Do supermarkets assume we're stupid?

I ALWAYS check my Bill as soon as through the check out and it is surprising how many errors there are - always on the side of the Supermarket. The most recent in ASDA - some of their packs of Tassimo coffee machine pods were on offer at 3 packs for £10 - all these were in a separate tall shelved trolley bearing the sign "3 for £10". This had not been applied to the bill so off to Customer Services who sent an assistant to check. She came back with the news that one of our selections was not included in the offer and of course, I said but it was on the stand with the big notice. She said the packs in question had been put on the stand by mistake and was adamant they could not be included. Asked her to request presence of Store Manager - she spoke to him by phone and he was not willing to come and speak but told her to allow the offer as it was not my fault !! This after quite a long "discourse" with her. It was worth making a stand for a difference of £6.

I see plenty of comments about being too rushed to check but, in all fairness, doing an online shop gives you plenty of time to work out best value, is delivered at a time to suit you and means you need only to shop for your fresh foods in your busy day. Takes a lot of pressure off.

I do my main shop on-line as I am unable to drive at the moment so I can check special offers, also if you miss an offer you are reminded of "missed offer" so you can decide what you want.

I use my local "corner shop" for top bits & all my fruit & veg which is all sourced locally & if I want to buy 1 or 2 of something I can do. No more throwing fruit away because it's gone off, just buy what I need every few days. Bonus is I get some exercise at the same time!!

I do agree that you have to be careful of special offers in Supermarkets but often it doesn't require much effort

I went into a major supermarket a few days ago to buy a couple of loose onions. All were packaged and there is no way I needed 4 or 6 so I walked out. I am getting fed up with so much fruit and vegetables pre packaged.

FarNorth, just what I was going to say, but using toilet paper as an example, some are priced per sheet !!! and others per 100g. I couldn't post though cos my computer decided it had more important things to do than let me type .

Also my nearest supermarket seems to love leaving special offer price tickets on the shelf after the end of the offer date. It needs much looking and glasses to see if you are within date or not. I have been caught out several times, although admittedly if I notice it in time (before I get back home), they are willing to refund the difference. Not fair though as I'm sure lots of people have more to do with their time than check the prices on their bill before leaving the store.

When I worked at Asda years ago, they were selling 340g tins of corned beef cheaper than the 170g.

Oh yes I reached the conclusion a couple of years back that the supermarkets think we're stupid. One 'promotion' sticks in my mind. Can't actually remember which supermarket it was,--probably Tesco's -- but it was a 6 pack of beer for £5,or 2 six packs for a tenner. A real bargain. Not.

The unit price is not always the easy answer lizzypopbottle
as it can be per 100g, per lb, per kilo etc. ? . Morrison's are a nightmare for this. Yes supermarkets absolutely think we are stupid and won't notice. It is definitely not errors, it's too frequent not to be deliberate unless the people doing the offers are the stupid ones!!

And when I worked in a frozen food shop many years ago (the predecessor to Iceland) they had jars of a well-known brand of coffee,a 200 gram jar for,say,£2.50. We had a delivery of 'special promotion' jars with 50% extra free. I was told to price them up at £3.75! I remember thinking 'WTAF?'.

Hi SewAddict Yes I agree that would be a problem but throughout my obsession with unit prices I've never come across it.

P.S. I love sewing! ?

Sainsbury's has had boxes of Kleenex on offer. Two single boxes cost 50p less than buying a double pack!

The problem is, the way people shop these days. Just look at the programme Eat Well for Less. When the families do their initial shop , I am always left speechless. They never look for the best value, but take it as read that it's a bargain if the supermarket says so. While everyone shops in that way, the multinationals will always win and we will continue to stand working it out, because obviously we wouldn't have anything better to do. Aargh!!

I rarely take up offers and, in fact do not even notice them. I shop with a list, buy whats on the list and ignore the rest. I haven't time to fuss around special offers, they are rarely for the things I buy, anyway.

Younger people would have more time to check prices if they could get themselves organised, plan ahead and reduce the number of times they go to a supermarket during the week. DDiL admits that when she gets organised with a list, whether online or in shop, she saves time all round and reduces top-up visits, but most of the time the family seem to shop day to day, which takes up an awful lot of time. I am just to lazy to go to the shops more than once a week.

I was in my local supermarket recently and noticed a "BOGOF" offer on a popular spread (not one i use). A young man, obviously inexperienced shopper, picked up one pack and put it in his trolly. I pointed out the offer to him and he said " but she only put one on the list - would you like the free one?" Guess how i knew he was an inexperienced shopper!!

What irritated me the most re the tuna was how blatant it was....didn't need to do mental arithmetic or check unit prices, the two stacks of tins were actually touching one another! Teabags are the other item that this happens with regularly. It's the assumption that we are all blinded by the 'offer' sticker that gets my goat.

Does anyone buy an organic veg box? Gets rid of the prepackaging, as does buying from farm shops if you're lucky enough to live near one.

How's this for bare-faced supermarket cheek? Tesco's checkouts are festooned with carrier bags saying WE LOVE SHOPPING LOCALLY.
The most charitable conclusion that I can come up with is that this was the brain-child of a group of 20somethings in a London office, who don't understand the concept of shopping locally. (Well it means, like, you go to the actual shop like, instead of ordering stuff on your phone, like?)

www.slrmag.co.uk/tesco-gets-confused/

Don't be charitable! They are trying to con the customers, and it will work for lots of them.

Btw, have you noticed that tesco sometimes has a yellow shelf label when there isn't even any sort of offer? Because they know some customers look for the yellow labels.

Love the It's A Rip Off ticket idea. Love love love it. Ha haaa