When is a 'regular' price a regular price?

Mr.Generous

Years ago it was covered by the sale of goods act, then the sale and supply of goods act, - I don't know offhand the exact wording but this will be pretty close ...

Goods shown as reduced or sale showing a higher previous price have to have been on sale at the higher price for 28 consecutive days before the reduction can be shown, but not necessarily in the branch you are shopping at.

For sale stock they buy in retailers pick a large store with a bit more space and stick some stock in there at a price most won't pay - although of course if someone does then happy days - because the whole intention was to sell it for less in the sale.

For lines they keep in all the time I thought it had to be at a higher price for 4 weeks, and I can't say I've noticed any deviation.

I do notice Nescafe Gold Blend goes up and down a lot, but I'm not convinced it changes more than once a month. It goes on and off offer in different retailers at different times. Being a good MSE consumer I only ever buy when on offer.

molerat

As long as they are not advertising a was / now they can change the prices as often as they want.  The supermarkets are looking at surge / dynamic pricing when prices will change by time of day / day according to demand.  There is more than one reason for electronic shelf labels.

Exodi

molerat said:

As long as they are not advertising a was / now they can change the prices as often as they want.  The supermarkets are looking at surge / dynamic pricing when prices will change by time of day / day according to demand.  There is more than one reason for electronic shelf labels.

Do you have a source because I thought it had been debunked as fake news and the supermarkets had confirmed they were not?

In any case, it's fun to speculate about how a scheme could work. If it was 10% or 20% more expensive to do your weekly shop during the day on weekends (for example), I wonder how many people from MSE would then religiously track prices and then create a routine around going to Tesco at 3:30am on a Monday because that is when it might be cheapest. I wonder if it would update on a national scale, or store-by-store, and whether it would update based on weekly sales data, or in real-time based on counting how many people have come through the door. If it updated often then I guess you might have a situation someone picks up a carton of milk showing a price of £1.49 and then by the time they reach the till it's gone up to £1.69, so I guess they'd need every one to be using the scanners to 'lock in' prices.

Grumpy_chap

Exodi said:

In any case, it's fun to speculate about how a scheme could work. If it was 10% or 20% more expensive to do your weekly shop during the day on weekends (for example), I wonder how many people from MSE would then religiously track prices and then create a routine around going to Tesco at 3:30am on a Monday because that is when it might be cheapest.

My Uncle always used to shop towards the end of the day as that was when the price was marked down for sell by dates and end of day for fresh produce.
This would be an extension of that.

The suggestion about 3:30am on a Monday being cheap because the store is not busy could quite possibly work the other way.  I often wonder whether the 24-hour stores actually cover their costs being open in the middle of snooze time.  The stores still need heating and lighting and a level of staffing and someone at check out (even if it is self-check out there needs to be a store assistant on hand) plus door staff yet the number of customers is very low.  The stores being open 24-hours are offering a level of convenience that is good for some (plus marketing presence) but would the "silly o'clock" price actually be higher, more like any convenience store / motorway services?