BBC Watchdog: Supermarkets - Are you getting the best deal?

Tony

What Consumer Founder
Apr 7, 2008
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Big supermarkets have a record number of special price promotions at the moment - more than 8,000 deals. Sounds like good news for the consumer, but the reality is that these special offers are actually saving us less money than they used to. So what is going on?

Supermarket chains spend millions developing techniques to persuade you to part with your money - and it's very effective. A recent Which? report said that two-thirds of supermarket shoppers tend to spend more than they had planned.

Surely we're all a bit savvier than that? Watchdog set up a test to try and find out.

In the Watchdog Supermarket Challenge, three teams of shoppers - the Students, the Analysts and the Spenders - were given a shopping list of six basic items to purchase, for the cheapest price.

What they didn't know was that our test store was rigged with the type of special offers and promotions which can be found in all the big supermarkets. However, these deals won't always give you the best value for money. So the question is, would our shoppers be seduced and end up spending more than they needed to?

We also showed video footage of our test to academic Jeff Bray, an expert in consumer spending habits: "Shoppers are manipulated by supermarkets. Because it's an offer they have to have the deal."

When it came to the first list item - strawberries - we laid a classic trap, two punnets for £3. All the teams were attracted by the offer, while only one of the Spenders, Chas, spotted that there might be a problem with it: "We don't know how much they are normally, do we?"

Offers like these appear to be helping us save money. But as our expert says, that's not always true: "They're immediately drawn to the strawberries with the big red ticket - 2 for £3.
The consumer doesn't spend any time assessing the actual price of the product and whether it really does represent good value or not."

Even when the deal is better value, the chances are that this type of offer - along with BOGOFs ('buy one get one free' deals) just make you buy more food than you actually need, so you end up throwing it away. That's why, this summer, the Government said it wanted the supermarkets to scrap deals like this.

The next item on the list was pasta. We placed the cheapest packet at the bottom of the shelf and placed a more costly but flashier looking alternative at the end of the aisle. Both the Students and the Spenders snapped up the pricier pasta. The analysts weren't convinced, but only because they didn't fancy that type of pasta.

Tomatoes came next. The teams came across the problem of not knowing whether packs of tomatoes or loose ones were cheaper. It's often difficult to work out the best value because supermarkets are allowed to price loose fruit and vegetables by the kilo, but packs per item. In our test, only the Savers had the maths know-how to calculate that in this case it was the pack that was cheapest.

For expert, Jeff Bray, "This is a classic case of the retailer not being as clear as they could be. The supermarket could easily give a by weight price on the packaged item as well, but you have to wonder why they don't."

A multipack of toilet rolls saw our shoppers wrestle with yet more maths. We might be led to assume that buying in bulk saves you money - but not in this case. It was actually the smaller pack of loo rolls that provided the best value. But only two of our teams realised.

We tried the same trick with cola. Individual cans worked out better value than the six-pack but this time, all of our teams spotted the best deal.

The final test was red wine. Supermarkets often feature big cuts in the booze aisle but are the deals always what they seem? In the case of wine reduced from £8 to £5.50, it's important to question how long the wine was really sold for at that higher price. Sometimes, it's only a few days but supermarkets still make a big noise about bringing the price down.

They get away with it as long as they display a sign explaining what they've done. We displayed a sign showing that the higher price only lasted seven days, but it's so small, all our shoppers missed it.

In this case, only our Students resisted the deal.

"When it's on offer very often at £5.50 instead of the original £8 price, it really does beg the question what that bottle of wine's actually worth," says Jeff Bray. "And it's almost deceptive practice by the supermarkets to have it so often at a discounted price."

If all our teams had managed to find the cheapest deal on all the list items, their shopping total would have been £11.96. However, in each case, they all spent more than they needed to. The Students spent £21.10, the Analysts £14.52 and the Spenders, £21.27. The savvy shoppers came out on top but even they were seduced by not-so-special deals that we based on real promotions in big supermarkets.

What kind of shopper are you? Do you find you are seduced by supermarket offers? Find out how you could save money by being a savvier shopper.

Let us know about your shopping habits. We can't publish any new allegations but if you have anything else you want us to investigate please send us your story.



Supermarkets - Are you getting the best deal?
 

Chutzpah

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Jan 9, 2009
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I found myself laughing all the way through this feature on Watchdog. I'm sure they chose the stupidest people they could find just to prove a point. It's not that difficult to do a quick bit of mental arithmetic to work out what is actually cheaper.

And I thought it was common knowledge that the supermarket "special offers" were often bad deals.

(Incidentally, they made loose veg cheaper than pre-packed veg in the feature. In my experience loose veg is often much much much cheaper)
 

Rachelle

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Apr 25, 2009
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Be careful Chutzpah - you actually need to check all the time as I'm convinced they change things around constantly (i.e. package veg v loose) to throw you off the scent! I've just made my decision to get all of my groceries delivered so while I've been in these forums before saying how much I hate supermarkets and think we should all go for the independent retailers, at the end of the day it has had to come down to a financial decision for me. I'm sure that a supermarket is going to offer me better value and that controlling my shopping by doing it online will save me a few pennies. Wish me luck! ...
 

Chutzpah

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Trust me, I do check. And find that nine times out of ten loose is cheaper in the supermarkets near me.

As I hate supermarket shopping a bit of mental arithmetic is the only thing that stops me from causing considerable pain to all the annoying cretins you find also shopping there.
 

Rachelle

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Apr 25, 2009
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Chutzpah - you're sounding bitter. I don't really go to the supermarkets much but from your depiction I'm glad I'm going online!
 

Chutzpah

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I hate so many things about supermarkets.

I hate the fact that there are always twice as many disabled bays as parent and child bays. Yet disabled people still park in the parent and child bays.

I hate the fact that people without kids are selfish enough to park in parent and child bays.

I hate the fact that they don't keep any trolleys next to the parent and child spaces, so you have to lug your child across the car park to put them in a trolley (great fun when they're still in their car seat).

I hate it when they put stupid speed ramps in the car park in five metre intervals.

I hate people dawdling for no reason.

I hate people that suddenly change direction without doing a shoulder check.

I hate people that let their kids run around and cause chaos.

I hate people that block aisles with their trolleys whilst browsing and then ignore you when you say "excuse me".

I hate people that block aisles with their trolleys whilst chatting with someone they've bumped into, then look at you like dirt when you say "excuse me".

I hate that now the one time out of ten I don't have my reusable bags for me I'm given a lecture of how I should be reusing bags at the checkout.

I hate how people spend five minutes queuing and then act surprised when they are asked to pay and have to root around their handbag to find their purse.

I hate people that continue talking to the cashier after their transaction has finished and stop me getting served.

Mind you, I hate people that moan because they have to simply queue. It happens.

And don't even get me started on idiots at the supermarket forecourt who are paying by card yet refuse to use pay at pump when available.... or cause a tailback as they refuse to queue behind a random pump and just sit at the entrance to the forecourt to wait for one to become available.
 

Rachelle

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Apr 25, 2009
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Chutzpah - I've really liked you on these forums but I have to confess that I am probably guilty of at least two of the items on your list at some stage. Sorry. It's not that I let my children run around causing chaos, it's that while I'm trying to rein them in and control them they can (sometimes) run around causing chaos. Although, actually, to be fair, most of the time they are all standing up in the trolley with me pushing them around and feeding them raisins to keep them quiet. I have also definitely day dreamed whilst queuing - it's my quiet time - and have then been unable to find my card as it wasn't where I thought it was! I worry that if I take it out before I need it I will lose it as I am incredibly scatty at the moment. I'm hoping my brain cells will restore themselves at some stage but at the moment it's a work in process! Where do you live Chutzpah - I don't think you're a London man so it's unlikely I'll ever irritate you in a supermarket! Change of subject - I hate hate hate people that fill up with petrol and then take forever in the garage without moving their car up a little bit so the next person can get started!
 

Chutzpah

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No, not a London person.

I'm not quite sure I get your petrol one. The next person can't fill up from a petrol pump until the person in front has paid for their fuel....
 

Rachelle

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Apr 25, 2009
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I'm not a London person. At least that's not where I come from although I have been staying put here far longer than I ever meant to! I always fill my car up with petrol and then get back in my car and move it forward a little bit before I go and pay for it. So you have probably seen me featured on Crime Watch although obviously my intentions are good!