Will this end up costing us more

[raleighnut]

I think of myself as a 'savvy' shopper, if I see something that is a bargain I'm in there but for some people this isn't the case.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/comp...1000-a-year/ar-BBpmOnY?li=BBoPWjQ&ocid=OIE9HP

I can often spot the 'cons' but if something is genuinely on offer both Maz and I will stock up on that item.
As for 'Which' knowing what they're on about I've always thought they were useless having read some of their 'reviews' on appliances/services over the years.
Do people really get 'conned' as much as this article seems to say.

 

[Levo-Lon]

My Mrs can spot a shop con a mile off...admin manager..and very anal about figures and most things..bless her..

 

[martint235]

Can't get to the article at work but saw something similar on BBC this morning. Although cons do happen ie 3 tins bought together cost more than bought separately the point is to reduce waste. What happens in these deals is the customer goes in and thinks ah I can get a tin of that for £1 but I can get 3 tins for £2. That is undoubtedly a good deal if you want 3 tins, less if it's perishable and you only want one. I throw a fair bit of milk away because it's cheaper to buy 4 pints than 3 or 2 lots of 2 pints.

Somehow though, if product x currently sells in Tesco at £3 and is on offer at 3 for £6 the result of any pressure on the supermarkets will just be to remove the deal not start selling it at £2 each

 

[Spinney]

There's a Society for Judgement and Decision Making??

 

[Haitch]

Try reading Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, it's fascinating. Judgement and decision making are at the heart of everything we do.

I was talking about that book to a surgeon last year. He then sawed open my breast bone to get at the heart of me.

 

[gavintc]

I blame the teachers. Kids that can't do simple arithmetic and we now legislate to protect the uneducated. Are we now going to close down the stupidity tax called the lottery.

 

[Over The Hill]

The article seems to jump between legitimate marketing and dodgy dealing that is already illegal.

Previous price claims and discount is always a tricky area. But anyone who goes in Sports Direct surely just looks at the price you are paying not some claimed original price. This area is already well legislated.

Then there are prices that are linked to quantity. Of course we should get a deal if we buy a larger quantity of anything.
If a supermarket finds it has 1,000 punnets of strawberries and expects to only sell 500 then why should they not offer 2 for 1? How is this costing me more?
It may be that I end up throwing away the second punnet instead of the supermarket but I am no worse off.

If you are lured into buying something by a false claim then that is wrong.
If you are lured into buying something you really did not want because it is cheap then that is your problem not the supermarkets. Surely we walk in the door knowing that everything we see is designed to lure us into buying more.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

I find the biggest cons are in the beer aisle. Same beer in a variety of bottle sizes: 284ml, 330ml and 500ml with a huge disparity in prices mixed up in pack offers of 4, 6, 12 etc.

 

[martint235]

I find the biggest cons are in the beer aisle. Same beer in a variety of bottle sizes: 284ml, 330ml and 500ml with a huge disparity in prices mixed up in pack offers of 4, 6, 12 etc.

To be fair though, some supermarkets (I'm not posh enough to go in Waitrose or to live in a town that has one) do publish a "price per 500ml" on the price label.

 

[Tim Hall]

I blame the teachers. Kids that can't do simple arithmetic and we now legislate to protect the uneducated. Are we now going to close down the stupidity tax called the lottery.

But at least the teachers still teach punctuation. Children these days know where to use a question mark.

 

[mjr]

Although cons do happen ie 3 tins bought together cost more than bought separately the point is to reduce waste. What happens in these deals is the customer goes in and thinks ah I can get a tin of that for £1 but I can get 3 tins for £2. That is undoubtedly a good deal if you want 3 tins, less if it's perishable and you only want one. I throw a fair bit of milk away because it's cheaper to buy 4 pints than 3 or 2 lots of 2 pints.

It's also bloody annoying if you are getting the shopping home in a vehicle with a limited carrying capacity that is powered by human effort. As an anti-cycling practice, it's only a little better than offering money off fuel that attracts more motorists to the shop and moving the cycle park further away from the door and removing its rain shelter. Just make one 30-40% or whatever cheaper (not 50%, to acknowledge that sales volumes increased by those deals lower the costs of sales) - ban the BOGOF, BNGOF and similar!

Sometimes the food bank bin benefits, but if there isn't one, sometimes I leave the unwanted-but-made-the-ones-I-want-cheaper item in the shop. The waste generated by their stupid practices can go on their figures, not the domestic food waste stats.

 

[Milkfloat]

I don't have too many issue with it. My only gripe is when they have the same product in different sizes, but one lists the unit cost and one the per g cost, they only do that to confuse people.

 

[Over The Hill]

I find the biggest cons are in the beer aisle. Same beer in a variety of bottle sizes: 284ml, 330ml and 500ml with a huge disparity in prices mixed up in pack offers of 4, 6, 12 etc.

What do you want them to do? Not sell multipacks? Not give discount? Not offer variety of size?

Surely whatever you opt for will give us less choice. Choosing the product you want based on the parameters of choice = shopping!

 

[summerdays]

I never believe the offer and work out the unit price myself, though it annoys me when its cheaper to buy two smaller items than one larger one, due to the increased packaging etc.

 

[martint235]

Does no one ever do "What amount of alcohol do I get per pence?" in their head anymore? So if you have 12 cans of Stella at 5.2% costing £15 and 8 cans of Carling at 4.1% costing £9, how do you ever know which one to buy?