Savings
Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Business, Customer Services, Cynicism, Thoughts, Weirdness 5 Comments »Over the weekend, I was in Sainsbury’s, and saw a fine example of weird savings…
I’m sure I’ve waffed on about this before, but I can’t be chuffed to double-check. (Turns out, July 2009) Anyway, it’s hardly news.
In this case, a 4-pack of 2L Diet Coke bottles is retailing at £6.50. (And let’s not get onto the price-increase side of things – It’s not long ago that that 4-pack was £5) As a 2L bottle on its own is around the £2 mark – I think it was £1.98, but who’s counting? – then £6.50 for four isn’t a bad deal.
Except – except! – that if you pay a bit more attention, they’re also doing “3 for the price of two” on the individual 2L bottles.
So you can get six bottles for £8 ( or £1.33 a bottle) , instead of four for £6.50 ( £1.62 per bottle )
Supermarkets are very strange places when it comes to saving money…
The thing that annoys me most is when the price per 100g (or whatever) is incorrect on the shelf ticket: I found 6 such examples in small local Sainsbury’s the other week,without even trying. Given that the only way you can compare prices is via these tickets, they should try rather harder than they do.
But, as the manager said to me when I dragged him from his comfy air-conditioned office to moan about this (and some other things), he doubted whether any of the staff would be able to reliably check the shelf tickets even if he gave them a calculator.
The National Numeracy Strategy has a hell of a lot to answer for. Kids weren’t this innumerate in the 60s and 70s.
Ah, but the real question is – is there a legal imperative for having to put the price per [x] on the labels? If there’s not, there’s also no legal imperative for it to be accurate. And if that’s the case, why would [supermarket] worry too much about them being accurate, if
a) the staff are too dim to spot it, and (by inference)
b) the majority of customers are too dim to spot the issue, or just don’t care in the first place
It’s well known that [supermarkets] are dodgy when it comes to a lot of their offers, and that the majority of people will just buy it if it looks like it’s a bargain.
I try to figure the price per [x] in my head (as you obviously do) and never rely on the ‘helpful’ figures in front of me. 🙂
And yes, I’m having a cynical day today.
And then if they put the price per 100g and then have a 3 for 2 offer, the price per is inaccurate anyway. The alternative size will have a price per unit instead of weight instead to make it harder to compare. And then if you’re comparing multi-packs, one will be, say 12 items and another be 20, so if there’s then a £6 or two for £10 on the former, it’s even less convenient to compare prices. It’s ubiquitous, so obviously designed to confuse.
I’m pretty good at mental arithmetic, but sometimes have to resort to a calculator.
Good to see someone else is having a cynical day, too. 🙂