Supermarkets cartel

Azari

goater78 wrote: »

Then again nobody every charged me any duty for it so I must have got away with it

From my experience, you often get away without paying duty on things sent from aboard (even from outside the EU). It just depends how conscientious they are being as your package goes by.

phill99

The big supermarkets are now dominating all aspects of retailing in this country. They dictate what price they pay for a product, what is charged for it and what products are available.

There are hundreds of products in the supermarkets which are priced the same by all of them. Check out your staple branded goods - tea, coffee, sugar, etc etc. all are the same. These prices are set by the major suppliers (unilever, proctor & gamble, nestles etc). The margins are increased as a result to both manufacturers and supermarkets and it is all of us consumers that are just happy to carry on paying it. This is why between them, the big 4 supermarkets make annual profits approaching £4billion. Additionally, successive governments have allowed this to happen.

Until consumers vote with their feet and start shopping at Aldi, Lidls , and local independent retailers, we will continue to be shafted.

antrobus

phill99 wrote: »

The big supermarkets are now dominating all aspects of retailing in this country. They dictate what price they pay for a product, what is charged for it and what products are available.

But

phill99 wrote: »

... These prices are set by the major suppliers (unilever, proctor & gamble, nestles etc).

I'm confused. First you say the "big supermarkets" are fixing prices, then you say it's the "major suppliers". Which of the two is it?

phill99 wrote: »

Until consumers vote with their feet and start shopping at Aldi, Lidls , and local independent retailers, we will continue to be shafted.

Why? Aren't Aldi and Lidl also big supermarkets. Aldi isn't actually a small business, and Lidl is Schwarz Group which is even bigger.

dacouch

Having the same prices between retailers does not make a cartel, retailers colluding together to fix the price of items makes a cartel

keyser666

will.i.amnt wrote: »

I've been unclear in my explanation; does nobody else think it's all rather convenient that the supermarkets put their prices up on the same item to the same new price at the same time i.e before the new price was public knowledge?

Of course, it could all be a massive coincidence, but either the manufacturer has set the price for retail (illegal), OR the supermarkets have all colluded on their pricing (also illegal).

Impossible to prove, but this is going on constantly. They either are making their price changes known in advance to competitors or each of them have head office moles in their competitors pricing depts

I assume you missed my post then?

will.i.amnt

dacouch wrote: »

Having the same prices between retailers does not make a cartel, retailers colluding together to fix the price of items makes a cartel

That's the whole point of my post.

Or is it just coincidence that the big 3 raised their prices by the same amount at the same time?

keyser666

will.i.amnt wrote: »

That's the whole point of my post.

Or is it just coincidence that the big 3 raised their prices by the same amount at the same time?

Did you read my fricking post, that is the most likely reason why

mattyprice4004

will.i.amnt wrote: »

It still stinks

Interestingly, the variant that Asda sells costs exactly the same at trade, yet Asda have always sold at ~15% less than the others and have yet to increase their price

Its a pity i'm not a fan of filtered beer...

In any case, Ill be importing my beer from now on, as, ridiculously, itll be cheaper to pay UPS international freightbthan it will to pay uk sulupwrmaeket prices.

edit: try as i may, i cant correct these errors on a mobile device. MSE really need to sort out their software, its awful.

Works fine on mine, probably the mobile in question or the user.

I and many others use this site on a mobile without issue and with minimal errors.

Kite2010

goater78 wrote: »

Interestingly I read somewhere that most petrol stations set their prices to Asda, For some reason Asda are the cheapest petrol stations in the UK. Any area which has an Asda in it tends to have cheaper petrol than an area that doesn't have an Asda in it.

I blame the Americans

It's true, places with Asda filling stations are cheaper for fuel than places without filling stations. Worst are the places where there is only 1 supermarket filling station as they can get away with charging whatever they like and the other stations will follow.

Imagine the uproar if Tesco decided to do the same and have nationwide pricing