brought to task over what I see as discrimination against single people! Unless a supermarket has a fresh meat and/or fish counter it's virtually impossible to buy a single serving of anything. I don't want two pieces of fish, I want one. I don't want six lamb chops, I want three. Likewise, I don't want to buy one pack of green beans and get another one free ... I want to buy a SINGLE pack for it's true market price ... which is HALF what they want to charge.
Complain about this comment
Like everything I do, I know my market. I know most of their tricks and will not buy what I don't want/need but purchasing for one is difficult as everything is set up for two or more people.
If cat food at Supermarket A is on offer at 2 for £5.00 then it is a good deal (it has risen from 2.98 to 3.68 in the past 12-18 months which is what I judge as inflation along with petrol).
Cat treats are 99p in A but 1.16 in M. Guess where I stock up - yep at 99p.
I avoid my local Supermarket T because they are expensive.
Complain about this comment
Tuesday 13th October, this morning I found [supermarket removed by moderator], 4 Andrex Toilet Rolls for £1.65 (17.2 per 100 sheets-they tell me) and 9 toilet for £4.30 (19.9 pence per hundred).You must read all the info.to save your pennies!
Complain about this comment
I visited [supermarket removed] in Nottingham this week. I picked up 2 packs of grated cheese, which were priced at 2 for £3. On checking their actual prices they were £1.97 for the mature cheddar and £1 for the Mozarella Total £2.97. If I had bought 2 Mozarella it should have cost me £2 but because of the special offer it would have cost me £3.
I then went to buy some Soy Sauce. They were 59p each or £1.50 for 2, which made them 75p each to buy on the special offer.
As I pondered these ridiculous special offers it turned out that the particular Soy Sauce and cheese I chose were both on an individual special price offer but were both still included in the 2 for £- special offer.
[Supermarket removed]don't come out much better. I am repeatedy buying things on special offers but often pay the full price at the check out, which only becomes apparent when back at home. I then have to return to the store and queue at customer services to get a refund. Their tills also say the item is not on special offer and they have to search the shop for the display that I shopped from.
[Supermarket removed]are also very bad at putting the special price or offer card on the actual shelf where the goods are. Choosing instead to do special displays that are nowhere near the aisle where the goods are being sold. They also move these displays on a regular basis so we can't find them again but more improtantly neither can customer services when we come back for our refunds.
I always check my prices and do the maths to check it is actually a good price and I usually know where the best prices are for the things I buy every week.
Keep up the good work Watchdog.
Complain about this comment
Check out the price of Weetabix in all the supermarkets, Special Saver packs of 48 and 72 are more expensive per item than 24s. [Supermarket removed]clearly try to hide this on their website by stating the price per unit for the larger packs but surprisingly omit this price per unit on the packs of 24, which have a cheaper unit price!
This has surprised me but they are obviously as trustworthy as British MP's. I won't trust them in the future!
Thanks for alerting people to this.
Complain about this comment
I lived in Germany for 4 years. Multibuys are illegal there meaning that offers are done only in terms of price reduction per item and the product must have been on sale at the "ordinary" price for quite some time, 6 months I think. Special offers on alcohol and cigarettes also illegal. Items sold by weight are priced reasonably and seasonally, the prices don't vary greatly. Fruit and veg you weigh and apply the price ticket yourself at electronic machines which was great. All things I'd love to see in this country. I live in Clydebank. There is only one main supermarket locally and they know it. Echoing what many have said here, where possible I use my phone calculator to double check offers and compare prices, get my fruit, veg and my daughters fish and meat (I'm vegetarian) from our local market, where these items are fresher therefore lasting longer and with only myself and daughter in the household I can buy the small amounts I need. I do feel ignored by the multibuys, especially in terms of products that are fresh or require refrigeration or freezing. Whilst the supermarkets are trying to make a profit, I don't think its too much to ask that they price clearly and consistently.
Complain about this comment
Strange how I have noticed many "bogus" offers since this show. Mostly with fruit and veg. It was cheaper to buy loose potatoes rather than the four in the pack by about 10p. it worked out cheaper to buy organic garlic than the individual value kind (with no offers an any).
I am now looking at all items on a compareable rate eg cost per 100g or per item rather than looking for the big red lables.
If everyone did that for a year I wonder how much the supermarkets would loose over a year?
Complain about this comment
I shop online which is useful as you're usually given the price per unit as well as the cost of the item. I have just done my weekly shop and found that Yorkshire Tea Bags (hard water variety!) are £1.81 for 80 or £3.99 for 160. It actually shows that the smaller pack is 72p per 100g and the larger pack is 80p per 100g. I really don't understand how the supermarket representative has the cheek to class these incidences as 'mistakes'. We have been brainwashed over the years to buy bigger as it's better value. Now that the message has got home the supermarkets are cashing in by taking advantage of our shopping 'habits'.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS