How I caught out Tesco on a two-for-one sham

Gotcha Tesco. I have caught Tesco plugging a two-for-one offer that is a sham.

Everyone knows supermarket pricing is a dark art, but it is notoriously difficult to prove. Two-for-one offers, bottles of wine reduced from a price rarely seen, comparison price wars – they always seem iffy but can you really be sure?

Well, I have caught Tesco in the act.

Here’s how it works. I always buy butter - as I cannot stand the spreadable plastic that is margarine - and it’s always Anchor butter.

In my local Tesco, they sold Anchor butter for 88p. I am not sure why this has permeated my brain so well, when I couldn’t tell you exactly how much most other things are, but it has.

Maybe, it’s because I always buy the same thing, same size, same place, a couple of times a week, or maybe it was the whacking great big price comparison sticker next to it for a few months.
Regardless, I know it costs 88p.

It came as a surprise therefore to see a sticker go up next to the Anchor butter the other day purporting to be offering customers a good deal:

'Anchor butter, £1.22, two for £1.80'

What a load of tosh. The normal price is 88p. Either Tesco is conning its customers, or it has just whacked up the price of butter by 48%, which I find highly unlikely.

I phoned Tesco’s press office to ask them about this and offer them the chance to put their side of the story. Almost a week later they haven’t responded. It’s a fairly trivial matter – and I am sure taking over America and then the world is more important.

But this little trick doesn’t say very good things about Tesco to me.

Oh, and it doesn’t really give me much faith in Tesco’s claim that inflation in its stores was running at just 0.8% when it called for a bank rate cut this week.

Not on Anchor butter, Tesco – that either has an inflation rate of 48%, or you are conning your customers.

- Simon Lambert, This is Money

Useful links:

>> Supermarketwatch - an eye on the supermarkets
>> Tesco accused of sham 'half price' veg
>> Aldi beats supermarket giants on taste

Comments

[David Flello]

Another scam you might like to look at is Bounty Kitchen rolls, they seem to change the size of the rolls at whim, if you buy the XXL 12 pack the rolls are smaller than in the standard packs!

[wahsleb]

Same with Pringles this week. Normal selling price £1.39. Now its a bogof @ £1.99!!

[Marc]

Don't get caught next week (around 13th Dec), Tesco is going to offer HALF PRICE perfumes, however they doubled the price of these products recently.

[Kim]

I always used Anchor too, until it increased from, first, 70 something pence, up to 80 something, then a massive leap to £1.20 something (sorry, can't remember the odd pence amounts). So, 'normal' price of £1.22 does sound about right. I've started to buy own brand butter now, and even that is between about 75p and 90p, for the basic stuff! Can't stand all those 'spreads' though, so I'll either have to pay or go without.

[mike]

I hope a farmers market comes to Croydon soon
lets give these powerful monopolies a kick up the proverbual...and get some produce fresh and local

And yes i have a nectar card but like a lot of others am getting less choice

[John Atkins]

Tesco Again. My local tesco is giving? 5p off per litre of fuel. I noticed that the Tesco price was previously about 6p cheaper than the Texaco Garage around the corner. Now, the full price is only 2p cheaper.

[Damian]

Basic Tesco butter has risen from c.53p to 85p now or c. 60% since July.

I understand that the Chinese have been buying dried milk forcing up prices of milk and other diary products.
They are now set on eating and buying more pork, prices up sharply in China.

Still CAP contributions should be cut as farmers are doing much better.

[sylvia howe]

STREPSILS!

I regularly suck honey & lemon Strepsils. In March, earlier this year, I tried to buy another packet of 24, without success, from both Sainsburys and Asda. About a month later I noted that they were now in stock, at a MUCH greater price!

Previously they had cost about £1.40 for a pack of 24. They were now (in April) £3.68 for a pack of 36!

I wrote to complain, and received a useless reply.

regards
Sylvia

[Colin]

Tesco's on line no better. Offered a good deal on Champagne, they took the order and within 24hrs of agreed delivery said they had "run out of stock" then, no "we won't honour the price when we restock" Totally arrogant "go away if you do not like it!" responses. Point here is organisations like Tesco's have become far too big and powerful- DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR LOYALTY! You will just appear in their "asset" column!

[marie]

Totally agree with you all about Tesco. They don't even bother to do it discreetly. Now tesco wash tablets up from 1.33 to 1.68, antibacterial wipes from 88p to 98p, coley steaks up from 2.09 to 2.69, and the price of fruit and veg is a discrace. I'm no longer going to shop at Tesco even though it's more convienient.

[Marianne]

Sadly Joe Public does not seem to notice these regular 'cons' from Tesco. They are happening all too often. Just because 'it appears to be cheap' does'nt necessarily mean that it is. Shopping at Tesco you need to have your wits about you and your calculator to hand, best avoided.

[Marianne]

Sadly Joe Public does not seem to notice these regular 'cons' from Tesco. They are happening all too often. Just because 'it appears to be cheap' doesn't necessarily mean that it is. Shopping at Tesco you need to have your wits about you and your calculator to hand, best avoided.

[Rasheed]

Its for this same reason I stopped shopping in Tesco and switched to Asda. At Asda prices are gimmick-free without the loyalty card con too!

[Douglas]

It is about time the people woke up to the massive rip off, from supermakets. Britain is the highest priced country for food, next to Norway, in the EU. Tesco prices have been creeping up for many years, how else do think they have made over £2 billion in profits.

Why have the government allowed this to go on, and why have the newspaper not reported it?

The people of the UK are being ripped off in so many areas, it is hard to know where to start. Supermarkets and Tesco in particular is a very good place to start.

[rupert]

right guard deodrant costs £1.19 in asda for 1 can, and £2.49 bogof in tesco!

[val robertson]

Re the comment on petrol, at the moment Tesco petrol price in edinburgh is 3p litre dearer than the surrounding garages and is the same price as the outlying garages which are usually a bit dearer. not very good customer relations

[Simon L, This is Money]

Thanks for all your comments. I am going to be writing about this again but should update you on what has happened since I wrote this.
Anchor butter has in fact gone up to £1.22 in Tesco, permanently. So, it seems I was partly wrong in my accusations. The two-for-one offer did not reflect a previous price in my store but did reflect the future price (not sure this is allowed under the rules but that's what they have done).
However, two-for-one offers are still a con and I stand by questioning Tesco on its inflation claims.
It said that inflation in its stores was running at just 0.8% annually. Well my wallet tells me differently and I struggle to see how the price of a product can be increased by 48% overnight.
I would also question why if the supermarkets claim that they aren't operating a cartel on prices, that Anchor butter costs exactly the same price now in Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Waitrose?
That's not suspicious at all....is it?

[terri]

I like so many others it seems are dismayed by the power that the likes of Tescos have, there is a choice however and all you need to do it is shop somewhere else, I know its convenient to do it all at once and at the same place, but look at your local shops (if you have them) use them and keep the petrol costs down not to mention the good ole carbon footprint. I live in a small market town and have decided that the local shops deserve more respect and loyalty even if some of the products arent as "cheap" as the all powerful giants...

Come on - you do have the power

[Jon B]

Sainsbury are at it too - bag of clementines shot up in price from just under a pound to about 1.80 ish late last year, two weeks later they were "half price" at around 90p.

[Emma]

Sometimes when your local grocery store doesn't have what you need, you have to go to Tescos - it's not a pleasant experience. And the only reason they don't sell it in your local store is because 'everyone buys at the supermarkets'. But even though I am a poor student, I try to buy local produce and whatever else from our local little family run store.

[Lola]

Why does Tesco promote these 5p off fuel deals, when they have spent millions on advertising and marketing themselves as going green and helping, not ruining the environment. They do these hypocritical things as if they think their customers are too ignorant to realise they're being cheated.

[john james]

What about "loyalty" points 2 grand spent on food and fuel at tesco for a lousy £4 voucher. recieved after nagging them twice on the phone not free calls either

[Chris]

With regard to comment on loyalty points I believe that if they are "giving" them away you may as well collect them. I have a tesco credit card and use it for all my shopping/petrol (about £1500 p.m)
Every year I have free RAC cover, a few weekends away and have had vouchers for jewellery etc. No, it is not free but if you don't use this facility you are a mug!