Tesco price increases disguised as reductions!!

boatbuilder

TESCO INCREASED the prices of some well-known products significantly just weeks into the new year before reducing them as part of a 1,000-product price promotion launched yesterday.

Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0329/1224293299271.html

Examples:

Tropicana Orange Juice (Was €2.28,Raised to €2.59, Now€2.49) - 21 cent dearer
Flahavans Progress Oatlets (Was €1.95,Raised to €2.05, Now€1.99) - 6 cent dearer
Bonne Maman Jam (Was €2.79,Raised to €2.95, Now€2.79) - no change
Donegal Catch (Was €5.99,Raised to €6.59, Now€5.99) - no change
Ariel Febreze (Was €5.99,Raised to €6.19, Now€6.15) - 16 cent dearer
Brennans Bread (Was €1.98,Raised to €2.06, Now€1.97) - 1 cent cheaper
Jacobs Creek (Was €8.85,Raised to €9.79, Now€8.85) - no change
Colgate (Was €1.19,Raised to €1.39, Now€1.19) - no change

Sneaky marketing at its best....its a master class on how to raise your prices and make people think that you've reduced them.

TheDriver

i totally agree, there are so many increases in tescos over the last few months and now a big decrease. At least other supermarkets didn't make such a fuss over reducing prices initially

wmpdd3

TheDriver wrote: »

i totally agree, there are so many increases in tescos over the last few months and now a big decrease. At least other supermarkets didn't make such a fuss over reducing prices initially

True, but they all copy Tesco's prices so noone wins.

Aptamil No1 went from €10.49 to €10.99 to €11.51 and back down again to €10.99.

It is now €10.99 in the other 3 supermarkets and Boots. ( €10.29 in Sam McCauly's chemist)

Aptamil Follow on No. 3, didn't change price at all, always stayed at €10.49 but now it is price-slashed to €9.39.

Trust me, when you spend €46 euro on your shopping every week, you get to know prices very well!

Did they have them at the higher prices for 3 consecutive months

or maybe that's only the rule for going "on sale" rather than "price reductions"

Still an awful sneaky thing to do :mad:

Corsendonk

bluewolf wrote: »

Did they have them at the higher prices for 3 consecutive months

or maybe that's only the rule for going "on sale" rather than "price reductions"

Still an awful sneaky thing to do :mad:

Irish Law is a mess in this area. The national consumer agency needs to actually do its job, the supermarkets constantly track each others main product prices but the NCA doesn't seem to bother.

jor el

bluewolf wrote: »

Did they have them at the higher prices for 3 consecutive months

Listening to Conor Pope on the radio yesterday about this, and he discovered that there is no such requirement in law. The law states that it must be on sale for the higher price for a reasonable period, but does not define a time frame. The NCA have defined reasonable as 28 days, not 3 months.

In this case, Tesco were charging the higher prices for more than 28 days, and hence the NCA will not investigate or penalise them. Tesco have done nothing outside the law.

bluewolf wrote: »

or maybe that's only the rule for going "on sale" rather than "price reductions"

It does seem to apply to any claim of price cuts. You can't put up your prices one day, then claim a reduction the following day by putting them back to what they were.

bluewolf wrote: »

Still an awful sneaky thing to do :mad:

Prices of food does go up and down, but only Tesco seem to make a big deal of the price reductions, making it look like it's all down to them, and that it's somehow a good thing. The reductions could just be part of the overall fluctuation in the food industry's prices. It would be like a petrol station claiming to have a sale on every time the price of a barrel of oil goes down by a dollar.

Conor Pope also stressed that there was no evidence that Tesco deliberately put up the prices over the last number of months, just so as to claim a reduction now. But this is not the first time that Tesco have had such a campaign where the prices just went back to what they were several months previously.

wmpdd3

It does seem a stupid thing to do, when the price went up after the 26th of Dec I went to Aldi.

I think its an British thing, Sainsburys and Asda do big price slashes / roll backat this time of the year.

Does anyone know if the prices rose in NI too?

They are all reduced now too.

borderlinemeath

It's the other supermarkets falling into line that I don't like.
Every time something increases in price in Tesco and I notice it, within a week or so it's the same price or a cent in the difference in Dunnes.

The retailer in me says it's the wholesale price of the items increasing while the consumer in me thinks it's Dunnes capitalising on Tesco making a bit more of a margin on goods.

Now that Tesco may have reduced some prices I expect them to be reduced in Dunnes as well - whether Dunnes make a song and dance about it is another thing.

Lidl and Aldi don't seem to engage in the same style of price matching each other to the extent that Tesco/Dunnes do.

I will shop between Aldi/Dunnes and Tesco the odd time for certain things (I love their bakery) but my local Londis does fantastic deals that the big supermarkets can't beat, it has a big deli/take away attached and yesterday I got a very lazy dinner of a cooked chicken, a big bag of chips and a litre of milk for €5.

daheff

while i completely agree that Tesco is being disingenuous with its pricing, why werent people complaining when the price rises happened earlier this year???

As far as I'm concerned Tesco should have been blasted for these rises too...and not because of their attempt to try to look good for having cuts!


Anybody remember Tescos last round of cuts where they tried to tell us that the cuts were long term??? they lasted about 4mths before their prices started creeping up again

Only way Tesco will learn is if people vote with their feet -as any publicity is good publicity for them

duckielover

another example is that of tesco value chicken fillet 2 pack were 2.45 then jumped to 2.65 and now 2.85

duckielover

duckielover wrote: »

another example is that of tesco value chicken fillet 2 pack were 2.45 then jumped to 2.65 and now 2.85

99c in the butchers, id take that any day

wmpdd3

borderlinemeath wrote: »

It's the other supermarkets falling into line that I don't like.
Every time something increases in price in Tesco and I notice it, within a week or so it's the same price or a cent in the difference in Dunnes.

The retailer in me says it's the wholesale price of the items increasing while the consumer in me thinks it's Dunnes capitalising on Tesco making a bit more of a margin on goods.

Now that Tesco may have reduced some prices I expect them to be reduced in Dunnes as well - whether Dunnes make a song and dance about it is another thing.

Lidl and Aldi don't seem to engage in the same style of price matching each other to the extent that Tesco/Dunnes do.

I will shop between Aldi/Dunnes and Tesco the odd time for certain things (I love their bakery) but my local Londis does fantastic deals that the big supermarkets can't beat, it has a big deli/take away attached and yesterday I got a very lazy dinner of a cooked chicken, a big bag of chips and a litre of milk for €5.

Lidl and Aldi don't do the massive price changes that the other 4 do but Lidl does seem to do a little bit of it.

The difference is they only have one size and brand jar of everything. So, say, jam goes up from 40c to 56c for 6 months then on a Sunday its cut to 53c. Only really see this in Lidl, in Aldi they go up and stay up!

Tesco put up the price of Wheetabix, I buy Tesco brand, they put that up, I buy Value (Once!), they put that up or the product is crap, I go to Aldi.

borderlinemeath

wmpdd3 wrote: »

Lidl and Aldi don't do the massive price changes that the other 4 do but Lidl does seem to do a little bit of it.

The difference is they only have one size and brand jar of everything. So, say, jam goes up from 40c to 56c for 6 months then on a Sunday its cut to 53c. Only really see this in Lidl, in Aldi they go up and stay up!

Tesco put up the price of Wheetabix, I buy Tesco brand, they put that up, I buy Value (Once!), they put that up or the product is crap, I go to Aldi.

I always shop around for the likes of weetabix or corn flakes - there's always an offer on every other month - it's just keeping an eye on all the prices.
Sometimes they have cereals on offer in the buylo in Ashbourne - it's hit and miss though, and so are my trips to it, I'll pop in every couple of weeks or so if I'm heading to Dublin.

Even if they do increase the price of jams and honey in Aldi - it's still far far cheaper than tesco and the quality is far superior to tesco value brand.

TOMP

Tesco regularly offer products at "half price". What does this mean? Half price of what? Were they double price last week? No doubt another marketing ploy in my opinion

sandin

TOMP wrote: »

Tesco regularly offer products at "half price". What does this mean? Half price of what? Were they double price last week? No doubt another marketing ploy in my opinion

Virtually all half price or bogof offers are funded by the manufacturer. For something to be half price it should have been sold at full price for previous 28days.

However due to the weakness of legislation in this area, it only has to be onsale in one branch for that period in order that the store can claim half price.

Hance the prolification of "half price" wines that are barely worth the half price money that is charged!