Reducing the price of first formula milk

[starsintheireyes]

Please can someone link me to to some info about this, I was 99% certain its illegal to discount first milk in shops yet my local store is selling sma gold for 20p

I don't think formula milk is expensive. At £8 a tin it costs just over a £1 per day to feed your baby.

I bought some reduced formula milk once in Waitrose of all places. I can understand the reasoning behind the law. What really annoyed me is when I was using the follow on stuff (6 months plus), Tesco increased the price from 39p a carton to 59p, when I complained they tried to blame it on the VAT changes which was a load of rubbish.

"The law preventing promotion and marketing regulates the prices"

Except it doesn't. It stops temporary reductions in price, advertising and making big promotional displays. The companies are free to reduce the price properly any time they wish. Any high price is down to them, not the law.

"But feel free to pick apart my sentences to make yourself feel better. "

Don't make assumptions. I'm disagreeing with you because I think you are wrong. Nothing to do with making myself feel better - what a daft thing to say.

Southsea. The law isn't to regulate prices. It is to stop the marketing and promotion of first milk per se. There is a huge difference.

Perhaps the point Southsea is trying to make (just guessing here) is that the law does actually regulate the prices since there would be no point in one brand lowering them significantly as they can't communicate this fact to consumers, other than through the on-shelf tickets.

The on-shelf tickets do still communicate the price though.

And if the formula companies weren't so profit driven, but rather more ethical in their pricing strategies, then they would permanently reduce the price. But they are are a profit making business - selling as much formula as possible.

I feel that the focus shouldn't be on the law that bans first milk marketing, but that energies should be expended on challenging the price points set by formula companies.

Far be it from me to defend the formula companies, but a private company being profit driven is hardly a surprise. Yes, they produce a product which has an emotional element for many mothers who can't breastfeed, but to the companies themselves, it's just a product, the same as a Bugaboo pram is grossly overpriced compared to a Graco.

I agree loveisagirlnameddaisy, they are a profit making business. I just wish there was some sort of point at which they were regulated to ensure they aren't ripping parents off.

It's an odd scenario - their products are needed, but you don't really want a company to make huge profits from selling overpriced milk. It's difficult to put into words.

I feel the anger in this thread towards the law would be better directed at trying to establish fairer prices per se of formula.

Of course formula manufacturers want to make a profit. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, in a liberal, economically-free democracy.

But this also has to sit with the greater good and well-being of the wider world.

That's why in the same democracy, we limit some economic activity - profit does not come before everything.

In this instance, nothing stops formula manufacturers deciding to lower their price permanently (curtailing their marketing activity might help with this, of course). They would have no need to advertise this - it would be instantly obvious on the shop shelf, next to the other more highly priced products. Information on the pack could alert consumers to the fact that this product meets all regulations and as such, is virtually identical to all other brands. This would be ethical, and would save ££££££.

Or supermarkets could do own brand like they do in the US or even the NHS could produce a milk that meets nutritional standards for infants and sell at cost in shops.

All of that would be much cheaper than paying for phonelines with 'interesting' advice, cuddly toys and a ton of advertising. So parents that had to/chose to formula feed wouldn't be funding shareholder's pockets and paying a premium for a product that isn't too expensive to make (but is once you add on the marketing of follow ons/toddler milks and all the baby clubs and other inducements certainly is)

That is a fantastic idea Tiktok it should be permanently lowered, I did not know that formula companies could do that, i thought that it had to be a high price to detract people away from formula. I wish there were own branded formula, like Boots, or Supermarket ones. It is dear i get Aptamil, but have managed to make a can last a month as i am expressing my own milk so ds gets that mostly and formula when i dont have enough and it night when i don't pump.

I'm shocked that so many people seem to think that the price of formula is kept artificially high to promote breastfeeding.

Companies can charge whatever they like for formula, they just have to do it consistently and not as a promotion.

I think I have concluded from this thread that it is ok condone law breaking if
A) there's something in it for you
And
B) you don't like the law

who'd of thought?

Cats- absolutely 'oh, poor us, the law stops us treating you fairly....' It's quite an attractive misunderstanding for them isn't it.

You can see the lack of interest from formula companies in bringing down the price of their product from the fact that Aptamil have a marketing strategy of pricing slightly higher than other formulas because then people think it is a 'premium' product and therefore the best (when, in fact, the contents of formula are so tightly regulated that there is no such thing as a premium product. No one has worked out how to make it appreciably better than the legal requirements).

Also, since formula companies routinely get around the law on promotion by promoting their follow on milks, I doubt there would be much to stop them getting the message out on a permanent reduction in price if any brand did choose to compete by price. The problem is, to cut across Aptimil's message (no one wants to feel they are giving their child the 'basics' version of formula) they would have to admit that all formulas are basically the same. And they've spent decades trying to pretend that they aren't.