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.

Is it deliberate or has the sign been misplaced by the epos staff/shop assistant?

A clue I find is that the little price tag in the plastic bit is usually a different colour too when it's on offer. I always check the wording on size and type too. I used to work in a supermarket and had to point out the wording to customers at the till often. The signs were in the right place (below not above the product) but the subtitles would describe which one was on offer. They have to say this legally.

If a supermarket is placing the sign below the wrong product then this is either a. the shop assistant not reading the wording correctly or b. the shop having a policy to put it under the wrong product. I've not seen any signage in the wrong place but I will look out for it from now on...I wonder if it's a particular shop rather than national policy of that supermarket?

Also I have a good look at surrounding products and work out if it really is a deal. This has suprised me quite a few times eg multipack of 4 is actually more expensive than just buying 4 single items. Another is an item constantly on offer. It's just it's normal price for most of the time for months on end!! That's what I find dodgy in my personal shopping/supermarket experience.

Nothing confusing about reading signs, it's the finding the goods belonging to the sign that we're on about, as if you didn't know, I've said it enough But carry on missing the point.

I've not seen any signage in the wrong place but I will look out for it from now on...I wonder if it's a particular shop rather than national policy of that supermarket Yes do, the more it's brought to their attention the better chance there'll be of it stopping. No it's not just Tesco, Morrisons are terrible for it too.

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.

But that isn't a tactic, because it would be illegal.

It's probably either:

• Where a particular variation in a line of products is on offer, which is laid out on the shelf label (eg. "2 for £2 on Kettle Chips 150g. Excludes Ridges, Bites, Chefs Signature, Sweet Potato, Vegetable Chips and Multipacks.") Naturally, the excluded products are likely to be next to the included products because it's the crisp aisle.
• A shelf label or product has been moved/knocked and put back on the wrong shelf by a customer or member of staff by accident.

To do anything else would go against the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.

OP, supermarkets ARE NOT allowed to do the shelf label thing. If you find a supermarket doing it, report it to Trading Standards. But what you describe is already banned.

I had this in Boots the other day. Buy One Get One 1/2 Price on suncare ore something like that. I picked up two SPF 30 lip balms, one Boots own brand and another one. Was charged full price at the till. When queried the assistant said that the non-Boots lip balm counts as "specialist suncare" which is not included in the offer. There was no indication on the shelf that this specific product was not included in the offer. I returned it.

What I mean is the sign would be below the products take for example a brand of friut juice, then the subtitle would say orange/pineapple 1L. But that brand might sell grapefruit and apple juice too, which weren't in the offer but next to the orange and pineapple ones, so near the sign that flashed up the offer. That's when people would get confused. They'd see the sign and grab the grapefruit because it was very near it. Often the checkout operators would say that these aren't on the offer I'm afraid and call over the supervisor to swap them around. I can't make my mind up whether that is misleading. I guess it is because why not just put all the juices in that brand (or colours if hair dyes) on offer if it's not to get people to buy the wrong ones. We're all so trusting of what actually is big business!

I have reported it mackeral I've also wrote to Tesco, but I've been ignored, I think the practice is allowed, because they know exactly what they can get away with. Because this is one of their "lesser known" practices it might not have come up on OFT radar yet. But I'm hopeful that it will eventually be stopped.

DH often complains to Tescos! There is a Tesco Express near his office, where he goes sometimes to buy his lunch. There may be a sign, saying "Pack of 4 Mars Bars for a £1" He only buys things like that, because they are on special offer. When he pays at the till, the Mars Bars go through at the normal price, and he only finds out, as he checks the till receipt, walking out the shop. He goes back to complain, and they refund him the excess charged. We would have thought in these days of electronic tills, no doubt linked to the stock control system, that prices could be updated in light of offers, automatically.

Clearly not - this happens regularly, and eventually, he complains to Head Office! They told him its official policy, not just to refund the excess charged, but to double it!

I work in retail, in a food hall rather than supermarket.

We always try and put the products in the right places, but when they rush you to do everything sometimes things are put in the wrong place (not deliberate, just time restraints) a lot of our stuff that's on offer all the time has a ticket on the product too, which is handy.

The trouble is when there's an offer, but not all products on the shelf are in the offer, it's really confusing

I had a customer recently who had picked the wrong things (3 in offer, 4th wasn't) so I showed her which were and which weren't in offer, she kept apologizing to me, but I said it's very confusing, I get confused myself!

and when there are empty shelves we move products to fill gaps, but I try not to put none offer products on an offer shelf, as I know how annoying it is to work offers out!

Superdrug is awful for this. This sign is an example:

The 1/2 Price is the biggest thing and leads you to believe that the product actually is half price. And then you read the smaller writing to find out that you have to buy two of them in order to get one of them half price. And then the smallest writing says that you get the cheapest one free.

So erm, how much does it cost if the second one is half price and is also free? How does that work?

This ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority is interesting in which Superdrug tried to argue that Rimmel's compact bronzing powder is not defined as a cosmetic (and therefore on offer). And the ASA was unimpressed.

That is a very confusing sign.

What does the Rimmel sign mean, can a more intelligent poster explain?

kerbys, more intelligent than me you mean?

Honestly, this place is brutal.

I used to do my shopping list on 'My Supermarket' website and print it out to take with me when I shopped in my local Asda. I like the way I could see what offers were on and could list items in price per unit so I knew already which were the best value.
My biggest pet hate was going into Asda and looking for the item which according to their own website was on offer but not finding any sign saying it was on offer, I would find a member of staff and ask them and they would always make a point of saying that if there was no sign then there was no offer.
Whenever I went to the till it always scanned at the offer price so I always wondered if the offer was only for online customers. I gave up with Asda in the end.

That sign looks like somebody made a mistake when writing it and meant to write that the discount is applied to the cheaper product (this is standard). It is confusing and should have been checked and noticed before it went out in store.

The example with a sign saying crisps are 3 for 2 over a barrel of crisps not included in the deal is a good example of a misleading deal.

The 2 for £4 or £1.79 each usually involves multiple products so somebody can buy something at £1.79 and something at £3 and together they will be £4 saving you 79p. Of course two £3 items for £4 is a bigger saving but sometimes you don't want two of the more expensive items.

Sorry kidnapped, but you did ask how it worked , so we both need one of the "expert in all things supermarket" types to explain it.

I hear about this all the damn time on the radio.

People need to take responsibility for themselves more. Not everything is someone else's fault.

I shop daily so see this sort of thing a lot. I'm not a daftie, I read the signs and labels and compare and all that gubbins but sometimes find I've been charged full price for something after all.

It happens so often that it can't always be a mistake. And people who think the stores definitely don't sometimes do it deliberately are easily fooled.

It's the bloody mix and match that's the worst. The stickers are identical and all say 2 for £5 bit at the till you get told, "oh you can't mix and match these two," but they can't explain why not. Conning arseholes.

I'm a fast reader with good eyesight, but shopping nowadays takes more mental arithmetic than I can be always bothered to do. Apart from the classic loose fruit at £x per kg vs 5 fruits for £y, forcing you to find the one scale left after they removed all the others and how many fruits you get for a kg, the price per kg doesn't (or does it?) take special offers or sizes into account - so which is better, the 540g pack (72p per 100g) or one that's usually 300g but today has 25% extra free, or the 3 for 2 400g pack but the cost per 100g is for the individual ones? Quick now, you have to get out of the store in 10 minutes and the toddler is screaming at you...

I'm sort of boycotting Boots after their really cheeky Meal Deal - you get a sandwich or salad, a snack and a drink for £x. They do include smoothies as drinks which is nice, but I found last year that lots of the snacky items that certainly aren't salad or sandwiches go through as those, so you think you are getting a deal but not. I only noticed as I was buying 2 meals and nothing else, and the bill was £9 not £6, and complained. They came back to the aisle and said yes, everything on the shelf is in the meal deal so it's legal, but the categories don't have to be obvious... Suspect Trading Standards might have had a different view if I'd complained further.

YABU but YANBU it depends on the situation. Usually I would just tell people to actually use their eyes as what do you expect from a supermarket? But this does happen and it's really annoying how they place their objects in order to make people spend more when you just want to buy a single item quickly. The best you can really do is just be aware and try read labels as much as possible

Usually I would just tell people to actually use their eyes as what do you expect from a supermarket?
That's an easy one, just for them to try not to dupe people.

Tesco put the offers in bright red and do the maths for you

Use mysupermarket.com and it check prices across other supermarkets, lets you know the bargains and offers 'swaps' for cheaper products.

But the big guns in the industry know that people won't just buy a single item, Pizza. Get you across that threshold and ....Wey Hey!

I am "blessed" with being a shopping clutz , so always check the offer and the end date(just in case I want more) Obviously the signs could well be a little bit clearer in some cases but generally they are quite straightforward. It's more a case of people just grabbing something without checking properly