Supermarkets are still at it. We exposed Sainsbury’s and Asda a couple of months ago over claims that bigger multi-packs were better value, when in fact they were nothing of the sort. Now Tesco has joined them.
Thanks to some tip-offs – including a comment from Linda Philips here on Which? Conversation – we found Tesco selling Princes Tuna Steaks at £1.57 a tin, but the supermarket’s ‘bigger value’ three-pack cost £5.68.
Thanks to my trusty calculator, I can reveal that it was 97p more expensive to buy the ‘bigger value’ pack.
We also found Green Giant Original Sweet Niblets at 55p per tin, with the ‘special value’ four-pack at £2.39 – meaning you’d have saved 19p by buying four individual tins.
Why is it so difficult to get this right? Yes, Tesco stocks thousands of products, but these should only be advertised as ‘bigger value’ if they actually offer genuine value to customers.
Tesco responds to pricing complaints
Tesco told us that ‘in these instances, the price of the individual pack moved down in price and it took a short while for the multi-pack price to follow suit.’ And indeed, these prices have now been changed on Tesco’s website.
But we’ve still reported the supermarket to trading standards, just as we did with Asda and Sainsbury’s – we think promoting multi-packs as better value when they’re not is wrong.
Our ‘daft supermarket offers‘ Flikr gallery is already bursting with photos you’ve sent in, but we think these ‘better value’ offers are even worse.
So if you’ve spotted any of these potentially misleading multi-packs in your local supermarket, please describe them in the comments below and send pictures to helpwanted@which.co.uk with the title ‘daft offers’.
We’ve got to work together and make sure the supermarkets take note, otherwise we could be left with daft and misleading offers for ever more.