On the Tesco Brand Guarantee
Tesco has a guarantee that is cunningly crafted so as to appear to guarantee that you can't save money by shopping somewhere other than Tesco.
Even the small print looks fairly reasonable: provided you buy at least ten different items, they compare like-for-like prices on branded products (so not their own-brand stuff) with Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. If you'd have paid less for your shopping elsewhere, they deduct the difference at the checkout.
Other supermarkets have similar schemes.
However, being a cynical soul, I have thought a little more carefully about the mechanics of the scheme and come to some conclusions.
If it worked like customers hope it does, it would be illegal
If the actual effect was to ensure that the big four supermarkets all charged the same price for everything, that would be an anti-competitive cartel and there would be trouble. (Actually, there wouldn't be trouble, because they'd bribe politicians until the trouble evaporated, but that's beside the point.)
You can still save money by shopping around
If you are buying A and B, where A is cheaper in Tesco and B is cheaper in Sainsbury's, the guarantee is that buying A+B will cost no more at Tesco. However, you could still potentially save money by buying A in Tesco and B in Sainsbury's.
You no longer necessarily save money by impulse-purchasing bargains
If you go into Tesco to buy A, which costs £1.50 there and £1 in Sainsbury's, you will only actually pay £1 in Tesco. However, if you see a glossy display of B which are reduced from £1.75 each to £1.25 each and decide to buy one despite it not being on your shopping list, in effect you just paid full price for a B.
Always buy two bottles of Innocent Smoothie
Innocent Smoothie tends to retail at £3 a bottle, but supermarkets often discount that to £4 for two. If you visit Tesco and spot that there's no promotion so only buy one bottle, you'll pay £3 for it.
If, however, you buy two bottles despite them not being on promotion, you'll pay £4 provided one of the other supermarkets has a current promotion.
I imagine Tesco depends heavily on people not thinking of that.
Good luck working out how to buy Jaffa Cakes
As I type, Tesco sells packs of 10 Jaffa Cakes for £1 (10p/cake). They also sell packs of 39 for £3.39 (8.6p/cake). However, there is a current promotion which means a pack of 20 is reduced from £1.89 to £1 (5p/cake).
So what do you do? You buy two 20-packs for £2, feeling both smug and bewildered that this is cheaper than per cake than buying a 39-pack, and that the 20-packs cost no more than a 10-pack. Simple. Obvious. Right?
Ah, but what if ASDA had a promotion and was selling 39-packs at half price, £1.70 (4.4p/cake)? If so, you've actually lost money by buying two 20-packs instead of a 39-pack. And here's the thing: perhaps Tesco deliberately created that apparently nonsensical discount on 20-packs to save themselves money by diverting people away from buying 39-packs while ASDA has the promotion?
I imagine Tesco is aware of all of this and has carefully programmed a computer somewhere at head office to be aware of it too…
Cross-posted from this Dreamwidth original. If you can, please comment there instead.
DW Comments: Read
or Add Your Own.
Even the small print looks fairly reasonable: provided you buy at least ten different items, they compare like-for-like prices on branded products (so not their own-brand stuff) with Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. If you'd have paid less for your shopping elsewhere, they deduct the difference at the checkout.
Other supermarkets have similar schemes.
However, being a cynical soul, I have thought a little more carefully about the mechanics of the scheme and come to some conclusions.
If it worked like customers hope it does, it would be illegal
If the actual effect was to ensure that the big four supermarkets all charged the same price for everything, that would be an anti-competitive cartel and there would be trouble. (Actually, there wouldn't be trouble, because they'd bribe politicians until the trouble evaporated, but that's beside the point.)
You can still save money by shopping around
If you are buying A and B, where A is cheaper in Tesco and B is cheaper in Sainsbury's, the guarantee is that buying A+B will cost no more at Tesco. However, you could still potentially save money by buying A in Tesco and B in Sainsbury's.
You no longer necessarily save money by impulse-purchasing bargains
If you go into Tesco to buy A, which costs £1.50 there and £1 in Sainsbury's, you will only actually pay £1 in Tesco. However, if you see a glossy display of B which are reduced from £1.75 each to £1.25 each and decide to buy one despite it not being on your shopping list, in effect you just paid full price for a B.
Always buy two bottles of Innocent Smoothie
Innocent Smoothie tends to retail at £3 a bottle, but supermarkets often discount that to £4 for two. If you visit Tesco and spot that there's no promotion so only buy one bottle, you'll pay £3 for it.
If, however, you buy two bottles despite them not being on promotion, you'll pay £4 provided one of the other supermarkets has a current promotion.
I imagine Tesco depends heavily on people not thinking of that.
Good luck working out how to buy Jaffa Cakes
As I type, Tesco sells packs of 10 Jaffa Cakes for £1 (10p/cake). They also sell packs of 39 for £3.39 (8.6p/cake). However, there is a current promotion which means a pack of 20 is reduced from £1.89 to £1 (5p/cake).
So what do you do? You buy two 20-packs for £2, feeling both smug and bewildered that this is cheaper than per cake than buying a 39-pack, and that the 20-packs cost no more than a 10-pack. Simple. Obvious. Right?
Ah, but what if ASDA had a promotion and was selling 39-packs at half price, £1.70 (4.4p/cake)? If so, you've actually lost money by buying two 20-packs instead of a 39-pack. And here's the thing: perhaps Tesco deliberately created that apparently nonsensical discount on 20-packs to save themselves money by diverting people away from buying 39-packs while ASDA has the promotion?
I imagine Tesco is aware of all of this and has carefully programmed a computer somewhere at head office to be aware of it too…
Cross-posted from this Dreamwidth original. If you can, please comment there instead.
DW Comments: Read
or Add Your Own.