To think that Sainsbury's Basics Blueberries shouldn't be...

[itisnotmereallyohnonotatall]

...more per kilo than standard ones? The Basics ones are £1.50 for 125g. The standard ones are £2 for 250g.

I've always found Sainsbury's to be ever so slightly more ethical than some supermarkets so this has flummoxed me!

And yes, I do have other things to worry about...

[DIYapprentice]

Peppi - when it comes to offers you DO need to work it out - it is NOT a matter of reading. They will give you the price per kg on the normal price, but not on the 2 for whatever one. So you need to work it out, to see if the 2 for whatever in the smaller size works out cheaper than one of the larger sizes.

And often with the prepackaged items, you will be given a price per fruit rather than per kg, so I've had to go and weigh the stupid bag, work it out per kg, and then compare it to the loosely sold one.

[Therealamandaclarke]

Whatever peppi obviously you don't have a problem with it.
Or, maybe you are just very argumentative (or maybe work for tesco or something)
I personally find it slows me down to be price checking (And sometimes prices of the same kind of product are in price per kilo vs price per unit for example). Even if all the items were correctly labelled (which they are not) I still have to read and check them. It is quicker to not have to do that. It makes for a speedier shop to just scoot round, chucking stuff in that you want rather than checking the value of each item.

.....but.....

[fatlazymummy]

I shop in Sainsbury's most of the time, not through choice. I find their basic range to be pretty good, though it may not always be that much cheaper.
Yes you do have to check prices. If you are on a budget you have to put some effort in. If you're rich then you can chuck whatever you fancy into your trolley.

[PeppiNephrine]

You don't need to work it out, you just need to read. There isn't any maths involved.

[soaccidentprone]

You can buy fairtrade bananas in lidl, and I think they sell organic ones in aldi.

[ouryve]

There - blueberries need ericaceous compost. If they're planted in the ground, they're possibly getting too much lime.

[ouryve]

Also bear in mind that it's late September. Blueberries are no longer in season. I stripped the last viable fruit (all 4 of them) off my bushes, this afternoon.

[ouryve]

beast - we get neither Ocado nor Waitrose in this part of the frozen north.

[ouryve]

snooping - at least you can buy fairtrade bananas loose in sainsburys. If i do my shop elsewhere, i end up paying more for 5 piddly little narners than for a big bunch of big ones in sainsbobs.

[ouryve]

They do vary. Sometimes they're much cheaper. Sometimes, it's just a smaller pack. Got 250g of british blueberries from M&S, last weekend on a 2 for £4. Did an online Sainsbobs order midweek and it was about £1.50 for 125g of dutch ones. Only bothered because the strawbs are all past it and i wanted more than banana in my porridge.

[itisnotmereallyohnonotatall]

They weren't on offer. They were the only ones available other than the basics ones.

The average ten year old may well be able to work things out but in my experience (within education) there are plenty more who couldn't. And that carries through to adulthood.

[Therealamandaclarke]

Ooh. Thanks for the tip.
No, they are retired now my DM is my supplier I will beg for more.

[madasa]

Therealamandaclarke I am not a good gardener but for some reason these thrive.

Do you have two b plants? I think they are more successful if you have two plants so they can pollinate or something like that.

[Therealamandaclarke]

Quite notgoodbad

[NotGoodNotBad]

Oh, and if there is something which is say 1 for £1.50 or 2 £2, but I really don't want 2, I won't buy any as I feel cheated if I just get the one.

[NotGoodNotBad]

Does my head in, this. Yes, of course I can read the labels and compare the price per kilo. But by the time I've gone half way round the supermarket comparing price of loose item, versus price of bagged item, or different brands which come in different sizes, or the "special offer" which per kilo is more than the other brand at usual price, and decided whether I have the space to stock 4 tins of x to get the special offer which actually is good value, I am thoroughly fed up!

[Therealamandaclarke]

madasa homegrown is great if you have that luxury.
We've had repeated blueberry fail in our garden
But have been super lucky with a thornless blackberry yum.

[Therealamandaclarke]

And as if to prove my tiredness I direct you towards my italics fail.

[madasa]

I have two blueberry plants in the garden. They didn't yield anything last year (first year) but this year they are both heaving with fruit ....much cheaper than supermarket :)

[Therealamandaclarke]

PeppiNephrine "how is it tiring and time consuming to read the labels on the shelves in front of you?*

Well, I'm not sure how, it just is ime.
Nothing to do with my maths skills, it's just that in a large store if I am choosing a laundry detergent, for example, and I want to get the best vfm I need to check cross brands/ cross size / cross type (tablet, powder etc) and also check the "offers". That is more time consuming than simply picking the obvious "value" choice. It used to be consistently better value to buy a "family size" pack of something or other. Now, that isn't the case and if I do that on most items in a store then it adds time. I am very tired ATM and very busy. So I avoid the large mainstream stores. Lidl is small and almost always better value with pretty cent produced IMHO and waitrose, although not cheap, still compares reasonably with sainsbury or tesco and has very good produce and nice treats. And both Lidl and waitrose tend to have smaller storeands upper bonus) and I find they also both have fewer multibuy "offers" which actually tend to not be all that great.

[limitedperiodonly]

This is probably illegal and has been in Britain and Europe since about 1964.

But some people here seem to think it's okay for retailers to behave like this in the spirit of capitalism, because despite the law, we should just know, shouldn't we?

I can only assume they are major shareholders or just daft.

[QuintessentialShadows]

It is not as bad as Tesco though.

When shopping online, they sometimes display the vegetable in question lose, even if pacakged together with other vegetables, so unless you read how many grams/kgs, you cannot easily gauge how much is in "one pack". They seem to change around the weights too, make the packages smaller on a regular basis. Packs which used to contain enough for serving mixed veg on the side for two dinners, are now only big enough for one dinner. They have gone from 320g to 200g (or thereabouts) Price looks the same. Packaging looks the same, it is just smaller quantities than it used to be. It is made to be confusing to the consumer so they dont actually get enough food in their order.

Waitrose is not as expensive as they used to be. I run a supermarket comparison software, so get alternative baskets in other leading brands displayed in the left corner, so can easily see where I get best value.

Sainsbury is much more expensive than all the rest.

[ItIsKnown]

Supermarkets are untrustworthy bastards but I was gratified by a particular pricing glitch which meant I got to buy an second bottle of wine for one pence. I wanted to go back every day until they noticed their fuck-up.

[PeppiNephrine]

How is it tiring and time consuming to read the labels on the shelves in front of you? That is a total cop out. Get a calculator if you really must, but it takes the math skills of a ten year old to see if one is more costly than another.

[Therealamandaclarke]

It's tiring and time consuming to work out the pricing and offers IMHO.
Multi- buy offers make we want to cry. Tesco ate the worse or this. I no longer shop there as my cupboards are not capacious enough for their buy - six- get - twelve- for slightly less on a Wednesday - offers.