End of fixed prices within five years as supermarkets adopt electronic price tags? 1 July 2017 at 8:30AM in Food shopping & groceries 27 replies 5.7K views

fredandwilma

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/24/exclusive-end-fixed-prices-within-five-years-supermarkets-adopt/




"Peak time" pricing where the cost of items rises and falls according to demand is set to become commonplace in supermarkets, at petrol stations and on energy bills.


Consumers may soon find themselves spending significantly more or less in many aspects of their lives, depending on what time and day items or services are bought?

A number of Britain's biggest retailers are working on secret plans to install "surge pricing" systems where prices rise and fall according to demand in shops, it can be revealed.

Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrisons are replacing paper price tags on shelves in some stores with electronic labels, which let them change prices several times a day at the click of a button.

If the initial phase is successful they could remove paper price labels from all stores and move to a 100pc electronic pricing system.

"Peak time" pricing is also expected to be used for petrol pumps in the near future as technology has come to the Uk for the first time after proving popular in Scandinavia and the US.

As this newspaper reported last month British motorists will soon be forced to pay more for petrol on bank holidays and while doing the school run, under plans drawn up by supermarkets.

Such pricing systems are already commonplace in Europe and the US with the UK being a relatively late adopter of the technology.

It's an interesting article if you read it all.

Choose your time to shop, but even then, the price could have changed by the time you reach the till?

In fact, we have already something along those lines with energy companies, with E.on's new Cap and Track tariff?

PasturesNew

For those with OCD/mental health/anxiety issues .... I can see this making some people "too petrified to shop".

I NEED to know the price I am paying - and be able to choose the price I pay - and to be able to check I am getting the best price.

If I can't do those, then I'll be "too petrified" of shopping and "making a mistake" which I'd then use to "beat myself up about it" for months/years afterwards..... even paying an extra 10p for a pack of crumpets could induce these negative thoughts towards myself.

It's one step too far imho. It's not needed.... only the rich shareholders/bosses truly benefit from this. This is not something that customers will be able to benefit from.

It's an auction for food!

LadyDee

I don't have any OCD/mental health/anxiety issues thankfully, but I sure will have if they introduce this! The majority of the population is on a very strict budget and this could just drive them over the edge into debt.

Cornucopia

Some Supermarkets in France have had electronic shelf-edge price tags for many years. They don't seem to induce panic there.

It would be contractually and legally problematic for price rises to be made immediately, before shoppers got their lower-priced purchases to the till. The obvious remedy would be to have a grace period after a price rise (say 90 minutes) during which the previous price would still be charged on the till.

Alternatively, everyone would have to use hand scanners to capture the price at the time when the product was taken from the shelf.

alanq

Presumably there would have to be a system whereby the customer would be charged the lowest ticket price displayed in the previous hour or two (for a large supermarket). It would not be acceptable for the price to increase between picking an item off the shelf and paying for it. That said how would one prove it? Currently if an unexpected price comes up one can go back to the shelf to check.

The system ensuring correct pricing would be welcome (although it would still not protect against staff or customers putting things behind the wrong price ticket). I think it would be a brave supermarket that first implemented surge pricing.

fredandwilma

They were discussing having a 'grace' period on price changes, of say 30 mins, on the news this morning. Something along the lines of two prices displayed to the checkout operators till, and a 'how much do think the price was?' question. :rotfl:


I have noticed recently at one of the aforementioned supermarkets, prices haven't been displayed at all on some products i wanted to buy, and I've had to ask the price before purchasing. I shall be more wary, in future.

Maybe i should have titled this thread, 'Why your bananas could soon cost more in the afternoon':

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40423114

Need to search for the cheapest times to shop, now.

robin58

All I would do is figure out when the best time was to get it at the lower price and get it then. So no Friday nights or Saturdays.

This 'moving prices' is really for catching the people who go out shall we say during lunch when they can ripped off for a few extra pennies more thus boosting the companies margins.

Don't believe me. I worked in a company where they charged more in the evening than the afternoon for which was basically the same deal. They charged the extra for the evenings because they knew they would be busy and just could.

[Deleted User]

Trying to shop around for the cheapest prices will be a bit like this.

molerat

robin58 wrote: »

All I would do is figure out when the best time was to get it at the lower price and get it then. So no Friday nights or Saturdays.

This 'moving prices' is really for catching the people who go out shall we say during lunch when they can ripped off for a few extra pennies more thus boosting the companies margins.

Don't believe me. I worked in a company where they charged more in the evening than the afternoon for which was basically the same deal. They charged the extra for the evenings because they knew they would be busy and just could.

The local chinese eat all you want buffet restaurant has 4 prices - weekday, evening, weekend day and weekend evening. No difference to the menu. Tourist attractions have seasonal and weekend prices, no difference in what is on offer. I suppose this is the next step.

Alter_ego

Airlines have been doing it for years.

no1catman

OTOH - less !!!!-ups over errors with SEL, with this system, when any new promotion starts, or old one ends, it won't have to be dependent on being changed manually.
It will just take a second or two from the SELs to match the tills.