To think some supermarkets deliberately con us

[whitesandstorm]

It's happened so many times, the price at the till doesn't tally with the price on the shelf. When you query it you see that the item at the price you thought it was is slightly different to the one that has the price shown. This is done with lots of products. For example yesterday I picked up a hair dye which was priced at £4.99, but at the till was £6.50. On checking, the assistant said "no the £4.99 one was only for a particular shade" (which incidently had sold out), we eventually found the £6.50 label but it was nowhere near the product. Aibu to say that these are deliberate dirty tactics by the supermarkets. There are loads of other instances like this too numerous to mention.

The ones that really bother me and that I think are seriously misleading are the 3 for £10 meat offers.

In my nearest Tesco and Sainsburys, the gondola end display is cleared labelled with a massive sign at the top saying 3 for £10.

In my view, the only items that should be on that display are those that are part of the offer.

In both stores they have other meat products that are not part of the offer, sometimes costing say £6. So it's easy to pick up 3 items thinking they're part of the offer then getting stung for full price on all 3.

I'm increasingly finding I really need my wits about me. Agree with pp re Aldi making the shopping much easier.

Deux, I agree with you there. In contrast farmfoods has freezers that are clearly labelled 3 for £10, and you can mix and match between all the freezers that say that. A much better system.

ROAR At the OneLitrePetrolRipOffAngst!

I once complained I'd been overcharged for something in Asda - the chap said well, to be fair sometimes you get undercharged for things too - so it's swings and roundabouts

TBF Asda are excellent at refunding if overcharged - sometimes giving a £2 voucher back too - though that hasn't happened for a while - though this does rely on scrupulous checking of receipts which isn't always possible.

I once bought a hairdryer I didn't want from Asda cuz it had such a fab reduction on it - it's crap and I never use it!! It was down to £8 two left so I got my mum one too - when I went to pay I got charged loads - when I queried it the £8 price tag had miraculously disappeared!! Thought I was going mad!! I stood my ground and finally got them both for £8. Think the manager just did it to get rid of me in the end! I'm stubborn like that. Who would insist on paying the price they'd seen, which had then disappeared, and stand there stubbornly arguing for a hairdryer they didn't actually want!!
That's me

I think I might have been 'conned' in Asda I thought they were usually good at labeling the shelves correctly - feel silly now. I was buying a cheap crockery set, seemed the white set was reduced to £8 but not the plain coloured ones at £12. Although I would have preferred the coloured ones (don't show up marks caused by cutlery on cheap crockery as much) it wasn't worth an extra £4. When I got home I realised I'd been charged £12 and thought I'd misread the label - now I think it was likely mislabelled... next time I will pay more attention...

I enjoy catching tesco out. During the summer our local tesco was selling ty beanie baby keyrings. I saw a super cute dog one and it scanned at 1 cent so I bought the entire lot for 50 cent, great mixture of animals .
Tescos Ireland no longer refunds and gives you the item for free.

I went to my local Tesco today to get printer inks as well as shopping. The black XL was priced at £40 and the tri-colour pack £30. I did an online check and found that this price was generally reflected at other stores (buying online was a bit cheaper) but felt irritated that I could buy a new printer for £70 or less than these inks.

Anyway, at the till all the shopping was checked through and the final bill was much less than I expected. I queried this and asked the woman at the checkout to look to see if the inks had actually gone through. Yes they had at just under £12 and 10!!! . "OK" I said that's fine then paid and ran from the store.

middle they can sell printers so cheap because they make their money on the ink...a general rule of thumb is the cheaper the printer the more expensive the inks/running costs ...
Read on line various comparisons that printer ink in cartridges cost more per ml/mg than vintage champagne, gold and cocaine...something to think about!

Yes yes yes, tesco is nearest to me and for at least the last two years they have done offers on Lurpak spreadable on and off. Each time it is two 500 g packs for £5 but if you buy the 1kg larger pack you end up paying over £6.

Therefore unless you are on the ball you end up paying more for the same amount, merely because people assume larger ones are better value. massive rip off that has been going on for ages because they do this offer on Lurpak very regularly.

Katy that Lurpak spreadable is currently two (500g tubs) for £4; and over £6 for 1kg tub at Tesco. I spotted it today. Sounds like a bargain .

unlucky, yes I guess you're right but this printer wasn't particularly cheap; I wanted a wireless one which I could send emails to etc. I've been lucky with this printer, had it three years and had two minor problems which the company has helped me with quickly, on one occasion sending a replacement part.

The 500g thing isn't just a con though. There are people out there who simply aren't 1kg tub buyers. I'm one of them. Takes ages to get through a 500g tub in my house, and I don't like leaving them open really long. It's fine too, I'm just being silly! But I'd rather have a 500g tub. So a 2 for £4 would tempt me to try Lurpak when I'd ignore a £4 1kg tub.

Most supermarkets put their fruit and vegetables at the entrance of the shop, the idea behind that is that you will put the helathier food items on the trolley first then allow yourself little treats in the following aisles because you've been 'good' with the healthier produce. If that makes sense.

Fruit and veg is usually merchandised first in flow to show off the colour and freshness from natural light coming through the door. Fruit and veg looks best in natural light where possible whereas fish, eg, looks best under a pure white light. It says look at us, our fresh stuff is great ergo so is eveything else.

It also, importantly and crucially, forces shoppers to slow down as they navigate the produce. It's not laid out on aisles like the rest of the store. Apples on your list, well here are 10 varieties to choose from. Want loose ones,OK so go find a bag, slow down and select. Slow down and get into the groove. It's really got nothing to do with encouraging treat items later. That's what gondola end displays do.

For the same reasons, destination purchases such as bread and milk will always be away from the door otherwise everyone would be in and out super fast.

A few months ago I heard an interview on our local radio in which the interviewee (some sort of psychology expert to shops & businesses) was someone who had advised big supermarket chains in the past.

His explanation was rather a mixture of what ampersand and Deux both said - i.e. the healthy stuff like fruit and veg is normally the first section you come to as you enter the store. He said it is there because a) it looks more attractive in some natural light and b) the thinking is also that if people feel good about themselves having picked out plenty of healthy stuff at the start of their shop than they may often be more willing to treat themselves to the likes of crisps, chocolate and other naughties as they come to them later. They will believe they have earned it. That way, supermarkets believe they can make more money on the rubbish junk foods that they stock in the furthest aisles.

Another thing to bear in mind is how the shelves are stocked. Very little, if anything is where it is by chance. Stuff at eye-level (for most people) on the middle shelves or just above is very often the most expensive. If you are looking for cheaper items or want to make sure you get the most for your money then you need to check all shelves, craning your neck to look at the top one and virtually getting down on all fours to view the bottom one. It is worth bearing that in mind.

That said, promotions are very often on the eye-level shelves too. I think that is part of the agreement with the manufacturers, who may have paid to have their products displayed that way. Some promotions are of course worth considering. Others are a con, or suck you into buying too much of something, especially perishables.

Manufacturers pay a fee to have their products on special offer/BOGOF. Eg BOGOF on a gondola end (that big display at the end of aisle). The manufacturer pays a fee to be part of the promotion eg£20k +. The manufacturer also pays for the saving. The big hitters like Tesco will try to get the supplier to reimburse the retail price of the item given for free, not the cost price. So the epos (scanning ) data will show how many multiples of the item have been scanned. That multiplied by the retail price is serious ££££.

Suppliers often make little or no profit on these deals but can grab a significant share of trade/brand share esp if the product is advertised on TV at the same time. It also ties people into the brand for longer.

Oh dear waffling. I used to work in this industry at HO level.

I love the science of supermarkets! Although less than I love the actual supermarkets.

My favourite thing is coconut milk. Obviously the cheapest place to buy it isn't a supermarket, but on the World Foods aisle you can find the exact same product at completely different prices in the Thai and Caribbean sections. Red Dragon subtle branding cans can be twice the price of Jamaican ones.

I run down the receipt as soon as I get through the checkout: multibuy offers not recorded, reductions not showing up, Tesco are horrors for not giving the 'meal for £10' concessions, etc etc.

I have never, ever found an item priced mistakenly low.

How can this be, I wonder?

I have once found a piece of loose unpaid for ginger in the bottom of the trolley when I come to unload my bags, and once accidentally waltzed through with a pack of nappies hanging from the back of the trolley, but I went back and paid for those

I don't get how the nail polish one was misleading (apart from the assistant saying it was the same). Surely if it's not included and the label does not say it's in the offer it's not a con? Irritating yes, but not a con

I did the petrol thing at Asda today. Advertised at 107.7 and 1 liter was 108!

M&S did this just after Christmas. 3 pies for £10, that's what the tickets said. but it came up as a total of £13.50 on the receipt with nothing discounted. I was on the bus on the way home so couldn't go back and moan.

But as said many times Dim, what do you want them to do? That can't charge you £1.07 and a seventh of a penny can they?

I was in Tesco today, picked up a set of two storage boxes, shelf price said £18 but I didn't check that it was the right item for the ticket, get to the check out and was charged £32 for them, said I didn't want them and she called a supervisor to do a cancel item (when did the checkout operater stop being able to cancel items?) supervisor just said that she can give them to me for £18 if I still wanted them, she didn't even go to check!

Just to add, with regard to price labels being in the wrong place, these are usually replaced every few weeks by night staff who probably aren't out to con you, they just prefer to half-arse the job as they get paid peanuts.

Obviously I can't speak for all supermarkets but this is true of the few I've worked in over the years.

I suspect I'm probably the last person in the world to only have just noticed how the loose veg is stonkingly cheaper than the bagged. I've been merrily buying three onions in a net thing for a £1 for years, until DP pointed out that teeny writing that says price per kg and the loose onions are about fifty million quid cheaper!!