Discounts on wine

Lilith1980

Hi all,

Now don't shoot me down for this, I am just curious and I'm not up to speed on supermarket tactics lol.

I know the supermarkets are out to make money of course but I am just confused as to how they make money on the half-price deals they do on wine.

Myself and my other half shop at Mr T's and like a bottle of red most weeks but rather than pay full price, we look at the wines which are selling for half price. We were buying one that was on offer for quite a while, it used to be £10 a bottle but was going for £5 and it was a lovely wine. The offer has ended and we have continued to see it on the shelf for £10 but are loathe to pay that much as we could get through more than one bottle in an evening

So was this a genuine discount? How do we know which ones are genuine and which ones aren't, or is this the risk we take in buying half-price wines? Is it only when the discount is withdrawn that we find out if it was a genuine reduction?

Thanks

DCFC79

I think the supermarkets dotn make much if any profit on a bottle of wine at half price, what i think they do work on is that not only will you buy a bottle of red at half price but also other foods as well which then generates more sales

moonrakerz

The answer to this question is the same as to:

"Why are strawberries ALWAYS half price in every supermarket" !!

One particular wine my wife likes is £8.99 in Morrisons, she bought a bottle when it was "half price".
It is on sale in Iceland "normal price" - £12 for 3 bottles !

DCFC79

I think the supermarkets dotn make much if any profit on a bottle of wine at half price, what i think they do work on is that not only will you buy a bottle of red at half price but also other foods as well which then generates more sales

Charlton_Taz

Generally, if often works out that the supermarket will make just as much money on the 'half price' bottle of wine, as they do when its full price. How? The supplier takes the hit when the supermarket decides to 'promote' their wine. Bascially, When a surpermarket decides to have a wine offer they will demand the difference as a discount from the supplier and/or demand contributions for marketing costs etc. This may not happen all the time but is relatively common. Thats an example of the power our supermarkets have on suppliers.

And in terms of price you will find that the '£4-5' price is deliberately chosen as a marketing tool. Most people are happy spending £4-5 on a bottle of wine but not much more. Hence, they can make the customer feel very happy with themselves that they've got a good bottle of wine as you assume it must be a 'good one' as its been on sale for £10 at some point. Its a bit like the 'sale' sofas at DFS!!

bcl999

I, too, am finding nowadays that a lot of the "half-price" wine offers are vastly over-priced in the first place. I've found better offers in the wines which are reduced maybe by £1.50 or £2 - these seem to be more genuine reductions i.e. you are paying say £5 for a bottle genuinely worth £7 rather than "half-price" for a bottle that was never worth the full price in the first place. You really only have to look at similar wines not on offer to see what is the sort of normal price for that type of wine.

It's not just happening in wines. Yesterday, I looked for the frozen chicken breasts (Lakeland brand) advertised on offer in Tesco - "half-price" at £2.99 for 600g. I found them and they were right next to another brand ("something" Farm) of the same thing, same weight priced at £2.99 and not on offer! I ended up buying neither as I felt I was being taken for a fool.