Supermarkets Tricking Us

We have always been skeptical about the supermarket offers. In this article written by Nadia Khomami, it talks about some of the tricks that UK supermarkets use. She specifically shows to us four key strategies used to confuse consumers and increase profits.

1. Seasonal offer

Higher prices are usually placed on out of season sales. For example, “In February 2014, a Cadbury’s Giant Creme Egg was £10 in Tesco and Sainsbury’s, then sold for £8 and £6.66 from March onwards.”

2. Was/Now Pricing

In this strategy, supermarkets have a price for a product, which is then raised for about 10 days, after that period they drop the prices to be able to apply this strategy. For instance, lets say that a chocolate bar costs 1$ today. The company decides that they want to implement the ‘was/now pricing’. So they raise the price of the chocolate bar to $2 for a period of 15 days. Once that period has passed they drop the prices to $1 or even $0.90. They make the consumer think it is a great deal and provokes the purchase of that product instantaneously.

3. Multibuys

The same happens through this strategy. Imagine you want to buy a pack of cookies. The supermarket would raise the pack of cookies from $1.50 to $2 during a period of time. After that they would offer the multibuy deal at two for $3, which is the same deal as if you bought two before, for $1.50.

4. Larger pack, better value

Once more, “The price of individual items in the bigger pack are actually higher. Tesco sold four cans of Green Giant sweetcorn for £2 last year, but six cans were proportionately more expensive in its “special value” pack, priced at £3.56.” On the whole, consumers are constantly subject of manipulation and we have to be conscious that we are sometimes manipulated to increase purchase.

In the end, its all about profit. Link:

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jul/16/the-top-tricks-supermarkets...