Supermarket Tactics

LilElvis

meer53 wrote: »

Supermarkets know people are daft. How else would they get people to buy boxes of jacket potatoes ?

£2.50 for 4 spuds ?? You have to be crackers beyond belief to buy those !

Buyers have their reasons!

I buy the 6 pack of frozen mini-jackets from Waitrose for my 3 year old. A size she can eat and which microwave in 3 minutes, versus putting a cheaper, larger, fresh spud in the oven for over an hour.

Quick and convenient and I'm happy to pay a premium for it.

meer53

You can microwave jackets in minutes, if you throw half away, it's still cheaper than buying pre prepared ones. You don't need to throw it away though, they keep in the fridge once cooked.

LilElvis

My favourite price difference is for herbs and spices. Go down the aisle marked for those items and pay a fortune for the little glass jars (and sometimes more per kilo for the refill to put in the jar!) - or go down the 'World Food' aisle and pick up 10 times the quantity for the same price - paprika, cumin, ground coriander, cinammon, garam masala etc.

LilElvis

meer53 wrote: »

You can microwave jackets in minutes, if you throw half away, it's still cheaper than buying pre prepared ones. You don't need to throw it away though, they keep in the fridge once cooked.

Then they don't have a crispy skin! I'm happy to pay the premium for this. Ours are regular spuds, nuked for a couple of minutes and then in the oven. I don't pay the extra for the ones that have the label on the pack saying 'baking potatoes' - i don't just chuck money away. As my daughter only eats them once or twice a week at most the frozen ones work for me, but for a good reason.

DCFC79

meer53 wrote: »

Supermarkets know people are daft. How else would they get people to buy boxes of jacket potatoes ?

£2.50 for 4 spuds ?? You have to be crackers beyond belief to buy those !

I agree you would have to be daft to buy frozen jacket spuds, I wouldn't myself. Its all about the convenience part of eating, saying that it isn't hard to cook a jacket potatoe is it.

The example of the spices is 1 ive heard mentioned on here before, even check out the asian food shops for spices, people still buy the spices despite not getting alot for your money/overpriced.

meer53

If i do them in the oven, i stick a metal skewer through them. It speeds up the cooking time. I couldn't bring myself to pay the price for frozen ones, my MSE side won't let me !

LilElvis

meer53 wrote: »

If i do them in the oven, i stick a metal skewer through them. It speeds up the cooking time. I couldn't bring myself to pay the price for frozen ones, my MSE side won't let me !

I do this for myself and the husband - frozen 'waste of money' ones are just for the toddler. The price of frozen jackets is nothing to her fruit bill each week! Peaches - £3.99 for 4, grapes several pounds a bunch, pears £3 for 4 (cheap ones never ripen at this time of year). The majority of her fruit and veg comes from M&S because it actually lasts in the fridge. Husband 'economised' a couple of times and picked up cheaper stuff from Asda - only to throw more than half of it in the bin as it doesn't keep.

Valli

If I have leftover jacket spuds (done in the oven) I scoop out the potato, mash with a little butter, salt and pepper and some grated cheese. Refill the skins then freeze them.

These can be cooked from frozen in either the oven or the microwave - and half-a-cheesy-jacket makes a nice accompaniment to a meal or a quick snack!

Bollotom

Best one I saw recently was 2x500g Clover for £1.50 each. The 1Kg tub was £3.25. In the same store, 2x500g Sugar at 80p each while the 1Kg bag was 1.75. Yep. They think we are dumb. lol

LilElvis

Valli wrote: »

If I have leftover jacket spuds (done in the oven) I scoop out the potato, mash with a little butter, salt and pepper and some grated cheese. Refill the skins then freeze them.

These can be cooked from frozen in either the oven or the microwave - and half-a-cheesy-jacket makes a nice accompaniment to a meal or a quick snack!

Top recipe coming!

this is for 4 spuds, but you can adjust.

Scoop out and mash the flesh with a 350g tub of waitrose cheese sauce (or similar), and stir through a good handful of chopped spring onions and 1/2 a shredded, cooked savoy cabbage (nuke for 5 mins with a little water). Put some grated cheddar on top and put in oven for 1/2 hour. Yummy! I freeze these, thaw and just put the cheese on top before putting in oven.