Who buys this stuff?

Curious_Moose

In M&S at the weekend, and noticed they were selling pre-packaged meals of.....Jacket potato and cheese....which consisted of...Jacket potato and cheese. Can't remember the cost; something daft.

Now I do like some of the stuff they have there, but who would actually buy a jacket potato with cheese when you can do the same yourself with zero difficulty and a fraction of the price?

As far as I could see, the only effort would be to put a couple of slits in the potato and add the cheese!

Anyone else see things that they can't imagine anyone actually paying a silly price for?

lil_me

Have bought once, when they were 20p reduced, pleased aswell, were not very nice at all.

I used to buy a lot of the silly price items, even ready made mashed potato. Don't any more !

whatatwit

My name is Whatatwit and I used to shop in Marks and Spencers food hall.

Quasar

It's like garlic baguettes. With next to no effort you can cut a baguette lengthwise, spread a bit of butter and some garlic paste - you can even buy the ready pureed garlic, and you need very little of it spread thinly.

Peeps just don't want to make ANY effort these days. If they bothered to cook a good meal they would eat healthily and have more money at the end of the month. Daft, innit? Well, I used to be anyway.

beautifulgorgeous_2

Paying 10 or 15 quid for a pizza when a frozen one is a pound or two or the asda fresh ones are 2 for a fiver or better still DIY for practically zero. Its really no quicker than putting the oven on.

sadiedoll

When I was a trainee teacher, I has a flatmate who bought a tray of 'mini jacket potatoes' i.e 8 new pots, laid out in a tray with a tiny dab of butter on the top.....£1.99. I kid you not.

I gave her a right rollicking, as she was forever complaining that she didn't have any cash. She failed to see the connection between such profligacy and her lack of funds.

Queenie

I remember my mother saying the same thing when she saw M&S selling bread and butter pudding many years ago. She almost wet herself laughing when she saw Bubble & Squeak!!! :rotfl:

Recently I saw prepacked pancakes in Sainsburys, then 2 squeezy type bottles of pancake 'mix' "just as water" (£1.89 to make 8 pancakes) and then just last week, Tesco have Aunt Bessie Frozen Pancakes on BOGOF 8 frozen pancakes @ 79p.

But if you really think about it, it's no different from any other 'ready' product ie: pies, frozen roast potatoes/parsnips, chilli, spag bol and the like.

As it happens, my d12yo's Food Tech project his month is to design a 'cook-chill' product that can be mass produced by supermarkets!!!! :wall:

Clearly there are plenty of people who *do* buy these items and can justify in their own ways why they do so. My only genuine concern, are the health impact.

Once upon, products were designed to be used on 'occasion' - over the past 20yrs particularly, they have turned into 'every day' items. Take disposable nappies, they were originally an aid for convenience on journeys (no nappy soak bucket handy ) Over time, they went from luxury item to 'necessity'. Same with many food products.

Wonder how much will change will all the attention environmental issues are now attracting (same issues which featured on schools tv 30+ years ago and no one took much notice!)

Ex-Spendaholic

I am one of those mugs. :rotfl: M&S just has the power to suck me into buying a load of stuff that I could make myself cheaper for a fraction of the cost. However from today, it's all stopping. :j

gerretl

This reminds me of a game my brother and I used to play, that I have mentioned on here. Its called the 'Grated Cheese Game'.
Go round the supermarket, and find the product that must be bought by the laziest most stupid person, who could quite easily do it themselves with a little effort (Hence grated cheese game- you need cheese.....and a grater)
Pre cooked poppadums are near the top. Any other suggestions gratefully received, and it it puts a whole new perspective on shopping. You can look in other trolleysa and safely say, they are a lazy !!!!!!!. (That they are probably poor goes without saying)

Quasar

What gets me are all those pasta dishes! :mad: I could make one of them in next to no time - while the pasta cooks, make the sauce. Some good pasta sauces needn't be elaborate or require long cooking. And a pasta salad with tuna and lemon, or tuna and spring onions, takes so little effort.

I'm often in the City for surveys. I get vouchers to spend at swanky sandwich shops, so lunches cost me nothing, but I always marvel at the amount of money some of these workers pay for a sandwich and a coffee, and what they buy in supermarkets on their way home. I was standing in a queue to pay for bread and fruit once, and the well dressed City lady had a basket full of convenience foods and stuff. Buying the ingredients for those meals (yeah also a spag bol), and cooking them herself would have halved her bill, I'm sure.

Queenie

gerretl wrote:

This reminds me of a game my brother and I used to play, that I have mentioned on here. Its called the 'Grated Cheese Game'.
Go round the supermarket, and find the product that must be bought by the laziest most stupid person, who could quite easily do it themselves with a little effort (Hence grated cheese game- you need cheese.....and a grater)
Pre cooked poppadums are near the top. Any other suggestions gratefully received, and it it puts a whole new perspective on shopping. You can look in other trolleysa and safely say, they are a lazy !!!!!!!. (That they are probably poor goes without saying)

Please don't forget that there are a number of people with arthritis and other disabilities which would make the task of something seemingly 'simple' as grating cheese a near impossible task :silenced: