Tesco new product rip-off

MadsL

A pack of 6 tomatoes.

Why is this item worthy of comment?

1. It has no weight printed on it.
2. It therefore has no unit price (ie price per kilo)

The up-shot is that you cannot properly compare the packed tomatoes against the same loose tomatoes.

Worse is that the price works at out at over TWICE the price of the loose tomatoes.

6 pack of tomatoes - €1.99 (mispriced in my store at €2.49)
6 loose tomatoes - €0.14 each * 6 = €0.14 (priced on Tesco's website - not in the store)

Using the guide on tesco's website
1 kilo of tomatoes = €2.39
1 kilo of pre-packed tomatoes = (€1.99 @ approx 360g tomatoes) = €5.53!!!!


Even worse is that you are not being protected from this blatent rip-off by the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs. At the moment they are not applying the unit pricing legislation shown here http://www.odca.ie/ to 'multipacks' where no weight is shown.

This particularly Irish interpretation of the EU legislation allows supermarkets like Tesco to remove the weight shown on packaging so that they can avoid showing the 'real' per kilo price of items like these six tomatoes, a massive source of profit.

The consumer is being denied the information that these regulations were designed to protect and there is now very little to show you that the 'convenience' of picking up a 'multipack' could cost you a whopping 130% more than putting in a bag yourself.

Write to Carmel Foley at odca@entemp.ie and Mary Harney at tanaiste@entemp.ie and ask them;

1. Why the legislation that applies through the rest of Europe is being blatently ignored to the disavantage of the consumer.
2. Why NO prosecutions have been made this year to enforce the regulations, despite the fact when the ODCA returned to stores in August it had previously checked and warned in March, 30% of prices were still incorrectly marked.
3. How we can 'see the price or pay the price' without adequate price display?

Cross-posted to B,E&F....blatent rule breaking in the name of Consumer Justice!! Sorry.

Xterminator

I shop in tesco regularly. I dont work for them, and have no connection other than as a shopped

I have seen the pre packaged tomatoes you are talking about.
They are clearly priced, ie. this pack costs x.
I expect loose vegatables to be cheaper than prewashed and packaged ones.

That is enought to satify me.

One thing you have overlooked is that the pre packaged tomatoe packs will vary in weight, thus one prce for each 6 pack would be unenforceable if they were bound to a set proce per kilo etc.

Also, IMO Tesco's pricing is generally excellent throughout the store.

Philip

MadsL

They are clearly priced, ie. this pack costs x.

The law say that it must also include a price per kilo.

I expect loose vegatables to be cheaper than prewashed and packaged ones.

Do you expect to pay 130% more ie significantly more than twice the price??

More importantly did you realise exactly how much more you were paying (was the packaging clearly labeled with the price, weight and enough information for you as a shopper to make a accurate comparison?)

pre packaged tomato packs will vary in weight

Yes they will, that is why it is important that there is a minimum weight on the pack.

Tesco are starting to label by number (eg: 6 tomatoes, not 450g) This makes it easy for them to avoid minimum weights. 450g as a minimum can be put on scales and measured. 6 big tomatoes or 6 small tomatoes is harder to argue with. The consumer doesn't know if they are getting 300g or 450g of tomatoes. This means you could be paying 30% more than you paid last week for your tomatoes and you would never be able to 1. Prove it, 2. Measure it.

This should be stopped and we have laws that are not being applied.

100g of tomatoes may not be a big deal for you, but it is a big profit margin for large retailers. More money was spent in Tesco Ireland last year than was spent on the roads.

Also, IMO Tesco's pricing is generally excellent throughout the store.

IMO Tesco price correctly when they feel like it. They seem unafraid to even put bottles of vodka on display without even a price. Watch them over Christmas, correct price labeling is not Tesco's priority.

vibe666

Originally posted by Xterminator
Also, IMO Tesco's pricing is generally excellent throughout the store.

really? why is it then that since i stopped shopping in tesco's and started shopping in dunnes that i'm saving about a E150 a month on my shopping?

also why is it that one week when i was still shopping in tesco's i bought a pack of chicken thighs for 2.49 (had been buying them for months at that price) and a week later the same pack was 6.49?

is that because their pricing is generally very excellent? maybe for them, but not for you and I.

i used to walk home from tesco's and now i pay a taxi driver e10 to bring me back from dunes and i'm still very much better off.

stop letting them rob you. you'd be complaining if it was a mugger, but at least muggers are honest about what they do.

rubadub

were these tomatoes "tesco finest"?, could be a reason for the high price. i too find they put weights on very few prepackaged items, veg, doughnuts, bread, chickens. and now that they weigh at the checkout you only have crappy needle scales to measure the weight on. i suggest opening the pack weighing the tomatoes and leaving them in the scale, they'll soon get the message if everybody did this. i do find their pricing better than most stores too, thats "pricing" not prices, how prices are displayed.