Panorama - tonight (Monday 5th)

rising_from_the_ashes

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

RFTA - that's a cunning trick, ain't it? :mad: . You have to have a degree in astro physics or summat to work out a comparative price. Even with a calculator it takes ages to work out the best value. It must be a deliberate policy, it happens so often.

VfM4meplse wrote: »

I disagree with this, the maths is comparatively simple. If nothing else, comments like this should encourage parents to ensure their kids pay attention at junior school.

Sorry VfM4meplse but I disagree - cat litter is a classic one where some brands are eg a 10kg bag and other brands are 10L bags (with the price tickets showing price / kg or price / L).

It is very complicated to work out the real cost of these - especially as different types of litter weigh different amounts so 10L of paper litter is a different weight from 10L of wood .... then trying to compare that to something that's sold by kg.

Sorry but way beyond the average consumer.:(

taxiphil

jenniewb wrote: »

Not as bad as when they do this and its actually WRONG!
I do my own sums and very often come up with a different result.

Same here, I spot numerous mistakes. To give just one example:

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=268285073

£1.31 (£0.16/100sheet)

WRONG... Should say £0.08/100sheet

Admittedly, the price is actually cheaper than what they're claiming, but the reverse effect is that the other, more expensive brands of toilet roll appear much better value than they actually are when you compare them to the Tesco Value one.

Accidental or deliberate? I don't know, but they haven't corrected it since July.

jenniewb wrote: »

There should be a law against them doing that, for many they employ so much trust in the labels and time again they abuse that trust.

There is such a law - the Price Marking Order 2004 - but Trading Standards just aren't interested in prosecuting companies like Tesco.

pineapple

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

It is very complicated to work out the real cost of these - especially as different types of litter weigh different amounts so 10L of paper litter is a different weight from 10L of wood .... then trying to compare that to something that's sold by kg.

Sorry but way beyond the average consumer.:(

I've noted lots of instances where they apparently try to bamboozle you by pricing up similar products differently and it can make it really difficult to compare. But the main one for me is where you can actually buy two small bottles/containers cheaper than one large budget one! I've noticed this with vodka particularly (for my home made plum brandy, honest ).
Another favourite is when they mark down a 4 pack of, say, baked beans and announce the savings in big bold letters. But adjacent products, on comparison, are still cheaper!

ALIBOBSY

To be honest I wasn't expecting much new in this programme, but still it passed on 30 mins. I knew that the supermarkets were doing some stuff like this (I always worked out the best bargain comparing small to large packs and worked out unit prices for the multibuy packs), but I never realised how widespread and totally blatant they are about it. If nothing else this programme may well have shown more people how much a con the supermarkets so called offers are.

This is why I have been trying to move away from the big 4. I use local farm shops where possible and aldi/lidl who seem to do better "value" products. By "value" I mean better quality or amounts for simular money to the big 4. TBH meat and veg in the big stores are on the whole a rip off and very poor quality. The so called value brands are getting worse and worse quality whilst creeping up in price. I prefer somewhere like Aldi and to a lessor extent Lidl where the products week to week are on a simular price, not all this going up one month just to be "on offer" the next and with 4 kids a shop in these smaller stores with less to choose from makes shopping far less of a headache.

Still bob in to the big 4 on occasion for offers or to use vouchers, but I simply could not afford to do a regular weekly shop in any of them.

Ali x

phillo365

They try to con us with price reductions so don't feel guilty when we exploit the loop holes.

FrugalFriend

My golden rule is .... I always check my receipt. The amount of people who do this, from my observation, I'd say is less then 1%. If you don't check your receipt (and change received if paying by cash) you will be done, no question. I'm mostly talking about, no or incorrect credit given for BOGOFs, mutibuys, special offers, price markdowns or reductions, coupons, etc .....

Sorry but that's just the reality, "honest" mistakes or not, I've found they're almost always to the supermarkets advantage. If they were truly random it'd be 50/50.

klemutot

Pink-winged wrote: »

I haven't had a chance to watch the programme yet but will do soon. I was really annoyed recently when I went to buy bacon.....it cost £1.98 per pack or as highlighted by a yellow shelf edge label, two for £4. The label was bright yellow and implied this was a special offer so was designed to make shopper think they are getting a good deal. The supermarket in question clearly think I'm stupid!

I also hate the fact that some products are sitting side by side, but for one the price is listed in grams, the other is listed in kilograms which makes it more difficult to compare costs. Most people can work it out, but some can't, some are too busy to do so, and others don't care.

Anyway, as this is more of a grocery thread than Old Style I'll move it over to the ["]Food Shopping & Groceries[/URL] board to see if you can get more replies.

Pink

You would still save 2p. Okay not brilliant but it is still a saving if you buy them singly.

Middy

dickydonkin wrote: »

You are right of course - but some are worse than others.

Morrison's must be the worst at [STRIKE]conning[/STRIKE] 'confusing' their customers with ambiguous pricing and strategically locating products on offer with similar products that aren't.

I accept that mistakes in pricing goods can and does happen - but with Morrison's, it happens too frequently to place the blame on inept staff.

Certainly in my 'nearest' (Doxford Park - Sunderland) - this is a common occurence.

On another note - after Friday evenings debacle in the aforementioned store - I have finally convinced my wife that it is not worth the 16 mile round trip every Friday to that hell hole.

22+ checkouts in place - less than half open on a Friday evening - 3 weeks before Christmas!


The store is filthy (dirty sawdust used to absorb leaking water from fridges), the place is a danger (cheap tat blocking up or toppling in the gangways) hardly surprising that Morrison's have just been hammered in court by the HSE for H&S failings and 'customer service' staff who treat their patrons with utter contempt - although there is obviously a training and morale issue.

We got fed up of waiting, dumped the trolly and went to Tesco Xtra - 2 minutes from where where we live.

A truly awful company - less reasons to shop at Morrison's!

My ex worked (not too sure if he still does work for them now) for Morrisons and he told me some horrid stories about them. Especially in the butchers. Found a tray of chicken breasts going green. What they did was to coat them in a flavoured seasoning to hide the green. Then another butcher found a delivery of turkey mince (the butchers don't mince turkey at the store) that had the lids come undone. Store manager told them to make them into hot n spicy pork burgers!

If anyone became ill over eating these either because the chicken was mouldy or were allergic to turkey - Morrisons would be in the deepest of trouble with HSE

thor

I missed the programme but would like to know if they reported on the bogof scam. The one where the MRP(another con) of an item is only used for an afternoon every leap year in the supe's branch situated in the outer hebrides AND during bogof promotions:mad:

JDPower

klemutot wrote: »

You would still save 2p. Okay not brilliant but it is still a saving if you buy them singly.

I think you missed the point somewhat

dickydonkin wrote: »

The store is filthy (dirty sawdust used to absorb leaking water from fridges).....

A truly awful company - less reasons to shop at Morrison's!

Oh no not DIRTY sawdust, how dare they not clean it first (sorry, just stood out to me )

Personally I've always found Morrisons by far the better shopping environment, maybe we're just lucky enough to have a good one