Supermarket pricing - are they ripping us off??

Lynsey

http://news.sky.com/story/1519805/supermarket-pricing-is-confusing-says-cma

Lots on the news today and would you believe it, but supermarkets have been deliberately misleading us allegedly - shock horror.

Nothing new here and I doubt it will end.

Lynsey

Cornucopia

Consumers have part of the solution to this in their own hands.

The information about the cheaper supermarkets is in the public domain, and it's highly unlikely that anyone living in a reasonably well populated area won't have access to an Asda (cheapest of the big supermarkets), an Aldi or Lidl (probably 25% cheaper overall than the average of the big supermarkets) and other niche grocery retailers like Farmfoods and Iceland.

The question for many people is how much effort are they prepared to put in to save 20-30%, whilst going through the effort of moving away from the familiar brands or own-brands they are used to.

Ken68

The consumer is king or should be. Just stop buying whatever or wherever and with this site and Facebook/Twitter shoppers can bring down a bad firm. Maybe a few more polls are needed.

dlusman

Cornucopia wrote: »

Consumers have part of the solution to this in their own hands.

The information about the cheaper supermarkets is in the public domain, and it's highly unlikely that anyone living in a reasonably well populated area won't have access to an Asda (cheapest of the big supermarkets), an Aldi or Lidl (probably 25% cheaper overall than the average of the big supermarkets) and other niche grocery retailers like Farmfoods and Iceland.

The question for many people is how much effort are they prepared to put in to save 20-30%, whilst going through the effort of moving away from the familiar brands or own-brands they are used to.

This enquiry has nothng to do with the overall pricing in supermarkets - Unless you are trying to say that Asda / Aldi / Lidl never run promotions ?

Cornucopia

Aldi and Lidl very rarely run BOGOF and other multi-buy promotions, which is what I think the complaint is about.

Their main offers are very, very straightforward.

Aldi Super 6 - 6 fresh fruit & veg lines discounted to a single price of 39p, 49p, 59p or 69p. Runs continuously with lines changing every 2 weeks.

Lidl Halfprice weekend offers - 4 half price items, every Saturday & Sunday.

dlusman

Cornucopia wrote: »

Aldi and Lidl very rarely run BOGOF and other multi-buy promotions, which is what I think the complaint is about.

Their main offers are very, very straightforward.

Aldi Super 6 - 6 fresh fruit & veg lines discounted to a single price of 39p, 49p, 59p or 69p. Runs continuously with lines changing every 2 weeks.

Lidl Halfprice weekend offers - 4 half price items, every Saturday & Sunday.

Lidl are as guilty of the "Cola was £1.98 / now 99p" offer being mentioned in a lot of the reports as much as anyone else ( and they have it running at the moment )

Cornucopia

Are they? I shop mainly at Aldi, and I also buy "main" brand goods very, very rarely. (I assume you mean Coca Cola, as opposed to no brand cola in your example).

From my limited experience of Lidl, I would say their prices are not as consistent as Aldi from week to week. But it's their loss - if something jumps up in price, it tends to put me off buying it.

I think there are genuinely confusing offers: usually when a mutli-buy is the same price or more than buying individually, or where multiple sizes of an item, combined with multibuy, makes it difficult to work out which option is cheaper.

Generally, though, I think consumers just need to follow two simple rules: only buy what you need, and only buy what is good value after the effect of any offer(s). Cross-through prices, in particular, are not an automatic indication of good value.