What’s your biggest supermarket pricing bugbear?

Sorry – I should have said that Tesco features very frequently in discussions about pricing issues on this website. There seems little point in recycling these issues.

http://mysupermarket.co.uk/ will show you the price at different stores, though you have to choose one store to start shopping from, and as you shop it will show you what the items in your basket would cost at the other main supermarkets. You are still able to swap to another store before checkout, or close the window and go there in person if you prefer to shop in person. The pricing is not always accurate, as I have found after my online shop has arrived, but I suppose they can’t always get it right.

if you shop at one of the big supermarkets, then enter your receipt details the day after youl get a refund and money off your next sho of they were not cheapest, thats quick and easy to do. so you dont have to worry wethert was the best deal or not.

What do you think supermarkets and comparison websites do with all your shopping information?
One of the big four release an “income tracker” report every 6 months or so, based on customers wages, spend, etc. They may not be able to sell on your private information but they can sell on reports and analysis of their customer’s spending habits.
Comparison websites make affiliate commission if they refer you to any given supermarket website or allow you to shop, who do you think pays for this? Customers by any chance?
Comparison websites are destroying competition, within hours of comparing, two of the big four in my area’s pricing are identical on a whole range of products.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself this – why is it that every “offer” “price check” [call it what they will] always involves visiting their website, entering details, registering with them?
Information gathering so that they can price via demographic for maximum profits!
Our local asda till staff were asking for customer postcodes back in October, the crazy thing is, people were telling them!
Tesco have revealed that they use some kind of tracking software to detect people who are using/registering more than 1 email address on their website.

Open your eyes people, supermarket’s are pricing goods, not based on the cost price to them for each item, but on demigraphics so they can extract maximum profits. This is after they have reduced their prices so low, they have killed off most of the local competition, the prices shoot up again and we all pay.
A big town not 20 miles from me, had a big tesco supermarket in its town centre. It was in a prime location, just off a main motorway, with loads of investment in the area, new home building/retail space, etc.
As the cuts bite and cutbacks were made, they have closed down the store. Not enough scope for increasing profits? The store was doing very well at the time.

Always shop in cash, tell businesses/websites as little as possible, then watch the prices fall.

Whilst I am no fan of the supermarkets’ sales tactics, tracking customer behaviour does benefit us as consumers. When was the last time you went into a supermarket and found empty shelves? This used to be a common occurrence – goods out of stock, awaiting deliveries, etc., especially in the week after Christmas.

Do you think they have warehouses crammed to the rafters with perishable goods, just waiting to replenish the shelves after Mr/Ms Anonymous completes the weekly raid on their stock? No, these sales tracking systems help supermarkets predict customer behaviour – what you are likely to buy in the coming weeks, based on a whole range of factors. This feeds back into the supply chain, helping growers and manufacturers to optimise production.

Apart from ensuring you get your turkey at Christmas, it also reduces the amount of wastage and keeps costs down. Without demographic information, how would they know how many turkeys they need to stock in each store? Whether that benefits you in person, or the shareholders, it is good practice and good for the environment.

I know it’s fashionable to knock big business, but I can’t help admiring the logistics and systems that will contribute to us having food we want on the table over the coming holiday.

Sorry Em, I disagree completely with your view.

“tracking customer behaviour does benefit us as consumers”
Prior to the dominance of the big 4 supermarket’s, the customer benefited from some genuine competition.
Supermarket A didn’t know the offers, sales and stock levels of supermarket B in a given area, they had no access to information regarding income, they could only estimate shoppers habits (ie, they couldn’t view the weekly shopping figures of an individual) the only way to attract customers into their stores was on prices and special offers.
Further proof exists when a supermarket opens in a town where they were up against mostly local, independant competition. Again, with no way of telling the prices, stock of their direct competition, the supermarket prices reflected this and are price at good value on the basis of their costs of supply.
Once locals close down and sufficient customer numbers are driven away from the town centres, the supermarket prices are increased, often based upon factors of the area. Wages, population, jobs market, housing prices, etc.
Where I live tesco opened a big store (where other local business planning applications were refused…) on the edge of our small town.
All was well, until about a year in, a customer raised the question with the store manager about why the fuel prices of tesco were 1p-2p higher in our store than a store 2 miles away, when their delivery of fuel came from the exact same tanker on the same date. (Customer had filled up 2 miles away at tescos and ended up following the same tanker to the other tesco on his way home) – from the manager, “We charge the higher price at our store as there is less competition in the area!”
Prior to tesco opening, there had been plenty of competition in the area, tesco’s undercut the locals, closing 2 of them down!

“When was the last time you went into a supermarket and found empty shelves?”
In asda 2 miles away – 5 out of the last 7 weeks. I only buy a few branded goods each week, none at all if the price isn’t right, mostly if what we use at home is on offer.
Out of stock on;
Warburtons toastie bread – on two occasions
Shield soap
Lurpak butter – twice
Cornflower
This is not only down to customer demand, as they have more than enough of their own brand versions (read: bigger profit margins) where the branded version shelf space has been reduced, at prices that the branded used to be before they shot up.
Take butter for example, 60 odd thousand square foot superstore, turnover in excess of £1 Million per week, asda often have instock just two boxes (thats 40 units) of lurpak. More often than not this is when it is on a “special offer”
Two big name brands have vanished altogether, not seen them for three weeks, whilst their own brand has appeared at the price that lurpak and the magical missing brands used to be a few months ago.
Now why do you suppose that is? They have shopping history of those products there.
Could it be that when there is no lurpak on the shelf, a big percentage pick up the own brand asda butter instead?
End result, all customers suffer from higher pricing and less choice!

“these sales tracking systems help supermarkets predict customer behaviour – what you are likely to buy in the coming weeks, based on a whole range of factors”
You are kidding yourself if predicting customer behaviour is done for customer’s benefit.
It is not predicting behaviours, it is information gathering, look at the money tesco paid to buy the company which set up their clubcards for them. It is valuable tool to maximise profits and has been used to pay for itself at customer’s expense.

“This feeds back into the supply chain, helping growers and manufacturers to optimise production”
What growers? What manufacturers?
The damage to farmers is well documented, manufacturers of food that have stood for decades have been put out of business. Generations of families who worked for manufacturers have been put out of work, something we never hear about in the media when a new supermarket opens.
What about all the contracts supermarkets have negotiated with manufacturers and growers, then when it becomes a mainstay in their production, contracts are re negotiated and taken away if bigger discounts are not given, costing jobs?
These savings on production are rarely passed on to the customer.

“Apart from ensuring you get your turkey at Christmas, it also reduces the amount of wastage and keeps costs down” – “it is good practice and good for the environment.”
Wastage keeps costs down does it?
I don’t see the prices falling in the supermarkets where I live. Tesco’s last six months sales report prooves this – over all sales down 0.5% whilst profits increased by 12% – that’s not keeping costs down, that’s increasing profits at customer’s expense.
Supermarkets are one of the biggest reasons for the vast amounts of landfill that we are all paying for. The packaging waste they produce is horrendous!
This is because goods have to be packaged, as they are stored for hideous lengths of time.

To associate supermarkets with being “good for the environment” makes me suspect you are connected in someway with the supermarkets?
One of the biggest environmental damagers today are the supermarkets!
Take fruit for example.
Often grown outside of our strict food safety laws and imported, some of the fruit on supermarket shelves is upto a year old!
Grown abroad – picked, gas waxed and stored (co2 emissions)
Transported into mainland europe (more co2)
Shipped to UK (yet more co2)
Shipped and stored in main supermarket depots (more co2)
Shipped out to stores (more co2)
Chilled at store (more co2) if not sold, returned to be used in ready meals (more co2)

Take an apple grown in the UK supplied by a market trader.
Grown here under strict laws, nothing additional added in growing process, no gas waxing, etc.
Shipped to wholesalers (co2)
Picked up by market trader (more co2)
Sold within days. If not sold, used for animal feed.
Which is better for the environment? Which is better for the customer’s health and pocket?

I don’t knock big business because it’s fashionable, I disagree with their whole ethos.
Supermarket advertising is false – costs for the customer have been going through the roof – they are similar to banks in that they have favourable conditions/planning etc, yet are abusing their position to make obscene profits.
Their business model is killing towns all over the UK, taking away choice.
Their prices are not based on cost of product to them, they are based on demographic, never admitted by supermarkets.
They claim they are cheaper, yet barring a few items, I can source my shopping cheaper than
a supermarket.
People can no longer walk to their town centre, shopping street and get what they need. They now have to get transport to an edge of town supermarket. Increasing pollution. Increasing traffic congestion.
The law isn’t applied to supermarkets as it would be to individuals, I wouldn’t get the planning that they would for my business, I wouldn’t be able to offer “sales” that are clearly not sales, trading standards would be all over me like a rash.

Apologies for the long winded reply, but it is a major issue as regards the cost of living today and is damaging every household.

Tesco is a bit like Microsoft, McDonalds and other large companies. It is popular to criticise them even if many of us buy their products. I use Tesco simply because it is the only supermarket nearby. I hate their vouchers and often forget to use them. I realise that using a Tesco Clubcard collects data about me. The fact that Tesco is our largest supermarket demonstrates the success of what they do, though something annoys me every time I shop there. I’m sure that they would prefer to have happy customers like you, Greg, but that is not essential.

Did I compare Tesco with Microsoft? Sorry Tesco, that was not called for. 🙂

Notice the article in the news a few weeks back, about sales of porridge rocketing recently?
Exact same thing happened in our local asda and tesco, prices of porridge oats suddenly going through the roof. Much of what’s popular seems to stem from marketing, and often not long after articles in a certain industry magazine are released into the general media.

Not in anyway linked to the 75% rise in the price of oats due to a worldwide shortage. The thing with the bargain basement budget brands is you notice a price increase far more than in the branded products that have all the advertising costs and snazzy packaging to absorb smaller rises

Have a look at the ingredients of Pringles. I would not eat them if I they were free. I don’t know why people are so fond of processed food.

I go into LIDL for one or two items if have the cheek to use their car park when visiting my bank. The queues are usually long and often only one checkout is manned. It is the worst supermarket I know in this respect. I have used LIDL stores when travelling round the country, and they have been much better. I’m glad that LIDL works better for you.

I agree about ASDA and its “yo-yo”Prices its not often i shop there now since we now have a Local Aldi .I recently noticed Aldi have a Clever way of upping prices e;g;Week 1 Carrots 75p per Kilo Week 2 Carrots on Offer at 39p per Kilo week 3 Carrots 79p per Kilo.Yesterday i challenged the Store Manager a small Swede the size of an Orange at 75p he replied i will report it to my Area Manager.Aldi have no Customer feedback site only a Postal Address.Tesco do price there’s properly shrink wrapped but expensive compared with Aldi.ASDA same price as Tesco at £1 each no wrapping.

Do you think it is a clever idea for us all to contact the Chief Exec of a company if we are unhappy about something, David?

Keith, just don’t buy it. The shop makes an offer, and unless it is deliberately designed to deceive, you don’t have to take up the offer.

Shops of all kinds want to sell more goods, and special offers are a way of achieving this. We have the option of taking up these offers or not. Personally, we do our food shopping at one store where I believe they, on the whole, have sensible offers – to some extent guiding what we buy if we decide to take advantage. many are in basic foods, food that can be frozen, meal bundles that make a worthwhile saving.
You won’t (at least I hope) legislate on how businesses conduct their legitimate affairs – offers, sales, discounts are part of that.
There are some offers, however, that seem dubious – for example whenever we buy Finish dishwasher tablets, we can always find half-price packs, often alongside full price ones, year in year out. You have to keep your wits about you.