Selection Boxes

denbo24

My local David Sands supermarket is splitting up their leftover selection boxes and putting the contents on the shelf. Can they do this? I thought they could only be sold as a selection box and not split up.

silverjay

Well if they are full sized bars and bar coded I don't see any reason why not.

Times are tough why should the shop buy new stock when it has a pile of selection boxes left over?

Now if they have "part of a multi-pack not to be sold separately" on them that would be a whole different situation.

DCFC79

Its perfectly fine to do as long as the item doesnt say "part of multipack not to be sold separately" but if its as silverjay says if its bar coded then its fine to do plus the guy has to make a living and if he can make some little extra by selling them individually then let him,

mervyn67

That's awful (not them - you!) Why don't you also report them to the local selection box police as well!

geordie_joe

DCFC79 wrote: »

Its perfectly fine to do as long as the item doesnt say "part of multipack not to be sold separately"

What difference do those words make? I don't know of any law that prevents a retailer from selling multi-pack items separately.

The manufacturer may not like it, but all they can do is stop selling to that retailer. Imagine cadbury stopping selling to tesco's?

DCFC79 wrote: »

but if its as silverjay says if its bar coded then its fine to do

Not necessarily, the item needs more than a bar code. It's needs the weight/size and the ingredients printed on the package.

One of the reasons why manufacturers print "part of multipack not to be sold separately" on items in multi-packs is because they have saved money not putting the ingredients on the individual items.

Also, often items in multi-packs are smaller than those sold individually, so the Trading Standards would be very interested in a shop selling (example) a 25g bag of crisps from a multi-pack when the shelf label says they are 32g.

DCFC79 wrote: »

plus the guy has to make a living and if he can make some little extra by selling them individually then let him,

As long as he complies with the law, and doesn't try to sell smaller items masquerading as full sized items, and the ingredients are are the packaging, so anyone with an allergy doesn't suffer by not knowing what they are eating.

singledaddy

ok, so its not 100% honest. but I cant blame them. I would do the same (afterall, you dont have to buy them)

itsallinthemind

My local co-op does it. Say a can comes loose from a 6pk og coke. They sell the remaining 5 seperately or as a 5pk. The items say 'Not to be sold seperately'. I have also seen Sainsburys do it.

But seriously, who cares anyway? They can write 'Must be consumed whilst wearing green socks', can they request it-yes, can they enforce it-hardly.

Enterprise_1701C

Martins do this - I have spent many an hour doing it (don't work there anymore!). The items do not need to be barcoded either. It is partly a way of correcting stock levels after all the bars of chocolate that disappear over the rest of the year!

Chocmonster7

My Dad told me about an article he read the other week where a guy runs a company doing just what the OP mentions. Big producers employ him to take the selection boxes apart and then they send the chocoalte bars back out as normal stock. Sounds like the supermarket is just cutting out the middle man and the extra costs!

taxiphil

The reason the manufacturer prints "part of multipack not to be sold separately" is because they want the the multipack discount to be an inducement to the end user, and not the retailer. The purchase by a consumer of a multipack brings several benefits to the manufacturer (besides the obvious fact that more is being sold): the product is consumed at a faster rate than if the units were sold individually, particularly for confectionery and crisps - a consumer will make a trip to their own cupboard to scoff another pack far more readily than they'll go to the shop to buy another individual bag. Selling in bulk to the end user also performs a function known as "taking the consumer out of the market" for a particular product, which harms rivals and makes it harder for new brands/manufacturers to enter the marketplace.

But as has been said, there's no law at all against selling individual components from multipacks (provided the packaging states the ingredients/weight/nutritional info) - the wording is just used as an attempt to embarrass the retailer into not doing it.

uolypool

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

Martins do this - I have spent many an hour doing it (don't work there anymore!). The items do not need to be barcoded either. It is partly a way of correcting stock levels after all the bars of chocolate that disappear over the rest of the year!

My son was doing this for 3 hours boxing day.There was him and 2 other lads doing it he said it was like a sweat shop;)