f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Which? have done a report into supermarket special offers and found many of them aren't offers at all.... well there's a surprise LOL!

For instance Carex handwash - normally £1, put the price up to £1.80 for a week and then do a 2 for £2 'special offer'

The supermarkets have all apologised for the 'errors' highlighted by the report.

They really must think we are all mugs!

For the last 12 months I have been trying to do all my shopping at the local butcher, greengrocer and the rest at Costco whenever possible!

David Lock

Well if the Tesco special offer of a litre of Bells at £15 is a scam I can put up with it

Cheers, dl

dpb

So you've forked out for a copy of which to tell you what you all ready know

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Sigh...... nope, just read the report summary online after seeing it on the news this morning so to you!!

RA Dunk

Seen this on the news this morning as well. I'm pretty sure this supermarket scamming was recently covered on Watchdog as well.

Everybody are out to take the p1ss nowadays TBH.

dpb

I doubt there's a person in the country really believes they're getting a bargain from a supermarket. They rely solely on footfall and they know we know that they know

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

The one that gets me is the "XYZ, £1.49 a bottle, buy two for £3!!" type of "offer".

I've seen FAR worse, bacon at £2.69 a pack, buy two for £6.

And TESCO are by far the worst at it.
If you point it out, they will put it right, they say.
But a week later, the "offer" is still on.

richs2891

Local Asda to me, cat food 12 pack for £6.49 or 2x 6 packs for £6 !

Richard

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

I end up going to 2/3 supermarkets as well as the butcher and a couple of local guys for veg and eggs, if I did everything in one place on a weekly basis i'd be about £10/15 out of pocket which on it's own is not a huge amount of money, but over a year it's the best part of 800 quid @ the higher end, which is not exactly a small sum.

I think it really pays to pay attention EVERY time you shop as they always change the prices, one example a month ago one large green pepper was almost a £1 yesterday I bought 3 for £1, obviously when I discovered it was £1 I put it back, no ******* way i'll pay a quid for one pepper. and I think there a rip off at 33p each but I wanted chicken fahitas for dinner.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

More for the idiots who get suckered into these deals.

I hate shopping with a passion, so I let the mrs do all of it online now.
But, she does still have to watch for the offers. It will be stupid things like 2 small tubs of Flora being cheaper than the larger tub.

But hey, I set a budget and she sticks to it.

Back to the original point, I don't trust any company now. Not in the slightest. I don't care if they have rave reviews on here or they were voted the number one company for blah blah blah. I take the view that every company is out to make as much money as they can. And why shouldn't they, you know, being a capitalist society and all?

The internet is a fantastic tool for the savy shopper.
Anyone that gets ripped off in this day and age deserves it in my opinion. Actually, I wouldn't even call it that. More like the shopper being lazy and not doing their home work.

wrx300scooby

I too have seen some stupid offers like some posted above, I think Tesco are the worst by far. I was so happy when my missus started doing the shop online, trouble was that most of the fruit and veg was short dated so that didn't last long

RA Dunk

I've heard of this happening quite often when it comes to online shopping, stuff they can't get rid of in store gets sent out to online consumers.

tony de wonderful

They say BOGOF I say **** off.

Mouser

Pity the main supermarkets couldn't curb their massive Christmas tv budgets (featuring questionable celebrities, as if they shop beside the riff-raff ) and pass on the savings to their customers.

Pong

iTrader: (2)

If it has been at £1.80 for long time, then dropped to £1 for few weeks, they can put it back up and sell it as a promo as you say, as it's not price established (which has to be 28 days), but if it was £1 for longer than 28 days, then it's illegal to put it up and sell as a reduction price only (like 'was 1.80, now 1') but you can put it on multibuy, as single unit price is not affected.

I actually work in 'online supermarket' and am quite happy with promos we do (well, i know at least in my area we dont do put prices up before promos). As you say for smaller packs are better than bigger, it all depends on what supplier wants to do and what competitors do. So if we match tesco price on big pack, but promo is only on small packs, it might work out as smaller ones are better deal, as if supplier dont want to run promo on others, no one wants to self fund promotions and lose money.

Graz

Some of there techniques are pretty sneaky. I don't do the shopping much these days as the wife is on maternity leave but I did offer to do a shop for her last Sunday.

She wanted a pack of chicken legs/thighs for a stew so I get to that area in the meat section and find them. They are emblazoned with red stickers saying special offer £4 / kg, fab I thought, but then clocked the shelf immediately below with packs of legs/thighs 1kg for £3 but no red stickers. It seemed like the individually weighed / priced packs were £4/kg but the fixed weight packs were £3/kg. On first glance I would have bought the ones with the red stickers and thought I was getting a good deal. Tesco BTW.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

They were found to have 'erroneously' put it up to £1.80 for a week before the multi buy arrived. It had been £1 for a long time before that or so the report said!

dpb

I'd like to ask the manager for one of them half price.

hodgy0_2

Mmm, it's gone all mumsnet in here

Dingdongler

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

As with other forms of the media, don't believe all you read. Although, in this case, it is probably true.

Retailers aren't all the same thankfully. I don't honestly think I've seen a dodgy offer where I work (not that I can recall). The only 'daft' offer we had a while back was for Radox, it was across the whole range and was something like 2 for £1.60, not daft in itself, however one of the lines was £1.64, so it was cheaper to get the two. I'd personally just look at that as a bargain, but not one pleasant customer who went on to argue for god knows how long that the offer was ridiculous being cheaper to buy two than one,and she only wanted one.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

And the problem is?????????????

That is an offer, 2 for £6. I assume (probably correctly) that the 2 for £6 isn't a constant offer. Therefore it's a promotion and that is the whole point, to get a 'bargain'. No different than the 6 pack being buy one get one free, that would work out cheaper than the 12 pack too.

What would be stupid (as picked up later in the thread, although I understand where the guy explaining why it can happen is coming from) is if the two 6 packs still worked out cheaper than the 12 pack when at their usual, full price.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

No worries, now why don't you pop over to the horny student thread and get back to objectifying women

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

Like people who buy massively over priced German cars when they can get twice the number of standard toys at a 1/3 or more on most other cars.

richs2891

Well its seems from experience that the 2 for £6 offer is on three weeks out of the four.

Does not make any sense to me, I'm not sure what the rules are regarding "offers" and how long can run but as pointed out its definitely buyers beware at supermarkets.
So yeah pretty stupid to buy the 12 pack.

Richard

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

What the hell are you on about and what does it have to do with anything on this thread?

The Trooper 1815

iTrader: (31)

The fact that people think they are getting a good deal when if they shop about and don't get blinded by market hype they can get better products elsewhere.

Happy?

Or are you getting ring dhobied by car company hype to enhance your inadeqacy?

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Of course it would be stupid to buy the 12 pack, while the offer runs.

If say, the 6 pack is usually £3.49 each, then when no offer is running, buying the 12 pack is better value (if you wish to buy that many in one go).

I'm not 100% on the actual law regarding offers, but I'll explain how ours work. Our normal promotions run for 4 weeks. So for a 4 week period, an item may be reduced, BOGOF, or on a multi buy. After that, the products will go back to their original price, they may go on offer again after another 4 week period, once a different promotion has run, they may not go on offer again for some time, that just depends, presumably on what deal is struck between the company and the suppliers.

Pong appears to have a more detailed knowledge of what is/isn't allowed, but your example certainly falls into a bog standard offer, nothing underhand or misleading. The example you have given, to me anyway, isn't a case of buyer beware, it's just a case of being savvy and keeping an eye on offers.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Surely that is more a case of taste/liking a brand or particular item, than being fooled by any hype??????????? Buying a car is a big purchase and surely you have to get one that you like in terms of it's design, styling, drive, performance etc. If that happens to be a German (overpriced car) then that's the buyer's money. You might think it's overpriced, but if it ticks all the boxes for that particular person, then what's the problem?

Of course there will be people that see certain brands/products as a status symbol, but I bet for many it does just come down to taste.

That said, I do think perception of a brand may factor into a decision, but not necessarily from a snobby point of view, or being fooled by any hype. I would bet somewhere along the line, even you have made purchases and may still do, based on some sort of perception, even down to which shops you shop in.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Have you noticed the "50% Extra" type deals .. the price has gone up to match and it doesn't say free, but it tricks the customers into thinking they are getting something for nothing.