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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Every day a new outrage! From today Waitrose has displays of sweets by every till!

51 replies

PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:01

Is no where going to help me lead my child towards adopting a healthy lifestyle?

I asked the manager why the sudden move to selling sweets right by where you queue for a till .... he said it was a national sales drive in the run up to Christmas.

Surely pester power at the tills for sweets is a really LOW way of getting a few extra quid through the tills!

#firstworldproblems

OP posts:
Lotkinsgonecurly · 30/09/2011 12:23

Why aren't your children allowed sweets other than in party bags? Do you not think the first chance they get they'll binge eat sweets?

onepieceofcremeegg · 30/09/2011 12:24

Actually I prefer it if there are sweets etc at the till because I like to buy them. :)

We don't all go shopping with 4 children in the trolley clambering over each other to stuff packets of starburst down their necks. Grin

Sometimes I am alone and I really really want a mars bar, I just want to grab one, not look for the proper aisle.

Lotkinsgonecurly · 30/09/2011 12:24

Woops pressed post too soon.

Surely an everthing in moderation would be better them and learning to make positive healthy choices. Also, WRT to the checkout no, means no.

onepieceofcremeegg · 30/09/2011 12:25

worraliberty yes I agree with that.

Or as dd1 put it recently after I gave dd2 and her a crunchie "you and daddy have chocolate when we are in bed"

I love crunchies (and curly wurlies for that matter)

Original poster
PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:26

Very few people seem to understand my point ... I have no problem at the tills in any shop myself - my children wouldn't even ask if they could have sweets.

My point was that I thought it was a cheap trick from a company whose ethics I previously held in high esteem.

OP posts:
HecateGoddessOfTheNight · 30/09/2011 12:28

I get you. I just don't agree with you.

They just want our money.

Top and bottom of it.

If you thought that Waitrose were any different - you were naive.

Their business model may be slightly different in that they have a different approach to getting their hands on your money, but that's all it is.

worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:29

How is it a 'cheap trick' though?

I genuinely don't get it?

Customers like sweets yes? Customers like to buy sweets for themselves and their kids yes?

So where is the 'cheap trick' in putting them where we can conveniently pick them up and buy them?

mayorquimby · 30/09/2011 12:31

BROKEN BRITAIN!!!!

HecateGoddessOfTheNight · 30/09/2011 12:31

I agree, worra. It's like saying it's a cheap trick to advertise children's toys on Boomerang Grin

Meeting
How can we best get our hands on their money?
Well, let's be ethical about this, we don't want to try to take advantage of anyone...

Grin
GandTiceandaslice · 30/09/2011 12:32

They have them by the tills in M&S as well.

I love the chocolate covered nuts.

worraliberty · 30/09/2011 12:33

Hecate Grin

I bought a McDonalds burger the other day and the utter bastard behind the til asked me if I wanted fries with it!

How cheap a trick was that?

Curse them and their potato pushing ways....

Lcy · 30/09/2011 12:34

I agree with you. It would really annoy me if they put sweets near the till. I use the shop and scan machine and there is nothing ever by that.

ViviPru · 30/09/2011 12:37

Picture the scene - non-MNetter pontificating about how the site is full of cliche & stereotype. MNetter insists that they have it all wrong. Just look at AIBU for example... er... bugger.

IrmaLittleteapot · 30/09/2011 12:37

The fuckers have put them by the basket only tills near me. But not just one bit which I can steer DS round. Oh no. There is a feckoff 4 foot high selving unit in an L shape that runs the entire length of the queuing bit stocked with temptation on BOTH sides.

Cue DS happily loading packets of sweets, bags of crisps into the basket and tantrumming when I fish them out.

Obviously he can't eat all this junk and this is why I am so fat Angry

Sewilma · 30/09/2011 12:39

I used to work for Waitrose and they were very proud of the fact that they didn't display chocolates / sweet by the tills. They saw it as pushy and a bit downmarket.

Btw, my 4 year son never asks for sweets at the tills. I don't let him eat sweets willy-nilly but I do let him have sweets or something sweet after his meals. I don't understand why some people are saying if children don't eat sweets then they will binge when they move away from your influence? What about teaching them moderation and limiting at what times of the day they have them to avoid dental problems? I hate seeing children in my son's school being fed crisps, chocolates, fizzy drinks before and after school and then noticing their decaying teeth.

Quenelle · 30/09/2011 12:43

GandTiceandaslice Fri 30-Sep-11 12:32:36

They have them by the tills in M&S as well.

You have to inch at snails pace through a corridor of Percy Pigs and Double Chocolate Caramels in M&S.

That's low. Because I'm laying off the sweets in a vain hope of avoiding GD this pregnancy and all I really want to eat today is a bag of Strawberry Bon Bons.

TuftyFinch · 30/09/2011 12:44

I went into our sweet shop the other day to buy chocolate. The sneaky bastards had put fresh strawberries and cream cakes by the till. Utterly unethical. Probably contravenes some law.
I think it's called economics.

kat2504 · 30/09/2011 12:45

What annoys me is when I go into WHSmith for a paper or magazine and the checkout assistant asks me if I want a wispa or a caramel. No, I don't! If I wanted one I would have gone to the sweet area and collected it for myself!

Sweets by the till at Asda I could not care less about. It is not unethical in the slightest. If the purpose of supermarkets was to promote public health then they would have to get rid of about 90% of the products in the shop.

IrmaLittleteapot · 30/09/2011 12:48

yy to WHSmith. Fecking chocolate pushers.

Original poster
PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:49

I have defected to Amazon in protest at WHS chocolate pushers!

OP posts:
CogitoErgoSometimes · 30/09/2011 12:53

Other 'cheap tricks' .... or 'marketing techniques' if you're in the real world and not la-la land.

  • Place the fresh produce at the entrance to give the store a 'fresh' ambiance
  • Place the essentials at the back of the store so that you have to walk past other goods to get there and probably buy some
  • Put the items you want to sell most on the shelves at eye-level
  • Mark up special offers to encourage yet more sales
  • Occasionally move goods around so that customers have to hunt a little and buy other goods in the process.
  • Pipe the waste air from the in-store bakery to the rest of the shop as the smell of baking bread sharpens appetite and leads to more impulse purchases
UsingPredominantlyTeaspoons · 30/09/2011 12:54

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IrmaLittleteapot · 30/09/2011 12:56

It wouldn't be so bad if Waitrose hadn't banged on about how they don't resort to such cheap tricks.

If I wanted pile 'em high, keep 'em cheap tactics I'd go to Tesco or Asda. I like Waitrose because they have a little chat and they actually give a shit about customer service.

[betrayed emoticon]

CJCregg · 30/09/2011 12:57

I'm more concerned about the hashtag in the OP, frankly.

This is Waitrose Mumsnet, not ASDA Twitter

Original poster
PhylisStein · 30/09/2011 12:59

Irma - betrayed - yes - I have dashed off an disgruntled email to head office in protest.

OP posts: