Supermarket Tricks

Andyjenk

One way to save money when shopping in supermarkets is to watch out for their little tricks. The following are frequently used in my local supermarkets. Perhaps you can add more?

1. Placement of non-offer items in amongst offer items. For example, I have seen 5 shelves of soft drinks with a special offer on buying any 4. However, one of the middle shelves contains higher priced drinks which are not on offer. The idea here is that you will pick up one or more of the non-offer items in the 4 you select, so you not only pay full price for the items but also buy a higher priced item which you did not intend to buy. This does not just apply to whole shelves. I’ve seen the same thing with side-by-side mushrooms, etc.
2. Offer not on offer. No matter what it says on the shelf labels, the till charges what it is told to. So you buy a special offer item and are charged full price. The excuse is invariably that the offer has just ended and the label has not yet been changed. When you complain, the offer is honoured but the offer labels are removed from the shelves.
3. Same types of item have different base units for the unit price. I’ve seen vegetables priced per Kilogram, per 100 grams and even per 100 Kilograms! This seems only to be done to make comparisons a little bit more complicated.
4. Wrong Unit Price. I’ve seen a shelf label for a 500 gram pack of minced beef with a unit price of £3.69 per Kilogram and a pack price of £3.69 (500 grams!)
5. Price of a large packet costs more than two packets of half the size. This often happens with special offers, but sometimes also when the items are not on offer.
6. Items which appear to have a “Special Offer Price” sticker but on closer inspection of the small print the “price” is the amount of the reduction.
7. Identical perishable items reduced for a quick sale are not always reduced to the same amount even with the same sell-by date.
8. Shelf label price is not the same as that printed on the packet. You should be charged the lower price, but this is not always the case.
9. The price charged at the till can be just plain wrong (i.e. neither the price on the shelf nor the price on the item).
10. Hiding the price. The price is either not displayed at all, or some distance from the goods. This is aimed at those who would probably buy the item but do not have the time to find a member of staff.

grannybiker

Canny shoppers should always check unit price. Legally they should all be using metric weights and converting between 100g and 1KG is quite straightforward- add a couple of 00s / move the decimal point 2 places to make an easy comparison. Persuaded an older shopper to buy the loose mushrooms in Sainsbury's yesterday rather than the yellow label pre-pack as they were over £1 a kilo cheaper!
As far as overcharging at the tills goes, I always check my receipt, particularly on special offer or yellow label goods. This is where most mistakes seem to happen, and it's nearly always on stuff I wouldn't normally buy at full price. Never had a problem getting difference refunded, (tho' annoying if I've frozen food I need to get home!) Have even had a refund for goods I've been misled into thinking are on offer!
So... ALWAYS CHECK YOUR RECEIPT!
Not a problems at all if I'm in Tesco as I always get DTD as a bonus, so they can carry on as far as I'm concerned!

Maysie

sainsburys labels on chickens nearly caught me out last week. The price per grams is the largest figure on the packaging. Its at the bottom right. Correct me if i am wrong but traditionally hasn't the price always been in the bottom right. The price of the chicken was twice the price i thought it was my sister spotted my mistake and asked was i really going to spend over £6 on a chicken! The real price was on there just same font as other information. The price i saw jumped out at me as it was larger font. Price per gram was in smaller font to grrrrrrrrr

C_Ronaldo

Andyjenk wrote: »

One way to save money when shopping in supermarkets is to watch out for their little tricks. The following are frequently used in my local supermarkets. Perhaps you can add more?

1. Placement of non-offer items in amongst offer items. For example, I have seen 5 shelves of soft drinks with a special offer on buying any 4. However, one of the middle shelves contains higher priced drinks which are not on offer. The idea here is that you will pick up one or more of the non-offer items in the 4 you select, so you not only pay full price for the items but also buy a higher priced item which you did not intend to buy.

you would be silly to fall for this, if you are choosing bottles of pop then i suggest you go by the price on the SEL, if there is no piece of red paper(as in sainsburys) next to the product description showing 4 for £3 then that item isnt on offer, this way you save time waiting at the till for a CS to sort it out or for someone to swap the 1 bottle not on offer for 1 that is