To say it's time supermarkets were stopped from doing this.

[cupidsgame]

It's the way they try and fool us into buying the dearer product rather than the ones on special offer. Tesco does it blatantly, they put certain products on special offer but the product immediately below the "special offer" is not the one being reduced,

Its more or less the same product but for example, if it's for shampoo the offer might be only for dry hair, but the price tag has the "dry hair" bit in very small letters. So you pick up the shampoo for "greasy hair" thinking you're getting a good bargain only to find at the checkout that it's the full price.

It's legal I know but I wonder how much they make from duping their customers this way. The trouble is as well the staff always try and blame you for not reading the offer properly and imply you're being a bit dim. Anyone else get annoyed at this. Surely they shouldn't be allowed with getting away with it.

Some people would argue black is white. amazed that such a seemingly harmless thread would incur such wrath , also I'm at how some get so defensive over the greedy supermarkets. Do they have shares I wonder.

Some fall for it, some don't, the ones who do fall for it should blame the supermarket not themselves.

Really?

There was a post upthread where someone said something costing £1.79 was 2 for £4. Is it really the supermarket's fault if someone "falls for" that? Really? Who on earth is too dim to realise that 2x1.79 is less than 4? It's the supermarket's fault that someone is incapable of adding up to that basic a standard?

OP, a supermarket is in business to make money, not to cater to people who can't add up or to ensure your shopping is on special offer.

Are you also the type of person who thinks that a charity shop is there to provide charity to its customers by selling very cheap goods?

And yes, you have the option to shop elsewhere other than Tesco, it's called a free market economy, in which we live.

I love the way some people on Mumsnet are so convinced of their intellectual superiority to the rest of the universe.

and what about my example upthread where the vendor doesn't provide comparable prices?

No one is saying that supermarkets shouldn't make money

But sadly the dominant supermarkets are only about making profits, by destroying smaller chains and independent shops, paying their staff low wages and holding farmers to ransom

This is not how successful business needs to run

It really doesn't take any "intellectual superiority" to work out that two times £1.79 comes to less than £4.

I have complained in waitrose about this. The on offer sign was for a different pet food to the shelf it was attached to. Yes I could read the label but it purposely misleading . I only noticed when I checked my reciept before I left the store.

Cupidsgame - are you suggesting that you're only suddenly aware that a supemarket's only aim is to make lots and lots of money and they will try every trick in the book to get you to part with cash?

Or are we trying excuse basic stupidity and blame someone else - that's what bugs me, a culture of 'not my fault I was too thick/lazy to follow instructions'.

OP, a supermarket is in business to make money, not to cater to people who can't add up or to ensure your shopping is on special offer.
Nobody is disputing that, but they also have a duty not to mislead customers. There are laws in place to make sure of this and if they deliberately sell you items that were meant to be on special offer but weren't, in a misleading way they can be prosecuted. To say people who have been misled can't add up and imply they're stupid in some way is insulting. The thread isn't about "adding up" anyway, it's about special offers being deliberately placed away from the price tag in order to get the shopper to buy the dearer item. It's probably happened to you but you won't have realised.

14gnut I can't see the big issue. I'm blaming supermarkets and supermarkets only. My thread is about one of their lesser known tricks that they get up to, and I'm sick of it.

Next time you go into a supermarket, physically, have a look at the store layout and work out where the high-margin items are positioned compared to customer flows and Special Offer shelves.

Oh - and check out the positioning of eg eggs. (Many people will still go to physical shops to buy eggs because they don't have confidence in receiving them unscathed from online deliveries. Ditto milk.) Bet you that eggs won't be in an easy-to-find position near the entrance to the store.

I have complained in waitrose about this. The on offer sign was for a different pet food to the shelf it was attached to. Yes I could read the label but it purposely misleading
This is more or less exactly what I'm on about. Nothing else, and nothing to do with us being "thick" or "stupid" What is it about it that some cannot understand.

But there are people who don't read well and can't add up, are they fair game to be exploited? It should not be allowed for supermarkets to purposely try and mislead using the various tactics described here.

Exactly Oysterbabe but those poor people are getting ridiculed it seems.

Never thought that about eggs they are always at the back of a shop

It's probably happened to you but you won't have realised.

You keep trotting that out as if you assume that I should care? I don't, particularly. If I can't be bothered to take the time to check a special offer, I shouldn't complain if I make a mistake.

The complaint about the hair dye one was a perfect case in point - someone complaining that only the unpopular ones were on special. Well, of course they were. That's how they sell more of a poor-selling item. They're not going to discount the best sellers when they'll sell them at full price anyway, are they?

Well that was me user, and I was complaining about the way the prices were displayed, not the pricing itself.

user you might not care but some people do care. Lots of people have very limited incomes, why should they get ripped off. You're missing the point about hair dyes, yes I know exactly why they do it, my point being they're deliberately misleading people the way they do it. Just because you don't care (which seems a bit I'm all right Jack) don't object to those of us who do.

Well, of course they were. That's how they sell more of a poor-selling item. They're not going to discount the best sellers when they'll sell them at full price anyway, are they?

but that's not the complaint.
the complaint is about misleading signage.

Serious question to all posters ...

If your shop was (say) £50 and took you 30 minutes "blind", but you could have made it £45 if you took 45 minutes (carefully reading labels) ... would it have been an effective use of 15 minutes ?

Signage which states on it which item is being reduced.

You're also assuming I don't have a very limited income. I also know it's my responsibility to read what I'm buying.

Fortunately the office of fair trading isn't as tolerant as you user. Supermarkets have to abide by rules and regulations. If they are found to be misleading the public with their pricing they can be prosecuted, as they have been before. They can't use as their defence "it's the customers responsibity to read what they are buying". But once again I'm not complaining about what it says on the signage, I'm talking about the placement of the goods that are on offer. We know what's being reduced for goodness sake, it's finding it (when it's never under the signage as it should be) and reading every tiny little word to make sure you're getting the right thing.

"If your shop was (say) £50 and took you 30 minutes "blind", but you could have made it £45 if you took 45 minutes (carefully reading labels) ... would it have been an effective use of 15 minutes ?"

Yes. Even more effective is doing it in 15-20 minutes online once a week where - shock - people can avoid confusing things like having to read signs.