Consumer law allows the less well informed to be ripped off!

cepheus

The minute you walk into the supermarket you may be able to get a few bargains but, more likely than not, you'll be nudged into buying stuff you didn't really want or need and it will go in the bin”

Joanna Blythman Investigative food journalist

vuvuzela

cepheus wrote: »

The minute you walk into the supermarket you may be able to get a few bargains but, more likely than not, you'll be nudged into buying stuff you didn't really want or need and it will go in the bin”

Joanna Blythman Investigative food journalist

I go to a supermarket and buy what I have gone there for, not things I don't need or want. Surely I'm not unusual in this ? A straw poll inmy office suggests not.
Yes, the supermarkets have people whose sole jobs are to try and tempt people into buying the products they want them to buy, but why walk into their traps ?

wealdroam

cepheus wrote: »

The minute you walk into the supermarket you may be able to get a few bargains but, more likely than not, you'll be nudged into buying stuff you didn't really want or need and it will go in the bin”

Joanna Blythman Investigative food journalist

I see nothing wrong with that... it's called selling.

And in that very same article you lifted your quotation from, we can see that Matt Simister, Tesco's commercial director of group food, said "Families are wasting an estimated £700 a year and we want to help them keep that money in their pockets, rather than throwing it in the bin".

Looks like responsible selling to me.

Money-Saving-King

vuvuzela wrote: »

I go to a supermarket and buy what I have gone there for, not things I don't need or want. Surely I'm not unusual in this ?

Nope I manage this as well!

The quote about selling is just a joke as well. This is just a classic anti retailer post. What does the op expect from the world of retail exactly? Everything to be given away at cost price and for the stores to survive on the money that obviously grows on trees!

cepheus

You don't understand the way advertising and marketing works. If you are aware of it or even agree that you are potentially susceptible it becomes far less effective. Brand loyalty may have been acquired over decades, even from your parents. You are very naive if you don't think they can influence you, although some more than others. Those who are rushed and with kids are the most susceptible. Why do they change everything around every year? Not to make things easier to find, but to make sure you browse more.

paddyrg

Tinfoil makes excellent headwear, I gather ;-)

Can't say I worry about the average consumer getting smarter and so merchants deceiving more, after all they're smarter to see through it! Of course the law is a bit vague and hand-wavey about average consumer definitions, can you imagine if the law defined every single scenario in extreme detail? That would be a set of rules to work around, like tax accounting. By stating the intention in broad terms it is easier to apply, which is fairer for all.

Anyway the average person has an IQ of 100 (and slightly fewer than 2 legs). Even though we're all getting smarter, the average IQ is always exactly 100. Now what are the chances of that, eh?

Money-Saving-King

cepheus wrote: »

You don't understand the way advertising and marketing works. If you are aware of it or even agree that you are potentially susceptible it becomes far less effective. Brand loyalty may have been acquired over decades, even from your parents. You are very naive if you don't think they can influence you, although some more than others. Those who are rushed and with kids are the most susceptible. Why do they change everything around every year? Not to make things easier to find, but to make sure you browse more.

Well you'd best stay in your home then and not go out anywhere.

The rest of us will lead our normal lives and will be able to walk into a shop, buy what we wanted then go out again without accidentally managing to spend £1000 on something we didn't need!

Money-Saving-King

cepheus wrote: »

Why do they change everything around every year? Not to make things easier to find, but to make sure you browse more.

The reason why will be this and only this.

They'll look at poor selling ranges and reduce them and try other things that could sell better. This may take some rearranging of space. Space will also want to be optimized like putting like product ranges near each other again to encourage sales. Yes it will be sales based but what do you expect them to do? Set targets to try and reduce sales year on year?!!?!?

It is not to make you browse more because something has moved, it's to optimize space.

cepheus

I live well beneath my means, and like to think I'm less susceptible. However, I'm not so arrogant as to refuse to believe that I don't occasionally get duped.

This misses the point though, what savvy shoppers like us act is irrelevant. It's that bottom 50% who are being manipulated.

The industry will do anything to avoid regulation and educating shoppers seems a good diversion strategy because

a) they know most shoppers will ignore this information
b) even if they did become more savvy, since the bottom 50% can always be targeted, they can legally escalate the deception arms race and still conform to current legislation.

More resources are placed into deception. Like the real arms race it's a parasitic drain on societies beneficial activities.

Result: Shareholders and execs win as usual, consumers lose.

cepheus

Money-Saving-King wrote: »

The reason why will be this and only this.

They'll look at poor selling ranges and reduce them and try other things that could sell better. This may take some rearranging of space. Space will also want to be optimized like putting like product ranges near each other again to encourage sales. Yes it will be sales based but what do you expect them to do? Set targets to try and reduce sales year on year?!!?!?

It is not to make you browse more because something has moved, it's to optimize space.

I spoke to the staff working in the shop about this, and it baffled and annoyed them just as much. It was far from obvious how it saved space, since the aisles were the same. It was however obvious how it increased my shopping time though!