Every little helps! The very best for less! Everyday low prices! Quality food attractively priced! Listen to our supermarkets' slogans and you might be persuaded that they all compete madly to give price-conscious shoppers the very best deal. But do they ?
Supermarkets know that shoppers form their impression of whether or not a chain offers good value largely on the basis of a few benchmark staples like milk, bread, baked beans and bananas. The trick is to make sure that these 'price-sensitive' lines appear cheap and so pull us into the store
Supermarkets know that shoppers form their impression of whether or not a chain offers good value largely on the basis of a few benchmark staples like milk, bread, baked beans and bananas. The trick is to make sure that these 'price-sensitive' lines appear cheap and so pull us into the store.
Dazzled by low prices on these basic necessities, we are encouraged to believe that these are representative of everything else in the store.
People tend to assume that because of their massive buying power, supermarkets will beat independent shops on price. This can be the case with popular brands of processed food and drink, but the opposite is often true of fresh, unprocessed food.
Few supermarket shoppers crosscheck prices with small, independent shops, but a trip to a greengrocer, butcher, fishmonger or market stall can be a revelation. Swop your fresh food shopping to the independent sector and you can expect to save anything from 20 to 40 per cent.
SUPERMARKETS love to put organic and Fairtrade products on their shelves because it makes it seem as if they have a social and ethical conscience. In reality, though, they have a hard-nosed financial incentive to stock them.
Organic and Fairtrade lines sell for more than the standard equivalent because they retail for a premium price. And as supermarkets expect to make a profit margin of at least 36 per cent on anything they sell, the higher the cost then the greater their net profit.
So while the shopper imagines they are primarily helping small, ethical suppliers by choosing Fairtrade and organic goods, they are actually handing an even greater chunk of money to the supermarket giants, thank you very much
Supermarket shopping, with its emphasis on stocking up with all your food for the whole week, encourages consumers to buy more than they actually need as a matter of course, encouraged by deals that offer reduced prices for buying items in bulk.
The result? A staggering 40 per cent of all food bought in the UK is thrown out uneaten. Good news for the supermarket, not good news for their customers' bank accounts
If you thought that supermarket chains charge the same for any product in all their stores, then think again. Supermarkets are allowed to use 'dynamic pricing' - varying prices to take account of different markets.
In practice, some supermarkets use this to charge more where they can get away with it - for example, in a more affluent area
Ever wondered why the person at the check-out is so keen to scan your 'customer loyalty card'?
It's not because they're desperate for you to collect as many loyalty points as possible. No, it's so the chain can collate information about your shopping habits - where you shop, what you buy, how often and so on.
When linked with the personal details you gave them when you signed up for the scheme, this enables them to target you with promotions by post that are tailored around your shopping habits
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10:06
Whistleblowers Supermarkets Part5by yourboycal500 views
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