Hello all. At my local supermarkets Farleys is about £4.70 and SMA is about £6.80. I've used SMA until last week they were out of stock and got a Farleys instead. DD seemed just as happy, though I didn't like the frothiness much because it's harder to see how much she has left to go in the bottle. But does the big price difference equate to quality? I carefully compared the ingredients and compositions of both and they are pretty much the same. I'll go for Farleys in future and save the 2 quid if there is no difference. Does anyone have any thoughts about why SMA should be so much more expensive??

xxx

They probably want you to think it is posher and better.
Which it aint.

In similar vein, there was £3 of difference between 2 1kg bags of rice in the supermarket yesterday.

Do they use same size scoop of powder per 100ml ? Packet may look the same size but not do same number of feeds. Or is the Farleys a Follow On and price promoted

i am using farleys aswell (only started last week) but I was usuing aptamil which is almost £8 and farleys was less than £5 everywhere. I am breastfeeding aswell, but I didnt get it either.

Someone will most probably come on and say farleys kill babies in developing countries or something ()

Probably to pay for their TV advertising campaign

no lizs the first milk and second milk (ie first and hungry babies) is less than £5 aswell and scoops are the same

and its NOT PROMOTED

There is much of a muchness with formula milk, if you're happy using it i'd keep on doing so, tbh even if there is a huge difference you arent likely to find out, so the best way to judge is how your LO likes it.

Like LIZS said though it may do less feeds.

its exactly the same in weight feeds

can you tell I wanted to ask this question aswell

hipp organic is cheaper aswell but some people say its because it doesnt have lcps (or something added) but farleys does and is still as cheap, actually its cheaper....anyway mutter mutter

Maybe it doesn't have prebiotics? (that are pretty pointless anyway)

Manufacturers of many consumer goods use price points to find a niche in the market that reflects where they want to position themselves. It does not reflect cost of manufacture or design. You can probably come up with examples you know from your own life and reading - perfume, face creams, jeans, are just a few of the items that have been in the news over the past few years. Heavily advertised goods also need to pay for advertising.

I have no inside knowledge of this, but I expect SMA are positioning themselves upmarket of Farleys, and of course they have TV ads to pay for.

Farleys is certainly advertised, but less directly to consumers. They take plenty of ads in the midwifery press.

The difference in ingredients and quality is, I suspect, tiny.

Would be interesting to call up the manufacturers 'helplines' and ask them why they are cheaper.

i took confidence in the fact that my friend who is a very good nurse chose to use farleys after breastfeeding had ended. I am a sucker for that kind of thing

Fio, I am sure you are not alone. People do gain confidence in the products they see others using. It took me years and years to use anything other than Persil*, because that's what my mum uses, even though I know Persil has changed formulation a zillion times since I was a kid And I would never use Ariel 'cos my mum hates it for some reason. I am daft.

There's no reason for your nurse friend to trust Farley's more than any other brand, and maybe she just has an eye for not spending more money than she has to

* for washing clothes, not feeding my kids !

oh yes cos persil tastes vile I am sure it must quite fattening though....

If I were FF I would use farleys too. I have noticed the big price difference and think that it is all about image and paying for advertising that makes the difference with the other brands.

sorry for the radio silence - was putting the kids to bed and having a wind down glass of wine (or two)! As some of you say, it's amazing how invasive pricing can be - when i see two formulas side by side and one is more expensive than the other I think that one must be better than the other and I obviously stretch for the more expensive one because I don't want my child to "suffer" with an inferior product in order to save a couple of quid. I'm going to get Farleys from now on, though I'll ask my health vistors (I'm lucky to have some really good ones) what they reckon.

xx

akeup - I'd be really interested to hear what the HV says. They have no more information to go on than anyone else does, you know....but not all of them know it/admit it

I'll let you all know what my HV says. Thanks for all your thoughts.