Would it be illegal to buy in bulk from Tesco to sell on?

Legacy_user

If I had a shop and bough 50 packs Mars Bars at Tesco on special offer at a £1 and sold these packs for £1.50 in my shop, would this be illegal?

ritesh

No, though the supermarket may have a sign saying something like "1 per customer".

Many years ago this is exactly what my father used to do in his business, buy from the supermarkets rather than a Cash and Carry.

ritesh

Just a thought but you will also need to check that the items do not have statement on there which reads "not to be sold individually" or something like that when you buy multi packs from supermarkets. Not sure of legality on that.

shaun_from_Africa

All you would be doing is exactly what Tesco themselves do.
They buy in bulk either directly from the manufacturer or from another bulk trader and sell on at a profit.

The only time that you may have a problem is if you split the multipacks and sold the items individually and they specifically stated that they were not to be sold separately.

arcon5

I've seen several local stores do this with selected products you can get cheaper from Tesco than the cash & carry. Nothing illegal -- if anything, it will be a contractual breach, but for something like Mars bars I doubt very much they will do anything

vikingaero

Loads of corner shops buy from Tesco/Asda/Sainsburys etc when offers are on. The problem for them is one of guaranteed supply. They may be prohibited by small print on the offers, they might meet a jobsworth manager or assistant on the till, which is why they still have to resort to cash and carry's to maintain stock levels.

Basicsoda

I remember about 10 years ago a local shop got in trouble for sellling supermarket branded stuff not for selling it but because they marked the price up but think that was a one off.

I see many shops in or just outside train stations that most of the stock is multipack and without barcodes

It does annoy me though as they sell multipack items at crazy prices i.e like a quid for a multipack can of coca cola.

System

I got in trouble today from the customer service women, thats why I was asking.

supermum4

berbastrike wrote: »

I got in trouble today from the customer service women, thats why I was asking.

what happened? what did she say to you? if they are happy to sell them for £1 then so what if you buy loads think she may be having a bad day and decided to take it out on you;).

arcon5

berbastrike wrote: »

I got in trouble today from the customer service women, thats why I was asking.

Just tell her you like Mars bars - a lot!:D
You don't need to tell them you're reselling them. What did she say to you?

I've known restrictions placed on things like alcohol when it's on offer -- never on things like Mars bar. It's not rare to see business' stocking up on things - i'm betting most people around here have seen what's obviously a restarant running low on chips or something.

You could always go in more than once to make it less obvious your clearing their stock out -- although not sure why they'd care so much on some chocolate bars.

ritesh

Just tell her that little Timmy and his chums at the orphange will be dissapointed to hear about her refusal to sell you the Mars bars.