Tesco.com’s smaller packs left me feeling short-changed

I think you are a little unfair on Tesco. I bought a pack of Carte D’Or icecream in Waitrose last week – no choice of size, so just picked it up and brought it home. Reading your article today, I have just checked, and yes it is 900ml, and checking old boxes (saved fo re-use) they are all 1lr. There was no notice to tell me of the change. Of course had I noticed I would still have bought it, as this is the brand I like.

Antonio’s and Waitrose’ own have both reduced to 900 ml a long
time ago.

In case of ice cream, worth going for the dearer premium
brands.

You say above that “It can also be difficult to keep track of shrinking products, as many don’t display clear unit pricing. With no standard way to compare products by weight, it can be easy to miss when your favourite ice cream suddenly gets a bit lighter in your shopping bag.”

Sometimes the reduction in size is very apparent but it is still charged at the higher price. Today I thought I would stock up on Tesco Finest Madagascan Vanilla ice cream which I have been buying for a number of years as it is delicious and was considerably cheaper than similar premium branded ice cream. It use to be sold in 1 litre tubs and was usually on offer of 2 for £5.00 It has now shrunk to * 500ml* tubs, but still on ‘special offer’ of 2 tubs for £5.00 or individually at £3.99. This was such a considerable drop in size for the same price I was flabbergasted and didn’t buy any especially as it is now only a few pennies cheaper that the branded ice cream. Did they think shoppers wouldn’t notice? All this after reading that Tesco are trying to win back shoppers – I would suggest stop trying to rip the customer off would be a good start. (would agree that the premium brands of ice cream are the ones to have). I also bought some Innocent smoothies which also seem to have shrunk in size but cost the same .

My life long loyalty to Tesco is looking threadbare.
Shrinking pack size is just one problem, but I’m unaware if all the supermarkets are up to the same trick. On the till receipts, Tesco ask “How did we do?” I’ve emailed them at least 3 times, with minor complaints, without response. If they cared, they’d reply.
The pack size trick, and I think it is a trick, can only be carried out once. If food inflation carries on, Tesco can either continue reducing the pack size or charge more. Obviously pack size reduction can only go so far, so what is the point of the exercise?
My belief is they think we’re mugs, although my experience of other supermarkets is limited. It’s obviously time I found out what’s going on in other stores, and stopped being lazy!!

I think you may find many packets across all groceries have shrunk in the last few months. I bought a box of Morrisons 150 x 2 ply tissues recently, and found the box and tissues were about 1.5 inches shorter than the previous box in my cupboard. Likewise, packets of biscuits which used to be 200g are now 175g. I wonder if the Government Department which produces the Inflation Figures is taking this into account ?

Blimey! what a mine field!! Shopping could be taking a lot longer in future, by the time I have checked weights, capacity etc. The supermarkets are really showing what they think of their customers. They have had it too good for too long. Time to vote with your feet! A trickle of punters through the ckeckouts, and they might wake up.

I’m guessing no Anng.

One states 500g = 900ml, while another states 1L= 500g. Surely
they both can’t be correct? JK

More diluted, more watery stuff in one.

This sort of scam has been going on for quite a while. Frozen peas used to be 1000gm packs now they’re 900gm. The price being generally the same. Iceland do it, Morrisons do it etc. In fact “Birds do it, Bees do it, every Supermarket do-es it, lets put the price up”.

In a rising costs situation supermarkets have choices such as, cut their margin, put the price up, sell less at the same price. The first is a no no, the second – if you’re saying you’re cheaper than the competition is again a no no, so the only option left is the third.

Tesco’s attitude to customer service as exemplified by their staff is generally “its an honour for you to grace our store and if you have a problem & complain we’ll do everything to mitigate our loss”. That’s why they’re losing customers.

Its a bit of a cheek of Tesco to blame their suppliers.. The onus MUST be on Tesco to check what is being deliverd by their suppliers and update their website accordingly. I don’t suppose the label on their shelf is wrong so why not get their website up to date? Surely this is in breach of the sale of good act to offer 1L at a charge and then supply 900ml in it place. I know someone involved in the supply chain to Tesco and they inform me that Tesco have a ruthless approach to suppliers and hauliers alike so its time practice what you preach and get it right or compensate!

I’ve supplied Tesco in the past, and their fines are hefty for non-compliance with their many regulations. I’m sure that issues do slip through: as I’ve experienced it, essentially they put the onus on suppliers to get everything right to avoid checking costs in-house. But it’s also a very convenient excuse.

Now Tesco has lost business in the UK – the latest UK profit figures are down.
What are they going to do, spend 1 billion £ repainting all their stores to get customers back.
Just how stupid can they get, do they think people go into the store because it looks newly painted,
no we go to shop for the best value for money. Roll on LIDL, ALDI etc.

Tesco used to be, pile it high and sell it cheap 50years ago – Thats why they did so well then.
Tesco should spend 1 Billion £ and go back to it’s root success – pile it high and sell it cheap.

Picking up from Anng’s point, if the changes to packaging sizes are not inflationary then it seems there must be a cosy relationship between the supermarkets and the government. The supermarkets make more money and the government doesn’t have to worry about the impact on inflation. Perhaps Which? should be raising this with the Office for National Statistics.

50 years ago I can remember running to the Coop for shopping with a list (posh kids had a small notebook) and the assistants writing the price on the list and adding it up for me to take home so mum could see I had the correct change in my purse and they would tell me to tell my mother that the price of baked beans would be going up in 2 weeks by one (old) penny so she needed to stock up. In those days it seemed the shops were on the customer side but did the rot start when Wagon Wheels became the size of micro scooter wheels. Our local bakery, has put the price up of all its products and reduced the size. A bite sized cheese scone is now 96p.

I don’t do my grocery shopping online, but this story does just confirm my suspicion that Tesco appear to have a deliberate policy of confusing shoppers by inconsistent, misleading or simply false product pricing.

Last year I noticed an offer on Tesco ice cream which noted “2 for 1 on 1l or 900ml packs”. Yes, it was labelled, which was good, but was it just a way of easing in a price rise due to pack shrinkage?

The size of Tesco brand savoury slices was reduced some months ago. The shelf label showed the old size and, now incorrect unit price – and did so for at least two months after the pack size changed.

To say that they haven’t been informed by their suppliers is, to put in politely, disingenuous. They make the same ‘mistake’ with their own products and are very slow at correcting the ‘error’.

What I’d be very interested to know if anyone has an before and after shrinking pack and compare the barcodes, they _ought_ to be different. If they aren’t then it looks like the supplier is trying to pull a ‘fast-one’. If they _are_ different then the supermarket must be complicit because they would have had to set this up in their system and therefore should have known that the pack size had changed.

Morrison have a clever one.They put Ltr bottle of Whiskey on offer and fill the shelves with 70cl when the small quantity Ltrs go.You dont know untill you get home.

Not strictly an online issue, but I have a Clubcard coupon from Tesco’s that gives me 75p off any skinless & bonelss red or pink salmon if I purchase a 180g tin; the coupon is recent and valid intil 25 May 2012. But, yes, you have guessed right – all the tin sizes have been reduced to 170g and the coupon is not accepted at the till!

I usually shop at Tesco and have noticed that the bars of Nature Valley Cereal Bars sold 6 in a pack are noticeably smaller than they were, but are sold at the same price.
Tesco Super Concentrated Liquid Detergents, approved by the Good Housekeeping Institute, are now sold in smaller bottles, but at the original price.
Copella fruit juices are now sold in smaller bottles, but at the same price. The label on the bottles advises us of the “new size 750 ml”, they are not specific in saying “smaller size for the same price”.

Tesco has assumed the Which? represetative that contacted them had no knowledge of the retail industry, and they look to be correct in their assumption. Here is what I would have done:

GS1 issue barcodes to manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors. GS1 has strict rules on barcoding. A barcode change is required on: (a) Any change to declared net content, (b) Changes to wording of the existing product name, product brand or product description, and (c) Any dimensional change to packaging of more than 20% in any axis.

Do the reduced size packs have the same barcode as the previous larger packs?
– If they do, the manufacturer/supplier has been extremely naughty. This is very unlikely. If they can’t be legally fined, the law needs to be changed.
– If the barcodes are different, then Tesco must get its EPOS data for the new reduced size item either from a data provider, or by creating it itself. Regardless, Tesco, the data provider, or both are at fault. This is far more likely.
– It only takes one person to complain, and the fault should be fixed. This should take minutes, but I’d give supermarkets an hour (just in case the person doing all the changes is overworked due to masses of changes), and then they’d be in the proverbial.

Supermarkets pretend to customers that they are at the mercy of the suppliers/manufacturers. In fact the opposite applies. Manufacturesr/suppliers supply the supermarkets with the exact specification they demand. So when supermarkets ask for say fresh fruit salad, they specify the content, how ripe it should be, shelf life, what the banana pickers should have had for breakfast (joking, but I guess you understand just a little bit more now just how powerful these supermarkets are).

In many cases, manufacturers/suppliers must rent shelf space for their products. Shelves in different locations have different prices.

Question: You say you were unaware of the pack size change, but the Barcode has changed. Where did Tesco get its EPOS data from for the new barcodes?

Question: Why don’t Tesco include barcode information on their website?

Question: Why don’t Tesco put barcodes on their till receipts?

Question: Why are barcodes on the shelf labels so small that they are almost unreadable?

Question: Are Tesco going to make shelf label barcodes numbers at least 12 point? Or are they going to supply free magnifying glasses? Or are they going to do nothing or make them even smaller?

So when they told the Which? representative that they were unaware of pack size changes, I think they were pulling his or her leg.

Further obfuscation,Tesco were selling pizza cheese last week.Large pack priced £7 per kilo.Identical product in smaller pack promoted as two for £3.50 came in and labelled as £1. per 100 gram.!

Shopping at TESCO? Check that smaller packets have a lower unit price than larger packets, it is very often the case.

Also check unit price of sale items against normal sales, as again the unit price of the normal sales is often lower.

Yes tesco I purchased a tesco finest chicken and beech smoked bacon pasta bake today and as always weight of 800grams however you’ve put the price up by £1 but the most insulting trick in the book was you mislead me to believe that I was getting more for my money by making the packaging flatter and wider making me think I was getting a bigger meal. Wasn’t I silly thinking I was getting more for my money from tesco. Silly me I suppose if you become greedy every little helps eh.

I buy walnut pieces to add to muesli. It turns out that the walnuts in the cooking section are around half the price of those in the healthy eating snacks section. However, the kicker is that 2x100gm packets are 12p cheaper than 1x200g packet (£2.38 vs £2.50). Common sense would suggest the same amount in one large pack should be cheaper (and greener in packaging) than in smaller bags. It is not a special offer, or multi-buy discount, etc., this pricing discrepancy has been in place for at least a year.

I posted a comment about this on the Tesco comments web site, and got a phone call back this morning from a customer services agent. The guy was very defensive about the pricing, talking about branch pricing, temporary pricing, and offers. I told him this was not branch pricing, not an offer, was confirmed by an independent price comparison site, and had been priced that way for at least 1 year. He got quite steamed up, saying he didn’t want a confrontation, before suggesting that it was their suppliers that determine the cost of each packaging size, and if they weren’t selling many of the larger packs, they’d make Tesco pay more for them(!). He then apologised for any confusion, saying their aim was customer satisfaction and lowest prices for the consumer. I told him that those aims would be best achieved by pricing large packs lower than equivalent in small packs. He repeated the claim that the suppliers dictated their pricing, and started talking about strange pricing on offers again. I thanked him and rang off.