Asda Rollback: Good 'Honest' Value - do they think we were all born yesterday?

[SprayWhiteDung]

Apart from the fact that their adverts are on in every single ad break, and the creepiness of dubbing a man's voice over at the end so it looks like the baby has gone through an astonishingly early puberty...

Whom do they think they are fooling? Everybody who shops regularly in Asda sees it as clear as day that they choose certain lines to temporarily hike the prices ridiculously - often doubling the price - so that they can then 'rollback' the price the following week back down to its proper price, or sometimes actually a bit more than its proper (previous) price.

Is anybody at all fooled by this? What does it actually do to help anybody? It's just so annoying when you want a product and it happens to be the week when they've 'rollforwarded' it in preparation for the fake discount the following week - so you either have to choose an alternative product that wasn't what you really wanted, find another store that doesn't go for the silly gimmicks (and maybe abandon Asda and stick with them thenceforth, for that product at least) or just do without it.

Surely you'd expect Asda themselves to not want to maintain shelves of temporarily dead stock - at prices that virtually nobody will be willing or able to pay - that only serve to make them look like an extremely expensive shop and, to all intents and purposes, mean that they are 'out of' a lot of lines (inasmuch as you can't reasonably buy them there).

What is the point of this whole pointless charade? Am I missing something? Have Which? looked into this? It would be a very easy scoop for them.

all supermarkets do this. It’s often the subject of journalism and It’s not limited to Asda (apart from the annoying ads maybe). There are websites where you can compare prices before purchasing a particular product? So I’m not sure of the point you are making. Annoying? Yes. Especially if your area is only served by one supermarket. Transparent? Not always - but a good case as to why learning maths in school is important so you can work out if buying a larger bottle of ketchup is better value for example - but online firms such as Ocado actually send you a voucher if it would’ve been cheaper to shop at Tesco. I get one pretty much every other week - and sometimes it’s substantial (last week I was sent more than a tenner) sometimes it’s pence but it depends what is in your basket. There are advertising standards that all companies are bound by so if you are concerned by something that falls foul of those guidelines you can report it to the ASA?

@SprayWhiteDung I often wish I had a degree in chemistry and maths and magnificent eyesight to compare prices while supermarkets shopping.
The supermarkets rely on that.

How are they allowed to do it, though? I don't doubt that they all do it, but the fanfare that Asda make about their 'rollbacks' in their endless adverts - and the blatant audacity of using the word 'honest' - particularly stick in the craw.

It reminds me of the old quote about how the more a certain then-well-known rogue went on about how honest he was, the quicker you would count your spoons!

Yes, you can compare the prices on websites, but don't you think it's disgraceful that you have to take twice as long and routinely do this when shopping, to prevent yourself from being ripped off? It's the shopping equivalent of having to keep wafting away wasps when you're just trying to enjoy your picnic.

The facts are indeed all there - just like the new reduced pack sizes are labelled - but they're obviously relying on the majority of people not having the time, ability or realisation to check every item to see where the manufacturers and/or shop are hoping to deceive them.

As it happens, you can barely get any mobile signal at all in our local Asda; and what about all the older folk who don't have smartphones, aren't as tech savvy and/or have arthritic fingers, failing eyesight etc.?

I don't especially have an issue with whether or not one supermarket is dearer or cheaper than another one, as that's standard with businesses: getting to know which tend to have better prices and which to choose based on that (and/or any other factors).

It's the fact that Asda are claiming to be cheaper for many products now than THEY were previously themselves! Rival supermarkets are not their concern and are beyond their control; but when they deliberately choose to misrepresent themselves, it's pure bad faith.

I'm sure they have the best lawyers and know exactly how to stay within the technical boundaries of the ASA - but I think I will report it (for whatever influence I could have!) when I have chance.

Not that it would ever happen, but I would love it to become the law for shops over a certain size that they have to display the prices charged for each product over the past 6 weeks - or at least state the lowest and highest prices charged over the period.

Insurers now legally have to tell you what your previous year's premium was, alongside their renewal offer price for the next year - making any massive hikes glaringly obvious. Anecdotally, I think this has helped to keep their greed in ramping up costs in check. Why not the same for supermarkets?

...Also, why the rigmarole of checking prices after you've already bought the goods and then giving you a voucher that obviously has to be spent with them - and which people can lose, forget or miss the expiry date for?

Surely the honest thing to do is for them to simply monitor the other shops' prices and charge the same prices in real time!

Psychologically, I bet a lot of people will look on a £10 voucher from Ocado (or wherever) in a positive light - like Ocado have kindly given you a bonus tenner - rather than that they have knowingly overcharged you and are forcing you to wait and spend more with them before you can get your money back!

As mentioned above, it's very common in retailers to put on faux sales or discounts. I think there used to be a 28-day rule where it had to be on sale for the higher price for at least that time period before it could be classed as a sale. This was to prevent them doing short term hikes and misleading customers. But I believe that 28-day policy ended years ago. They're still not supposed to mislead customers, though...but we all know they do. Consumer affairs could police this much better.

Argos is terrible for it. They put things on a great discounted rate but ah...it's sold out absolutely everywhere. So actually, getting it at that price was never an option. However...the too-good-to-be-true search result does draw you on to their site and they can push the similar, more expensive items they have in stock.

Because you order the shopping in advance. If on a delivery day Tesco has an offer on something in your delivery on that very day neither you nor Ocado could reasonably know about it in advance. So they refund you after the event. I’m not unhappy about it. I find it quite refreshing tbh. They give you money back for plastic bag returns, and have a no quibble refund policy if something goes off before the expiry date (rare, the thing I use Ocado for mainly is the very long date you get on the food) or is damaged etc.

Yes, it's ridiculous and so underhand.

I can't voich for the truth of it, but I read a long time ago that DFS had one 'sacrificial' branch - in Basildon iirc - where everything was always at the supposed full price.

Obviously virtually nobody ever bought anything there - must have been boring for the staff; but it existed purely so that they could comply with the law and state in all of their other branches that 'this product has been offered for sale at the full price of £X in at least one of our branches for 31 days'.

Ah, fair enough, thanks - we always shop in-store, so online supermarket shopping never even crossed my mind, d'oh!

I don’t disagree that it’s a gimmick, but they have got cheaper overall.

Why can't they just be honest about it, though? Why not just roll prices back by 5p or 10p - people know it all adds up - rather than adding £3 only to later knock off £3/£3.10/£2.90 or whatever?

Ocado are ridiculously expensive! I can't imagine many customers shopping there regularly.. 🙄

My parents do - they use a variety of supermarkets for different stuff.

Although I have not used Ocado for a long time it wasn’t that expensive if you shopped carefully.

while you could spend loads on some products the basics were often not anymore than anywhere else.

All supermarkets are just ripping us off in any way they can . They rely on the people who don’t shop anywhere else or just pick up what they want without looking at prices .
Life is becoming more stressful for a lot of people especially busy families and we don’t want to go hunting round 4 different shops , these are the shoppers these tactics are perfect to use on .

They are no worse than a scammer stealing your money , it’s just we are aware of what they are doing and don’t have much choice because we need to eat and they are all at it !!!
Tesco club card deals are the same ..

Debenhams were doing this when I worked there almost 20 years ago! Loads of stock would go up a few quid then a month later there would be a sale. So long as the higher price has been set for a minimum of 28 days, it’s legal.

You think thats bad look at what amazon do for black friday and cyber Monday. Every retailer does it. Its nothing new