If the full price tag’s a farce, what makes special offers special?

There is a plethora of so-called offers or special offers that are really not quite genuine… the law on the requirement of there being an item sold at full price for whatever period is somewhat vague, ambiguous if not misleading…. an item need be offered for sale at FULL price at a mere small outlet of a supermarket chain for the requisite period to satisfy stipulated legal requirement and then have it rolled out nationally throughout their major stores trumpeted as an offer at half price or whatever, it having been sold at a higher price previously and as having apparently complied with the law.

Like I’ve said, I stick mainly to the German discounters, oriental/Asian supermarkets, market
stalls, greengrocers and occasionally Waitrose and Iceland for my residuary grocery needs not
already met, and yes, I almost forget, M&S, for the odd item or two of ‘quality’ stuff which is a bit cheaper there, would you believe.

BTW selling at full RRP is something retailers hardly ever do, least of all in present recessionary times.

It’s exactly the same with musical instruments. It’s a well known fact in the industry that you’re a bit thick if you pay the RRP.
I have never paid retail price for anything (drums, guitars, basses, amps, microphones, mixers, monitors) and realistically, you shouldn’t really do the same for food, it’s just that it is a small purchase and so we care less about it.

RRP means Recommended Retail Price, stores can charge whatever they want in order to try and win business off their competitors

Most major supermarkets now has a price match/guarantee and unless you love wadding through all the small print online, it would be better to have a uniform policy or just keep it simple in the first place without silly limits.

How about the supermarkets website not always offering the same deals as in store? If the offers were only in several stores nationwide, then the login process should still apply those offers. I feel this is a grey area because of the warehouse location. Another issue is having 2-for-1 offers on for fresh items but expiring in 2-3 days time.

Even when the supermarkets have good offers on, there is sometimes a limit on the amount of items you can buy, or if there is a mistake as in the chocolate oranges error by Tesco’s, they call you in if you just so happen to use your Loyalty card as noted by some in various forums. Plus, there’s always deals on unhealthy snacks – which has continued for several years – and they rarely do deals on fresh fruit and veg. People really are struggling to get by and saying no your children on all those offers isn’t easy.

It seems that these deals are too good to be true most of the time, unless you’ve got a smartphone to compare products – phone signal permitting – there isn’t a fair way to find out how good/bad special those offers actually are. If you at work all day and checked online in the morning for the best store to get your shop from, by the late-afternoon those prices/offers can change.

And I am sometimes tempted by offers, but only on items on offer I would usually get such as pop or meat. More often than not I think better of it and stick to my shopping list – this makes sure I’m not as tempted.

Yes, we have experienced exactly what you point out about pricing ruses. Additionally, we have found that special on half pack often do not compete with full packs. For example: 250 gm butter on special at £1.50, when you can buy 500 gm in the same brand for £2.80. Then there are the items that are advertised as specials but have not had the price changed in the computer that drives the check-out. How many people pay up without noticing? Also, the misleading placement of shelf tickets sometimes gives the impression that an item is cheare than it really is. One of my pet hates is slow re-stocking of depleted items. I do not drive to a supermarket to come away empty handed.

Why are we offered “Buy one get one (sometimes two) free!” Why not cut the price in half or to a third, and let everyone enjoy a cheaper shop.
Those on a fixed income such as our old folk on a pension could then benefit from a few extra bargains.
As for utility tariffs, god only knows.
I doubt if a professor of small print could work out the best deal for the him/herself, the average person has little or no chance.

We shop mainly at Lidl and Aldi. We like to support local traders, local farmshops, and the local market for fresh fruit and veg in season. Also we love our local Country Market (used to be W.I. Markets). We use a local butcher for most of our fresh meat. We are pensioners so we belong to an age where thrift was important in the family budget. It’s amazing how far we can stretch our pension and still enjoy the best. I tend to ignore the two for one, or whatever. The scams just irritate me.

Morrisons and Co-op seem to have a bizarre logic regarding ‘deals’ and we frequently see something, for example buy-one-get-one-free on a half-litre olive oil costing much more than a 1 litre bottle at normal price. People actually fall for it!

Same for Pepsi Max at the ‘bargain’ price of £1.25 when you can buy exactly the same thing at Home Bargain for 75 pence. However, Home Bargain are selling Halloween novelties that you can but exactly the same item (yes identical) in Poundland for much less.

For food, one of the most consistently cheap stores is Heron Foodstores. It also pays to travel to areas where there is lots of social housing and unemployment – prices are invariably cheaper than in towns and tourist centres. Also keep an eye open for bargains at your local ‘Premier’ or Nisa’ shops who publish regular brochures to let you know what’s on offer.

Want to save money? You have to work at it but If you have the time and inclination you can save a fortune just shopping around.

Not least of all – remember that ‘BEST BEFORE’ doesn’t mean ‘NO GOOD AFTER’ and some food items are good for several months after the dates shown. You nose and taste buds should tell you.

According to your report, Waitrose say “We would never intend to mislead customers” and “… to ensure our special offers are … completely clear to consumers.” I find it very confusing and time-wasting trying to work out which products are included in any offer, which is often NOT clear. I have told them that I would much prefer a discount on the purchase of one item, which would be much simpler, and means I can buy one at a time without losing out. Those who can use more can buy more while the price is reduced, without increasing waste. If I don’t want two, I usually refrain from buying a product at all, as it annoys me to have to pay more for one.

It seems to me (whether true or not) that for the last several years they have put on sale strawberries etc. at “Half Price” from the beginning of the season, and as you say, their multibuy fruit ‘offers’ are constant all summer. I imagine this applies to other retailers too, and the price is certainly the same in Sainsbury’s, where I go occasionally. What matters is what you have to pay that day!

If not off-topic in saying it here, I notice the peanut butter I bought at LIdl has its roasted peanut content
reduced by 2% which results in an altogether more inferior diluted product but being still charged at the same price…guess I’ll have to go back to making peanut butter from scratch AND certainly NOT buy from Lidl anymore this now watered-down stuff. The change in taste is very noticeable, believe me.
Slimy and oily!

Being in the business of s******g as much as possible from the consumer, I don’t trust supermarkets at all in the way they deceptively price things and this includes upmarket Waitrose as to even their basic so-called ‘essentials’ range as to in particular content deficiencies of a tin of stuff I had bought. The number of fruits therein has gone down without a matching decrease in price. On the contrary, was actually up from 51 pence a year ago to 63p now.

I live alone and find that 2 bags of potatoes or most fresh food BOGOF’s are too much for me to use within a reasonable time so I take advantage of the offers and pass the “free” item to anyone nearby who might appreciate it. This action seems to worry the cashiers but it seems they can think of no reason to object.

Supermarkets must think special offers work, just take the current round of Tesco’s 50% off special offers on the tv at the moment. Not one individual price is listed, just the fact that the items are 50% off.

About time the regulators got a good kick up the ………

Lidl sells 4 x 130 g (dr wt) cans of tuna at £4.00, reduced from £5.39….
and next to them, individual cans at 66p each…. what do they take us for?
…… idiots buying at the higher price?

I know this has all been explored some time ago, but I couldn’t resist reporting this one I saw in ASDA yesterday.
In their “home baked” section is a “promotion” to buy “3 items for £1.50”. This included a shelf full of items priced at only 35p each!! I could buy more than FOUR for their “special price” for 3!!
(Also, so much for their “reducing mutibuy options” – when they have a whole WALL full of this “offer”)

Another sneaky one I saw yesterday in ASDA – although I don’t know whether the pricing structure is unique to them, or if it’s a con originating from the company. Nevertheless, it’s a classic con!

Ginsters Cornish Pasty – £1.28 (for 227grams)
OR – just next to them –
TWO Cornish Pasties (in a “double pack”) – only £1.63 – GREAT!
EXCEPT, the “double” pack only contains 260 grams!!
I would also add that the “double” pack appeared to be double the volume, but on closer inspection, containes a good deal of vacant space in the pack.

If you (a) spot the disparity in weight, and then (b) do the maths – even a rough calculation will do – you are being TRICKED, (I can think of no more polite word, but a good many less polite ones), as it really isn’t unreasonable to expect better value for bulk-buying.

But WHEN is something going to be done to STOP these cons???

I shop every week at Tesco, but recently have started to experiment elsewhere. The plethora of offers is now so irritating that I cannot see myself continuing to use them. Offers like buy one for £1.75 or two for £2:00 simply indicate to me that buying one overpriced item is not good value and buying tow means I will probably simply add to my level of waste. The result: increasingly, I just don’t buy at all. When this was the occasional item, I could ignore it, but it is now so rife that it is hard to find a genuinely priced single item. Come on Tesco. Do you really think we are so naive to think that one item at £1.75 is a genuine price if you can add another for 25p?