To think unsalted butter shouldn't cost more than salted?!

[Herrena]

Morrisson's, this morning:

Own brand salted butter = £1.20
Own brand unsalted butter = £1.36

Ok I admit it is not a huge difference, but it's the principle of the thing!!

I am genuinely surprised that they thought this was ok....

They sell more of one than the other, so can afford to sell it cheaper.

Why wouldn't they think its ok? They will sell less of the unsalted, thereby making the cost per unit higher.
It's called capitalism.

But we're always being told of the perils of salt! I assumed that they'd deliberately lower the price of unsalted so people wouldn't be able to say the unhealthy version was cheaper...

I say this as an avid salt-lover btw.

YABU to buy unsalted butter.

I have just bought some lovely French stuff, studded with big chunks of sea salt

mmmmmmmmmmm

Or at the very least price them both the same...

As another has said, Yabu to buy unsalted.

Furthermore, if you eat that much butter that the salt content affects you then you're eating too much butter.

GAG.

Er what? Healthy foods are normally cheaper, are they?

and since when was it the remit of the supermarket to police your diet by the price of products?

this is a wind up, surely?

Maybe I'm totally making this up and have thought too hard about this but salt is a natural preservative, so salted butter will have a longer shelf-life and maybe be cheaper to transport (less refrigeration required in transit?) whereas unsalted butter is like cream and will therefore go off easier, thus requiring more expensive refrigerated transport!

The unsalted stuff has to be better quality to compensate for the added flavour that salt brings. Therefore it costs more. Easy!

unsalted butter is fine for baking, but on toast... yuk!!!

Does GAG stand for something, or does it just indicate the action?

It's not a wind-up, honestly! Although the reaction so far does indicate IABU...

I tend to assume that the supermarkets do practise some price-adjustment (they used to sell booze cheap so as to get customers in, didn't they) and so it would be a sound PR move to make sure the healthier alternative is priced the same as the unhealthy one (regardless of valid points about cost of manufacture, quality of product etc). It would stop people like me grumbling anyway :)

It means get a grip I expect.

That bit about booze pricing was meant to be a question not a statement!

There are laws and regulations regarding alcohol sales and pricing. AFAIK there are no butter laws.

"the healthier alternative is priced the same as the unhealthy one"

Unsalted butter cannot be classed as a healthy food, as such. If the rest of your diet is fine then the salt content in your butter doesn't matter. As others have said, to make a big difference you would be eating tomuch fat, by having to much butter.

We need a certain amount of salt. Most people who go on about this sort of thing then eat crisps etc, or feed them to their children, defeating the object, cut out the processsed foods and we need odd bits of our diets to contain a level of salt/falt.

This is a subject that i am sensitive about because i have low blood pressue and need salt to stop my dizziness. I pick good foods with salt, butter included.

My DH has mentioned that supermarkets have things called loss-leaders - items which are sold at very low profit in order to get customers in. Apparently baked beans were a famous example of this.

I'm not sure if that is still (or was ever) true, but if it is then I'd expect some similar attitude to butter TBH. It may not be a necessity but a lot of people eat it!

and thanks for the clarification daisysteiner :)

I should also clarify that I routinely buy salted butter because I find the taste 100x better than unsalted...

JellyBelly's right. The salt is a preservative and gives the butter a much longer shelf life.

I must say, those prices are good - is it foil wrapped? I always find the really cheap paper-wrapped butter goes rancid very quickly.

I'm surprised everyone is surprised at people buying unsalted butter. I don't really use butter for myself, but buy unsalted for DS. He seems happy with it! I thought you weren't supposed to give anything with added salt to babies? (Not that that's possible really, the bread I spread the butter on has salt in).

What have loss leaders got to do with butter? And beans would not be a loss leader, they are very cheap to produce.

Your logic is very hard to follow.

Supermarkets have loss leaders on the go all the time. I thought that was common knowledge.

Unsalted utter is generally of a higher quality than salted butter. It is delicious on bread with a few flakes of Maldon sea salt (and not at all the same as simply using salted butter in the first place).

mainlymaynie DS (10mo) doesn't get any butter yet, it is all for me and DH (to go in his sandwiches and my buttercream cake icing)!

I usually try to use my olive spread because I heard it was healthier (and spreadable) so he'll prob get that when he's old enough. I blame my childhood for my salt craving, my family are from the middle east and salt gets flung over everything crap excuse

plenty it is indeed foil-wrapped

I did not know about the quality difference - that's interesting. Although with the one I buy I am pretty sure the salt is added only for taste (I bloody hope so anyway at the price of it)

I had no clue anyone thought of unsalted butter as a healthy version. The reason most people buy it is for cooking, right?

It's correct that salted butter lasts longer. Unsalted butter used to be a bit of a specialist/luxury item - you find very old recipes that call for fresh or sweet butter - because it doesn't keep as well. We've just got very used to the fact both are available for similar prices, I think.