to suggest a campaign using post its on supermarket shelves

[nippiesweetie]

Yesterday I was buying coffee for work in Tesco. The price per kilo was greater for a refill pack than it was for a jar but of course the weight differed so it was not obvious at a casual glance. That is, they are charging more for an item that is much cheaper to transport.

If I had had a post it pad I would have liked to leave a message - Look the pack costs more than the jar.

Would this be breaking any law? No damage, just information for other customers and if lots of people joined in...

What other pricing anomalies rip offs could be highlighted.

I totally get what you're saying, OP. I noticed the same recently. I really wanted to take the refill bag of coffee but bought the glass jar version instead; it was so much cheaper. Annoying.

I always look for the price per 100g when deciding what to choose. It is common to find that bigger packets are not always better value.

Nah, don't waste your time.

No, TakeMeUp, mainly because I don't have such a low opinion of other people, nor a chip on my shoulder. I post those to point out that the machine/corporation has made a mistake!

Actually, I think your "look at me, I'm smart and have worked out the price per weight but the next person isn't smart so o need to point it out" comment reflects more on you than me...

I agree with the desire to draw attention to the ludicrous supermarket pricing - post it notes aren't the right way though

Are you sure they were "deliberately misleading"? I find the bigger supermarkets at least tend to have information on the price labels showing the price per unit of weight or per item so you can do a genuine comparison very easily.

Op are you backtracking?? Your title clearly states you want a campaign.... And we all know what happens when MN 'campaigns' take off....

And I don't work for a supermarket but I do work in retail and there are so so many tiresome customers who can't read/work out simple pricing. Don't you think if any of it were illegal or deliberately 'misleading' then trading standards would be all over it??

I'm going to break out the positivity: try it - it might catch on. And you can finesse the idea pragmatically through trial and error.

OP you are totally missing the point in blaming the shop. It's not that they are charging more for less. It's that the higher weight item happens to be cheaper when they buy it in.

Food prices across the world fluctuate due to all sorts of conditions and buyers negotiate the best price they can at the time for their order.

So what they are doing is passing the saving on to you. They could keep the extra profit and let the higher weight item stand at the inflated high price and you would be happy with that.

The other thing to bear in mind is that glass can be recycled and the refill plastic pouches often can't. Therefore you might be paying more because you need to take into account the cost of the packaging including the environmental cost.

On top of that, many shoppers will pay more for less if it is a fair trade item, locally grown produce, organic or has a smaller carbon footprint for example. The labels are there for you to compare, just use them and shop accordingly.

I'll go further: I think capitalism is so pervasive that all acts of resistance have their place AND that acts of resistance are, by their nature, fragmentary, local, specific - and it is wrong to look for one perfect, universal action. To dismiss something because it is not 'perfect' is to misunderstand the nature of political acts.

Don't you think it says more about the reputation of certain supermarkets that we are more prepared to believe they are ripping us off or getting us to spend more than we need - rather than providing a good service ?

I think everyone has red button issues with supermarkets, I'm personally not fussed about the prices on pouches vs jars.

I can't stand the visual assault, the endless choice/decision making, the bright lights - the layout which means I need to trek over the entire store.

I admire your protest - yeah it could wind people up, but lots of things do these days

No Mama, How on earth does it reflect on me? That makes as much sense as your notes...

At a till, where the only 2 staff members were talking and totally ignoring me and 2 other customers: "Till will re-open when we have finished discussing our weekend"

You dont think a "sorry, could you serve me please* would be less passive aggressive?

26Point2Miles Not backtracking at all. I would like to be part of such a campaign but not lead it. As I imagined it, it wouldn't be a campaign with leaders, more a kind of popular protest enhanced by the kind of humour suggested by Nomama.

I don't think it is an accident that the pack and the jar contained different quantities and were displayed side by side. I think that many times the retailers observe the letter of the law but not the spirit. They know, for example, that people expect larger packs of a product to be better value. No matter how correct their small print labelling is, it is perverse to charge more for a larger pack and it is irritating that we can never take prices on faith. Many people don't look in detail and the retailers are happy to rip them off. I don't care how legal it is, it is misleading by expectation and it annoys me.

I hate the idea that all is fair if you can get away with it. This might make me naive but that is how I choose to view such things.

Do you not think I tried that? I can speak, and did try to interrupt them, as did the other 2 customers.

Your comment reflects in how YOU would have read / written that particular note. As I said, far from it being a comment on the other customers it was pointing out one of those pricing oddities/errors.

I am fully aware that the Post Its! are very PA, indeed I said so in my first post here, but did you not read my other post - the one about staff taking them as intended and passing some of them up the food chain? No? OK!

Sweetie I worked in Retail.. no one is passing them up the food chain. They are laughing in the staff room

Staff are going to find them irritating after the first few.... First few are funny

And they tell you they've been passed on of course.....

Fairenuff I don't imagine you know for a fact that this was the case. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think assuming the worst will be correct more often than not. Supermarkets have been outed often enough for dubious practices in pricing and exploitation of suppliers.

I think annoyance with the supermarkets' practices is increasingly being factored into people's buying decisions and habits.

I don't imagine you know for a fact that this was the case

Which bit of my post are you referring to?

Food prices across the world fluctuate due to all sorts of conditions and buyers negotiate the best price they can at the time for their order.

Yes, that is the case.

They could keep the extra profit and let the higher weight item stand at the inflated high price and you would be happy with that.

Yes, they could keep a larger profit, that is the case.

The other thing to bear in mind is that glass can be recycled and the refill plastic pouches often can't. Therefore you might be paying more because you need to take into account the cost of the packaging including the environmental cost.

All of this is also true.

On top of that, many shoppers will pay more for less if it is a fair trade item, locally grown produce, organic or has a smaller carbon footprint for example.

And so is this.

The labels are there for you to compare

And this.

What is it that you disagree with?

If people choose to assume something will be cheaper without bothering to check the unit price on the labels, I don't see how supermarkets can be blamed.

Which? magazine are campaigning about this and to be honest if they aren't making it stop I doubt a few post its will, I also suspect they go straight in the bin. However no harm in trying.

I thought ot was a good idea op! I find supermarket shopping exhausting. I genuinely struggle to cope with a trip round the local colossal tesco. There's just no need for all the variations, offers, pack sizes and options when all I want is some bloody cornflakes. I avoid the big supermarkets, have done for years.

No wall of choice in aldi, I can be in and out in 30 minutes!

Sweetie ?? Oh dear. Did a nerve get hit?

They may well be laughing in the staffroom, who cares? My ego isn't reliant upon Post Its! being taken seriously.

It is a light hearted, simple and direct way to protest something. If you don't like it, ignore it.

As for passing them on, well she either does or is humouring me, again, who really cares?

Why does the thought of Post Its! annoy some people so much? I have done it for about 20 years now and have no intention of stopping. I suppose I leave a note once or twice a month, not much more.

I also unwrap my shopping at the supermarket so that they have to get rid of the rubbish rather than clogging up my bins. That used to cause an issue, security guards were once called by one member of staff. But now there is a bin by the trolley park and quite few people leave behind unnecessary packaging.

Silly little actions can cause changes. And at worst they don't hurt anyone!

The people I know who work in retail would take the piss if they saw someone sticking post it notes all over the shop.

i agree that it's not always possible to compare though and resent the time wasted trying to work it all out.

They now provide a bin?? You'd be better off taking it away with you and recycling it responsibly rather than allowing it to be sat in landfill!! How ridiculous