MSE News: Supermarkets agree to fairer pricing

Former_MSE_Helen

"Eight supermarkets have agreed to a set of principles following concerns over special offers and promotions ..."

Read the full story:
Supermarkets agree to fairer pricing

Doc_N

About time, too - but I wonder whether it will actually stop all the fake pricing going on at Tesco.

Bottles of wine showing original prices that bear no resemblance to reality, fruit shown at half price, when it's just a seasonal price fall, petrol prices pushed up bit by bit and then brought back down again with a fanfare '3p off'............it goes on across the board.

Result? We've ditched Tesco altogether and switched to Aldi, where they don't play these silly deceitful games. Same quality, much, much lower prices, and fairer trading.

No wonder Tesco are haemorrhaging customers! Nobody trusts them any more.

alinwales

all the cynics put their hands up!

oh, i've lost count already

Edwardia

According to BBC ASDA didn't sign up, the question has to be why ?

antrobus

Edwardia wrote: »

According to BBC ASDA didn't sign up, the question has to be why ?

Because ASDA is amongst the worst out there with their fake 'rollbacks'

alinwales wrote: »

all the cynics put their hands up!

Well I've got my hand up.

Doc_N wrote: »

...No wonder Tesco are haemorrhaging customers! Nobody trusts them any more.

But Tesco aren't "haemorrhaging customers". In fact they're doing a little bit better now than they were at the beginning of the year, when their market share actually dipped below 30%. The 'losers' at the moment are Morrisons and the Co-Op.

Ken68

Seems to me the trend is towards Lidl/Aldi/Heron/B&M and the poundshops.
Real peed off with supermarket tricks.

aleph_0

Not to artificially inflate prices to make a later discount look more attractive

How will the OFT keep track of his? In Tesco buying bacon, the long term price offers all work out as roughly the same price/kg. If they want to comply with the letter, rather than the spirit of the rules, they'll just keep changing which multipack is on offer at any point in time. They also have packs of meat which alternate between a 3 for £10 offer and half price.

What would be nice is if any offer was accompanied by a camelcamelcamel-style graph of the price history (scaled based on lowest price per unit for items available in different pack sizes) of a product for the last 6 months.

Lynsey

I agree with antrobus's comments and I think Tesco are fighting back. Their share price took a massive hit because they supposedly had a poor Xmas last year and maybe down to not accepting coupons, or at least less coupons.
Both Tesco and Morries are hell-bent at the moment at accepting coupons, virtually any ones and I would imagine that's to get the customers in their stores. If you are spending in Tesco and Morries, then you won't be spending (as much) in Asda and Sainsbury's etc. Their profit margins may be lower, or they may pick it back from other items.
For the record, I find Morries the worst at manipulating prices especially on wines and BOG2F promotions.
They'll find a way to cheat this "fairer pricing" and we'll still find a way to get our "fairer pricing" - there are more "savvy shoppers" than ever.

Long may Tesco and Morries accept coupons from others and in conjunction with the "fairer pricing" .................................. it's becoming to look at lot like Xmas. lol

Lynsey

Middy

I saw some chicken breasts for 'half price' for £4 for 4 breasts. Who would buy 4 breasts for £8? I have never seen these at full price.

People see the 'half price' label on the pack and think what a good deal.

JimmyTheWig

This is great news, if it is going to be implimented honestly. In some ways I respect Asda's stance in taking time to consider the implications. I just hope they sign up to it in the end and abide by it.
The current yo-yo-ing of offers is just crazy.

aleph_0 wrote: »

What would be nice is if any offer was accompanied by a camelcamelcamel-style graph of the price history (scaled based on lowest price per unit for items available in different pack sizes) of a product for the last 6 months.

This is a great idea. Best I've heard in some time. Nice one, aleph_0.

MSE_News wrote:

For example, it would be unfair for a supermarket to refer to prices used more than two months previously.

This would still fail for seasonal fruit. It annoys me when strawberries, for example, are on special offer when it's just because they are coming in to season and so cheaper than they were last week. In some ways they need to compare the price to this time last year.

Edwardia

mysupermarket.co.uk does the graph pricing for items you choose btw.

Online pricing isn't accurate though. I found 24 organic Weetabix online yesterday at Sainsbury's for 2.48 (NOT an offer) as opposed to 2.99 at Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado. In-store at Sainsbury's today the organic Weetabix was 2.69

What I do now is choose what I want and order on Ocado (claims to be cheaper than Tesco) and take my BlackBerry with Ocado on the Go app to the supermarket. If I find an offer/better offer than the one I've ordered from Ocado I can delete it off the order there and then.