Unethical pricing @waitrose.com

Pollycat

Shazza700 said:

How much are the eggs on display?  Clue - not £11.  Answer please on a postcard.

Nobody can read the weight on the box of the eggs in your photo.

The price sign clearly says '260 gram £11.00'.

I guess some person on NMW has made a mistake by putting the wrong sign with the larger eggs.
A mistake does not mean the whole brand is employing 'dodgy tactics'.
It doesn't mean that the whole brand is guilty of 'unethical pricing'.

Andy_L said:

elsien said:

Caz3121 said:

I will take a guess that the ones on display are the extra-large 322g ones that are £15 (rather than the 260g ones) so they have either put the wrong eggs or signs on display.

If that’s the case, I would guess it’s a genuine error rather than an attempt to defraud their shoppers so pointing it out to them would seem to be the obvious way to go. 

Nah, you need to sign yourself up to a forum  PDQ and get ranting.

Yes, I'd collar an assistant and point out that they have a pricing error.

DullGreyGuy

Pollycat said:

Shazza700 said:

How much are the eggs on display?  Clue - not £11.  Answer please on a postcard.

Nobody can read the weight on the box of the eggs in your photo.

The price sign clearly says '260 gram £11.00'.

I guess some person on NMW has made a mistake by putting the wrong sign with the larger eggs.
A mistake does not mean the whole brand is employing 'dodgy tactics'.
It doesn't mean that the whole brand is guilty of 'unethical pricing'.

Andy_L said:

elsien said:

Caz3121 said:

I will take a guess that the ones on display are the extra-large 322g ones that are £15 (rather than the 260g ones) so they have either put the wrong eggs or signs on display.

If that’s the case, I would guess it’s a genuine error rather than an attempt to defraud their shoppers so pointing it out to them would seem to be the obvious way to go. 

Nah, you need to sign yourself up to a forum  PDQ and get ranting.

Yes, I'd collar an assistant and point out that they have a pricing error.

@pollycat if you look at the cardboard trays they are standing on some are for the larger eggs and some are for the smaller eggs but all the eggs there are the larger ones. May not be your NMW employee but your fellow customers that strip-mined the display of the discounted ones and moved the signs etc to get to more of the cheaper ones. 

Pollycat

DullGreyGuy said:

Pollycat said:

Shazza700 said:

How much are the eggs on display?  Clue - not £11.  Answer please on a postcard.

Nobody can read the weight on the box of the eggs in your photo.

The price sign clearly says '260 gram £11.00'.

I guess some person on NMW has made a mistake by putting the wrong sign with the larger eggs.
A mistake does not mean the whole brand is employing 'dodgy tactics'.
It doesn't mean that the whole brand is guilty of 'unethical pricing'.

Andy_L said:

elsien said:

Caz3121 said:

I will take a guess that the ones on display are the extra-large 322g ones that are £15 (rather than the 260g ones) so they have either put the wrong eggs or signs on display.

If that’s the case, I would guess it’s a genuine error rather than an attempt to defraud their shoppers so pointing it out to them would seem to be the obvious way to go. 

Nah, you need to sign yourself up to a forum  PDQ and get ranting.

Yes, I'd collar an assistant and point out that they have a pricing error.

@pollycat if you look at the cardboard trays they are standing on some are for the larger eggs and some are for the smaller eggs but all the eggs there are the larger ones. May not be your NMW employee but your fellow customers that strip-mined the display of the discounted ones and moved the signs etc to get to more of the cheaper ones. 

In that scenario, even less likely that Waitrose are using 'unethical pricing' or employing 'dodgy tactics'. 🤔

DullGreyGuy

There's still a question of if you should have a mixed display with some discounted and some not but it would have probably been more obvious if they hadnt sold out of the discounted one. How its gotten into its current state with large eggs sitting on the medium egg trays is pure speculation but having witnessed the frenzy to get to discounted stock I wouldn't be surprised that people were moving them around to get to the sale items. 

CouldntResist

Surely the answer is to ignore the premium you pay for an egg and just buy the normal box of chocolates? Which you can do since the sign helpfully shows you the price per 100g, which the normal box probably does as well.

Although it is less to moan about I suppose

Albermarle

Recently spotted a pizza reduced in Waitrose as it was on its sell by date. Reduced from £6 to £4.50. However the whole range of pizzas was on offer at £3.50 ( from £6)  So I had a choice.
1) Politely point out to a member of staff that there had been an understandable error in marking up this price.
2) Insist on seeing the manager
3) Post in a forum about 'Waitrose scam ' 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Albermarle said:

Recently spotted a pizza reduced in Waitrose as it was on its sell by date. Reduced from £6 to £4.50. However the whole range of pizzas was on offer at £3.50 ( from £6)  So I had a choice.
1) Politely point out to a member of staff that there had been an understandable error in marking up this price.
2) Insist on seeing the manager
3) Post in a forum about 'Waitrose scam ' 

I don't think OP said it was a scam, they asked if it was unethical.

Ethics are very relative, from a more factual point of view the question is whether it's classed as a misleading practice in that it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer and causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.

We had a thread on the consumer rights board about Coop meal deal snacks not in the offer but being mixed into the shelf display of offer items and that was IMO questionable, I would say what the OP has posted would be classed as misleading.

With 3 signs saying £11 and nothing to break up the products (shelves, sections, etc) anything in the frame of that picture should be £11.

The store would probably claim it was a mistake as a defence to committing an offence but the consumer would have a right to redress (basically a refund but I'm sure a store would agree to refund any way because it's obviously misleading!). 

Whilst it's nice to let the staff people posting these things on here, social media, etc might encourage others to take a bit more notice of what is going on when shopping in the supermarket, not just to avoid this type of thing but also the legitimate tactics these stores use to get you to spend more than you want and this is a money saving site. 

Vectis

Just point out to a member of staff that the smaller eggs have all gone and that the price ticket isn't appropriate anymore.

That would be the easiest, most sensible thing to do.

Or, you could get your phone out, take a photo, go onto MSE Forum site and complain about 'ethics'.

Personally, I'd go with option a).

JosephK

Not just Easter eggs & not just Waitrose. Have often seen items in wrong place on shelves, usually where customers have been ferreting and mixed them up.

Pollycat

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Albermarle said:

Recently spotted a pizza reduced in Waitrose as it was on its sell by date. Reduced from £6 to £4.50. However the whole range of pizzas was on offer at £3.50 ( from £6)  So I had a choice.
1) Politely point out to a member of staff that there had been an understandable error in marking up this price.
2) Insist on seeing the manager
3) Post in a forum about 'Waitrose scam ' 

I don't think OP said it was a scam, they asked if it was unethical.

Ethics are very relative, from a more factual point of view the question is whether it's classed as a misleading practice in that it or its overall presentation in any way deceives or is likely to deceive the average consumer and causes or is likely to cause the average consumer to take a transactional decision he would not have taken otherwise.

We had a thread on the consumer rights board about Coop meal deal snacks not in the offer but being mixed into the shelf display of offer items and that was IMO questionable, I would say what the OP has posted would be classed as misleading.

But is it 'dodgy tactics'?
But is it 'unethical pricing'?
(both terms used by the OP)

A bit like those threads that allege 'scam' when it's nothing of the sort (imho).

I had a similar experience in a Tesco Extra when I bought some EV olive oil that was on a prominent display stand on a very good offer.
When I checked my receipt, I'd been charged full price.
So I trotted off to CS to claim my 'double the difference' and was challenged by the CS staff - they said I was wrong.
The manager followed me to the stand, realised that the staff hadn't taken the display down after the offer ended and was furious with the floor staff.
Yes, it was misleading but...
I didn't think it was 'dodgy tactics'
I didn't think it was 'unethical pricing'.