Greengrocers selling fruit & veg in bowls. Is it a scam?

comeandgo

Appliance_engineer said:

comeandgo said:

Cant see it being illegal, supermarkets sell boxes of fruit and veg with no indication of weight.  If customers think it’s not a bargain then they don’t have to buy it.

That's rather beside the point. Many people think they are getting a bargain but then find out they could have got a better price.

Then that is the purchasers fault for not doing their research properly, not the sellers.  The seller makes the offer, the purchaser either accepts or goes into Tesco.

Appliance_engineer

comeandgo said:

Appliance_engineer said:

comeandgo said:

Cant see it being illegal, supermarkets sell boxes of fruit and veg with no indication of weight.  If customers think it’s not a bargain then they don’t have to buy it.

That's rather beside the point. Many people think they are getting a bargain but then find out they could have got a better price.

Then that is the purchasers fault for not doing their research properly, not the sellers.  The seller makes the offer, the purchaser either accepts or goes into Tesco.

You miss the point spectacularly!

comeandgo

Appliance_engineer said:

comeandgo said:

Appliance_engineer said:

comeandgo said:

Cant see it being illegal, supermarkets sell boxes of fruit and veg with no indication of weight.  If customers think it’s not a bargain then they don’t have to buy it.

That's rather beside the point. Many people think they are getting a bargain but then find out they could have got a better price.

Then that is the purchasers fault for not doing their research properly, not the sellers.  The seller makes the offer, the purchaser either accepts or goes into Tesco.

You miss the point spectacularly!

Then please explain further.  

MalMonroe

comeandgo said:

Cant see it being illegal, supermarkets sell boxes of fruit and veg with no indication of weight.  If customers think it’s not a bargain then they don’t have to buy it.

All supermarkets I use have weight labels on their fruit and veg. If the fruit or veg is loose, there are usually scales so that customers can weigh their own and stick a label on the produce themselves.

UK government guidance is in this link - (if you can be bothered to read it all, I gave up half way through!)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/comply-with-marketing-standards-for-fresh-fruit-and-vegetables

- updated two days ago. 

And if fruit and veg you buy in supermarkets are loose and there are no scales handy, they're weighed at the checkout. Sales are definitely being monitored. 

Same thing at the local greengrocer who sells all his produce loose. He weighs every single thing. And charges his customers accordingly. 

Brie

The only place I've seen fruit and veg in bowls are at a couple of market traders where it's a case of any bowl for £1.  I stopped buying those when I realised they were putting bruised or massively overripe fruit at the bottom where it might not be noticed.  They didn't like me picking the best to put in one bowl leaving the unuseable stuff behind.

mumf

Dear god! It’s a non- problem. So a trader offers me a bowl of apples or whatever,for let’s say,a quid. I have the choice to buy or not buy. Supermarkets offer foods at unit prices,so market traders do the same.

as for the Little Englanders wanting us to go back to imperial measures- they need to hark back to the cost to businesses when we went metric ( scale conversion etc). It was not cheap. On top of which is TEACHING A GENERATION A NEW ( to them) SYSTEM! Politicians talk without their book.

keiran

I remember going to the market many many years ago, when the produce was stacked in a heap and the man would shovel it from the back into a bag for you. The trouble with that method was that you couldn't see the quality of the produce, and the man would benefit from having prime produce at the front where it was visible, and the over-ripe and rubbish produce at the back.

Hence the advent of the produce in a bowl was a great step forward, as you could eyeball what you were going to buy.

MysteryMe

I was brought up in the east end of London and plenty of markets sold fruit and veg in bowls and many still do. It's nothing new. The £1 bowls were often absolute bargains especially what was considered at the time more exotic or ethnic food such as okra, ginger, chillies, persimmon and guava. 

p00hsticks

I've noticed recently that supermarkets seem to be pricing more fruit and veg these days by individual item rather than weight (e.g. red peppers, baking potatoes, sometimes apples and bananas)

Rosa_Damascena

p00hsticks said:

I've noticed recently that supermarkets seem to be pricing more fruit and veg these days by individual item rather than weight (e.g. red peppers, baking potatoes, sometimes apples and bananas)

They will do anything that will make them more money!