Tesco/Fairy

Azari

goater78 wrote: »

A company is not going to advertise the fact you are getting less than you were previously. Its not dishonest, its just commonsense that they would rather not draw a consumers attention to a negative aspect of buying that product.

Different people have different standards for what the consider honest behaviour.

Personally, I find that reducing the amount of something you are selling for a given price and not alerting your customer to that fact in the hope that they will not notice falls below a standard of honesty that I would adhere to in my dealings with others.

Obviously you feel differently. In this case we will have to agree to differ.

pulliptears

goater78 wrote: »

A company is not going to advertise the fact you are getting less than you were previously. Its not dishonest, its just commonsense that they would rather not draw a consumers attention to a negative aspect of buying that product.

Precisely, and neither will they advertise a price increase.

I actually can't think of any manufacturer thats ever actively advertised a price increase OR a product size reduction. You aren't going to get honesty.

Most people accept that the price of goods increases or the amount of product reduces whilst the price stays the same. Thats life. Short of putting a big flash on the product saying "Now more expensive!" or one saying "Now with less product!" I'm not sure what a manufacturer is supposed to do.

System

Azari wrote: »

Different people have different standards for what the consider honest behaviour.

Personally, I find that reducing the amount of something you are selling for a given price and not alerting your customer to that fact in the hope that they will not notice falls below a standard of honesty that I would adhere to in my dealings with others.

Obviously you feel differently. In this case we will have to agree to differ.

So I assume you're advocating that every product sold has a history attached which details the previous prices and sizes? Thus informing the customer of any deviation?

Seems a bit unrealistic!

I think the difference between our viewpoints is you believe consumers are idiots and have trouble noticing any differences in price or quantity!

pka_2

goater78 wrote: »

So I assume you're advocating that every product sold has a history attached which details the previous prices and sizes? Thus informing the customer of any deviation?

Seems a bit unrealistic!

I work in construction and each time a drawing is revised they have to detail what has changed on it, why not on all the products we buy......:D:p;)

System

pka wrote: »

I work in construction and each time a drawing is revised they have to detail what has changed on it, why not on all the products we buy......:D:p;)

It's going to make buying petrol interesting! That changes price daily

Slowhand

pka wrote: »

I work in construction and each time a drawing is revised they have to detail what has changed on it, why not on all the products we buy......:D:p;)

That really worked well with the Scottish Parliament building and the Edinburgh tram system.

Azari

pulliptears wrote: »

Most people accept that the price of goods increases or the amount of product reduces whilst the price stays the same. Thats life. Short of putting a big flash on the product saying "Now more expensive!" or one saying "Now with less product!" I'm not sure what a manufacturer is supposed to do.

It's not that people won't accept that the amount has been reduced.

I'm not sure why people are having so much trouble seeing the inherent dishonesty here;

Let's try baby steps.

1) Manufacturer decides that it cannot sell for the current price per kilo.

Path 1:

2) Manufacturer takes honest path and raises the price of the pack.

3) Customer sees higher price and makes informed decision.

Path 2:

2) Manufacturer arranges for the machinery to cut smaller blocks.

3) Manufacturer scraps current packaging and has new packaging printed to reflect lower weight but keeps everything else the same.

3) Customer sees what appears to be exactly the same pack and buys what he or she believes to be the same product they bough last time.

4) At some later stage customer realises that the size has been reduced and they bought a more expensive product.


No, I don't believe that it takes a genius to work out that the manufacturer did not go to the extra expense and trouble of modifying the production line and having new packaging printed just because they wanted to spend money. It's fairly clear that they did it in order to deceive unwary customers. Otherwise why take the more complex and expensive path to a necessary price increase?

But, as I said, different people have quite different standards of honesty. I don't think an honest person would quietly change the effective price of their product in a manner that they know will deceive the customer - even if it is just in the short term - and I struggle to understand why an honest person would not understand this.

System

Whats your view on pound shops then? They can't actually put the price up so have to reduce the size of the product. I believe there was an incident with a smaller toblerone being introduced.

Would you allow them to be exempt from your new rules or should they also highlight the fact the product is smaller?

Azari

goater78 wrote: »

Whats your view on pound shops then? They can't actually put the price up so have to reduce the size of the product. I believe there was an incident with a smaller toblerone being introduced.

I would have thought that it would be perfectly obvious to anyone other than a certified cretin that if you are selling items for a fixed price as a way of business then the quantity/weight is how you determine value rather than the price.

Would you allow them to be exempt from your new rules

What new rules?

I never said a word about rules.

You really need to stop attempting these straw man arguments.

System

Azari wrote: »

I would have thought that it would be perfectly obvious to anyone other than a certified cretin that if you are selling items for a fixed price as a way of business then the quantity/weight is how you determine value rather than the price.

Again with the ad hominems.