Win! Government crackdown on misleading supermarket pricing

I get cross when I see the offers that say “spend £40 and get a saving” I am a pensioner who lives alone so do not spend £40 therefore I am always a loser, why do we never see offers for pensioners only for folks who spend a lot?

Over a period of many years there has been public concerns over the general level of UK Supermarket prices. In response there have been one or two government ‘investigations’. Each time the official verdict has been that pricing is reasonable. BUT I understand that a number of major players in the market make significant contributions to the major political parties. Is it surprising the politicians are find no reason to criticize such financial supporters. Prices must surely include an element related to these political donations which members of the public might well resent but cannot avoid. until hey presto along come foreign players in the market – Messrs Aldi and Lidl. This question of political donation might be an area for the CA to explore.

I’d also like to see the end of multi-buys as a it would stop a lot of waste. Often single people or couples feel discriminated against as you cannot purchase less items at the same pricead but at the same time you d not want to pay the higher price. A good example of this is Asda free range “Happy eggs” £1.95 for 6 or £2 for 12, who is seriously not going to buy the 12?

A joke we had 25 years ago is as valid today as it was then;

“what is the acid test of your marketing department, how do you know it’s performing well”?

“when your sales people don’t know they are lying”.

I get suspicious when I see a certain percentage discount, such as “25% off!” or “Half price!” as the reference price for the discount is almost never a realistic one. Take, for example, the price of dishwasher tablets. Their price history on mysupermarket.co.uk is a perfect square wave which goes from one price to double the price at regular intervals. When the product is at its non-double price, the supermarkets display it with a big “Half price” sign on the shelf. But that price is only half compared to an artificial price, not one that customers normally pay. I think the law should require that discounts be based on the average price over the last 12 months weighted by volume of sales. By using the weighting, it will show objectively and numerically that these discounts are not really discounts at all.

I hope they will also sort out the price per weight, sometimes it is in grams, sometimes in kilograms and other times it is in pounds or ounces. I do believe we need to keep our imperial weights but we need to be able to compare the price of the same item, perhaps pre-packed over lose where one is often weighed in grams and the other in pounds making for a complicated calculation to see what the difference actually is!!