To be really annoyed you can't get points on formula?

[Jengnr]

Due to 'Government legislation'

How about the Government fuck off? I've made the decision (actually, it was made for me but that's neither here nor there), I'm spending the bloody money, why should I not be able to collect advantage points on that?

Wankers.

[PolkadotCircus]

You get 4 points for every £1 you spend.

[PolkadotCircus]

Tiktok I shouldn't think said supermarkets would give a shit,it's one product out of millions and many products don't ever have bonus points awarded to them.

I read your post,no need to try again,I simply don't agree with it.

[stargirl1701]

Why risk it? Why risk any interference in the 'norming' of bf? Why? A few Clubcard points? It's just not worth it.

[MrsHoarder]

Anyway, I don't universally get 4 points for every pound in boots. On baby stuff I get 10 (parenting club). I don't present an extra voucher for that. Should formula get 4 or 10 points per pound?

I'm well aware boots put prices up by 10% on the stuff in that promotion to fund it, but as boots is convenient I will play their game.

The agreement about non-points items subsidising the rest is clearly wrong as the majority of not-included items aren't excluded by law but because they sell for a fixed price everywhere. Stamps are a good example.

[tiktok]

Polka, you really think supermarkets and manufacturers would not mind, being unable to manipulate this large market? The manufacturers would certainly mind a great deal - where there are few marketing restrictions, they do tend to make the most of their freedom. The supermarkets would very much like to join in, too.

Infant formula milk market = £263 million (UK figures, 2009).

Considerably bigger than, say:

Baby wipes market = £207 million (UK figures, 2010) (which is regularly manipulated with BOGOFFs, double points, three for twos, etc etc).

[PolkadotCircus]

If they weren't allowed to give bonus points it ain't an issue.Very easy to enforce and supervise.

Being able to award a generic loyalty point for every brand doesn't help any brand above the other.

[Idocrazythings]

polkadot it's really disappointing that you're not looking at the bigger picture and completely missing the point about the unethical marketing of formula and the WHO code.

[PolkadotCircus]

I have explained why.I see the point re advertising and have no beef with that,sorry I think this issue is different as you can't "market" something above the other if both products are treated exactly the same.Parents will buy the same tin from the same shop whatever because they have to and there is no incentive to change brands.

[Idocrazythings]

And I say that not in disrespect or to patronise, but because I'm sure many people would agree with you, and that is the reason why it is so hard to make breastfeeding the normal way to feed your baby. Because people don't want to change the way they think.

[PolkadotCircus]

I appreciate that Ido but people don't need changing in the way they think as the majority start off bfing.People generally switch because of lack off support.

[Idocrazythings]

Do you think so polkadot? I think people switch off because it is not valued and respected enough, by both individuals and the community (at large) which is why there is not enough support. If only money was poured into it, as a preventative health measure, money might be saved down the track on money spent for "treatments". Think, if it had the budget of the formula companies what could be done?

[pumpkinsweetie]

Yanbu-Prices for baby milk are sky high. With pfb baby milk cost around 5.20, with dd4 it had gone up to £8.20. Now its nearly a tenner ffs, and those that have to pay for it are penalized by getting no savings or points on it.

[Idocrazythings]

And again I don't mean every individual just as a general thing. I know many women who have been greatly let down by midwives and lactation consultants. Women who desperately want to breast feed and believe in and just don't have the help/support. It's just such a shame. Anyway I'm going because I am starting to write things and they are not coming out how I mean them, so I think it's time to back away slowly?

[PolkadotCircus]

The problem is I think the " problems further down the line" are preventable with more care re making up bottles and a healthy lifestyle and actually any benefits great as they are are relatively quite small in the scheme of things.

To be honest yes I'd like to see more support but if they were to pump money into anything I would rather it be in tackling childhood obesity,nutrition and exercise.

An ad campaign on safe bottle making would be very beneficial imvho but that is going off on a tangent.

[sheeplikessleep]

Polkadot, seriously? You think the only long term health benefit of breastfeeding is avoiding the risks of making up a bottle wrong?

[myrubberduck]

Polka's posts are the only ones that have any logic to them as far as I can see. Giving formula the same points as any other product while banning promoting a particular brand over another by double points etc would be perfectly doable and cannot in any sane mind be seen as promoting ff ( unless you count not stigmatising ff as undermining bf but I suppose some of you would)

Whether by design or not banning points on formula further stigmatises its use. It puts it in the same category as cigarettes etc.
Again the BF lobby are never content with the carrot, they always have to resort to the stick.....

I would stop posting now polka if I were you; you will find that this topic always seems to attract the same old gang of posters who will en masse try to patronise you into submission when the holes in their argument get pointed out!

[TarkaTheOtter]

I disagree that it would be easy to stop shops giving extra points, boots already give extra points on baby stuff to parenting club members so what should they use as the baseline?

Also, why are points different to other promotions such as, spend £10 on formula and get a £1 boots voucher? It's exactly the same thing (assuming you'd get 100 points and each point is worth 1p). That would be promotion or money off, right? So why are you so insistent that points are different?

[TarkaTheOtter]

myrubberduck I can see how the ban on promotion stigmatises ff. But it also keeps the price of formula lower than it would be if promotion was allowed (increased price transparency through clear pricing=more price competition=lower prices). It would work even better if formula companies were not allowed to advertise either as it would stop them spuriously differentiating their brands, again increasing price competition.

[Bottleoffish]

Surely what would be better than allowing points would be to completely ban any advertising or promotion of any baby milks and therefore reduce the price? Or do people like paying to advertise follow on milks when they buy first milks?

In the USA, where there is no ban on advertising first milks, prices are pretty much double what they are in the UK.

No one moans about lack of points on other items, this is purely about how people percieve this to be some sort of slur on Mum's who use formula, which it is not. It isn't even really about promoting breastfeeding, it is about protecting babies that are formula fed.

[tiktok]

Banning points "puts [formula] in the same category as cigarettes etc."

It puts it in the same category as stamps, too.

What is stigmatising about being associated with stamps??

[drownangels]

Also lottery tickets and gift cards tiktok!

[JoanByers]

"Points will not be awarded for non-qualifying products, including tobacco or tobacco related products, lottery, stamps, prescription medicines, infant formulae milk, Tesco Gift Cards, saving stamps, Esso fuel, in store concessions, Paypoint payments or for purchases of some Tesco Bank products. Other products may also be excluded from the scheme at the discretion of Tesco."

same category as prescription medicines.

[5madthings]

Its the same for medicines etc as well, there are some creams I use for my eczema I normally get prescriptions but occasionally buy them from boots and you don't get points on them. I think its the same with all over the counter medications? I would say formula fits into the category of medications in that it is medically needed?

I still think if you have an issue complain to the formula companies, their practices made this legislation necessary and they are the ones setting prices too high.