Marks and Spencers Misleading Markdowns

St Bill

I got a chicken in Marks and Spencers today. 20% off per kilo however no deduction was made at the till. When I queried this I was told that the chicken was marked 20% dearer.
I checked the shelf to see if the original price was there, no sign of it. How are you supposed to know that the item used to be dearer? I think it's purposely misleading and I'm wondering has anyone else come across this in M&S before.

the groutch

St Bill wrote: »

I got a chicken in Marks and Spencers today. 20% off per kilo however no deduction was made at the till. When I queried this I was told that the chicken was marked 20% dearer.
I checked the shelf to see if the original price was there, no sign of it. How are you supposed to know that the item used to be dearer? I think it's purposely misleading and I'm wondering has anyone else come across this in M&S before.

what type of chicken was it? free range? organic? rotisserie?

rubadub

In tesco they might have meat on sale, and a lot of the time it clearly states the 20% is already taken off in the price, something like "reduction is already made".

Other stuff will say "discount will be applied at the till".

Just keep an eye out in future. Best to just presume the 20% is already taken off.

I checked the shelf to see if the original price was there, no sign of it

Just add on 25% of the current price to find it out.

St Bill

I know the original price, my basic math isn't all that bad! But for all I know, M&S could just be saying they took 20% off. What's the point in telling the customer that it's 20% cheaper than it used to be? I just think it's very misleading and I wanted to see if anyone else had seen something like this.
Thanks for your reply

rubadub

St Bill wrote: »

I know the original price, my basic math isn't all that bad! But for all I know, M&S could just be saying they took 20% off.

But if the original price was listed you could just say the same thing, "they could be just saying it". There is something in law against false reductions, something like the product must have been at the higher price for a certain length of time before the reduction.

St Bill wrote: »

What's the point in telling the customer that it's 20% cheaper than it used to be?

Marketing tool, and it worked on you! I see many people blindly loading their trolleys with whatever appears to be on offer. In supermarkets it can be a product of ~€5 reduced by a few cent, all people see is the sign and figure it is a bargain.

There are furniture stores with never ending sales on. People rarely shop for furniture so it is not like they are in every week and know it is not a real reduction. They see "€300 off" and go off thinking they really did save €300.

I have fallen for the trick myself, expecting meat to be 20% off the till at tesco, since many of their offers are like this. The 20% is in massive print, with the "price already includes reduction" in tiny writing.

Fighting Irish

rubadub wrote: »

Marketing tool, and it worked on you!

dawt