While I am in the mood to write letters here's one I've been meaning to write for a while:
Dear TESCO (for non-UK readers, Tesco is a supermarket)
In a current TV advertising campaign you are crowing about price matching Aldi on your own-brand 1kg bags of rolled oats (Growers Market), but it seems to me you are simply running from behind.
90 pence per kilogram might sound like a good deal unless your regular buyers of the product point out to the world that last winter (and well into this year) they were 70 pence per kilogram while your competitors were selling theirs at 85 and 89 pence per kg for their basic range.
You weren't crowing about the price of your rolled oats when you were that far ahead. Why not?
Your oats have increased in price, in under half a year, by 28.5%. Your competitors price increases on this staple food have been limited to a mere 5 or 6%.
Is that really something to make a bragging TV advert about?
Now that you are all offering the same priced basic rolled oats, I will most definitely be buying from your competitors because for the same price theirs ARE PACKAGED IN PAPER.
Yours, annoyed at your arrogance
Tigger's Mum
 |
| Packed in paper |
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| Raised the price to 'price match' |
PS I would have told on you to Tigger and then he would had had something acerbic to say about your cynical view of consumers' intelligence.
Sneaky.. as usual.
ReplyDeletePrice matching Aldi seems to be a common claim at the moment - I see it too in my local Sainsbury's. But isn't it rather an admission of defeat, or setting the bar rather low, to be 'boasting' about merely being the same as your rival?
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail.
Couldn't agree more - especially that given this particular item they were so far out in front they really did have something to boast about before they simply 'price-matched'. It's just a cynical way of raising prices and thinking porridge eaters will be grateful.
Deleteits all a game and we see it all the time here. we also have stores that say BOGO sales, buy one, get one free. but if the math is done, it cost the same or even more as the competitors, they simply charge more for the first one. it is almost 4 am here, i slept 5 hours but woke up at 1 am beause the wind was howling in the tree over our bedroom, I removed myself to the living room and have been here since then. so far so good with power and safety. other than flooding the worst is past us now
ReplyDeleteGlad to know you have escaped the worst of Idahlia. I hope the additional water is minimal - or at least sufficient to refill a few aquifers and water storage places without overtopping streams and flooding homes and streets. If the garden survived the battering, a little extra water might be welcome.
Delete. . . and so say all of us!
ReplyDeleteI used to buy an extra 4 bags every time I shopped there to put in the food bank bin. We make breakfast for two for a week on 1kg of oats - so 70p for a week of breakfasts seemed like an extremely good deal - and it is quick to cook even for people watching their energy bills. I'll be supporting the food bank bin at one of the competitors now.
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteYAAAYYY for speaking up! Marketing/advertising is by its very nature false representation; far too many gullible ones around though. It takes time to work these things out. Apparently. YAM xx
There is a whole industry in how to 'sell' the bad news in a different wrapper. How to turn a cynical money grab into a selling point instead of apologizing for not being able to maintain the lowest price in the market without sending the growers of the oats into bankruptcy - a whole industry dedicated to never saying sorry to anyone.
DeleteThey'll tell you anything they think will get you to buy it.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree Tiggers Mum 👍
ReplyDeleteAlways do the math! Large sizes aren't always cheaper by unit than small, twofers don't always come out better. I'm glad the law requires unit pricing on the shelves, because I'm not always sharp on the math when I'm in the store.
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely with you on that.
DeleteUgh don’t even get me started. Our supermarket, Cole’s, were bragging about helping the farmers. What they didn’t mention is that they helped push farmers to the brink but dictating what price they were paying for the produce and the poor farmer had to take that or not sell his crops. The price they offered kept going down even though the price we were paying keeps going up.
ReplyDeleteLying thieving capitalists