There was an interesting article in The Telegraph last week, reporting the findings of a campaign by Which? looking at supermarket ‘special offers’.
They discovered that supermarkets are continuing to mislead customers, with Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s noted as holding such ‘special offers’ at a lower price for a far longer period than they were at the original price.
Doing this is in breach of Department of Business guidelines, designed to protect consumers from misleading offers.
Within the article there are examples including Asda increasing the price of a Chicago Town Four Cheese Pizza Two-Pack from £1.50 to £2 as it went into an offer where you could buy two for £3.
The price of the pizza ‘special offer’ went back to £1.50 as the ‘offer’ ended.
With eight out of ten people specifically looking for offers to guide their supermarket shopping decisions, Which? says these tactics need to be stamped out.
As price inflation continues to outstrip wage growth, thinking carefully about how you allocate your food budget is important.
Being conscious whilst shopping, particularly in large supermarkets, that everything is carefully orchestrated to manipulate your buying behaviour is a good first step towards conscious shopping and making the most of a household budget.
