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

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.

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.