Supermarket tricks - watch out for these...

squeaky

I've seen scattered references all over the boards about the way supermarkets price or label things in ways that can lead us into buying something that is not actually as cheap or "value" as we might think. Things like...

Bags/packs of vegetables where some of them have a small area telling us the price per kilo - but others are price per pack. So if most are price per kilo, say £1.94, and then you spot the NICE BIG "price per" at £1.63... take a good look because that smaller print might be "price per pack" for just HALF a kilo of product.

In the meat section.... especially for joints... you see something like....

Cost: £8.96
Price per kilo £3.75

Pay attention!


There are more... I'll leave a space for a collection....

pelirocco

squeaky wrote: »

i've seen scattered references all over the boards about the way supermarkets price or label things in ways that can lead us into buying something that is not actually as cheap or "value" as we might think. Things like...

Bags/packs of vegetables where some of them have a small area telling us the price per kilo - but others are price per pack. So if most are price per kilo, say £1.94, and then you spot the nice big "price per" at £1.63... Take a good look because that smaller print might be "price per pack" for just half a kilo of product.

In the meat section.... Especially for joints... You see something like....

cost: £8.96
price per kilo £3.75

pay attention!


there are more... I'll leave a space....

£3.75 per kilo for a joint of meat ?

squeaky

pelirocco wrote: »

£3.75 per kilo for a joint of meat ?

My local co-op are especially good at this - and those labels are on YELLOW stickers which, given that yellow stickers are used everywhere else for "whoopsies", can catch people out. You know... you think "Coo! yellow stickered, less than half price!" - only it darn well isn't.

Raksha

They will also vary the amount they use to give the price per - for instance, coffee price per kilo £29.99 and another one price per 100g £3.50

LondonDreamer

Another pack/weight comparison to watch for is when they use different units, e.g. some by weight and some by volume. I find this a lot on condiments (e.g. mayo) where the jars are usually priced by gram but the bottles are ml.

This isn't so much about labelling, but also don't forget that bigger doesn't always mean cheaper. They are hoping you always pick up the biggest pack just assuming that it will be better value, but it's not always the case. One example I regularly find this on is red lentils. At Mr T, the 500g pack is currently 83p (£1.66/kg) where the 1kg pack is £1.80.

rosy

Sometimes the price they quote per kilo etc isn't even accurate - on a couple of occasions recently I've thought the price per kilo seemed too good to be true. I got my calculator and worked it out myself using the weight on the packet and the actual price of the pack on the SEL- lo and behold the real price per kilo was actually a fair bit more than it said on the shelf.

squeaky

Thanks!

I hadn't spotted that one before.

I dunno... you need eyes like a hawk and a degree in maths these days!

Tamsin_Temrin

Some BOGOGs are dearer than buying two separate items, eg Heinz tom soup, £3 for four or 65p each (not real price buy ykwim)

and just because it says sale or is on on the end doesnt mean it is actually lower than last week.

Butterfly_Brain

Another trick is that they frequently change the size of the packaging so we are not actually getting the amount that we were say 6 months ago

culpepper

Look at variety to see if the reduction is for all or just one, for example sardines in oil/tomato sauce or brine all the same brand but only the brine are the offered price despite all being above the offer Label on the shelf.

Tamsin_Temrin

Value brand (smart price/basics/value etc) isnt always cheaper, even without bogofs, if you compare weight for weight.

Makro is often dearer than supermarkets except on some brand leaders

Is loose always cheaper?