I thought that buying bulk or refill packs was supposed to work out cheaper.
By Koalemos
@Asylum (47893)
Manchester, England
December 2, 2012 6:31am CST
It has always been common knowledge that buying a 2 Kg pack is more economical than buying the product at 1 Kg a time. However, I have noticed on occasions that supermarkets sometimes price items contrary to this.
Yesterday I went to Asda to purchase some groceries and I always check the price of coffee to see if there are any offers at present. I drink Nescafé Gold Blend, which can be quite expensive so I will stock up if the price is good.
A 300g refill pack was £8.98, but a 150g refill pack was only £3, making the same amount in smaller packs £2.98 cheaper. I have seen this scenario before and even seen jars cheaper than the refill packs at times.
I can only think of 2 possible reasons for this, but can not decide which is most likely. Either they assume that the customer will not even notice, or they are trying to persuade people to purchase the items which they have excess stock of. Either way it apparently works or the practice would not be continued.
2 people like this
5 responses
@changjiangzhibin89 (16784)
• China
3 Dec 12
Strange as it may sounds,but they certainly have their reasons to do that.I guess the reason is whether they overstocked them or their quality guarantee period drew near.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
3 Dec 12
Yes I agree that there must be a very good reason for this because major supermarkets invest a great deal of time and into researching marketing techniques. They specifically place products in certain areas and even deliberately choose whether to use the higher or lower shelves in order to draw attention to specific products.
There is obviously a good reason and it must also be quite successful or they would have discontinued the practice, but I cannot decide what the main reason is.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
10 Dec 12
I assume that it could be intended to persuade people to purchase the items that they have the most stock of, but of course I cannot be certain of that. The practice intrigues me and keep thinking of asking them, but I never remember when I go to Asda.
@changjiangzhibin89 (16784)
• China
10 Dec 12
No matter what the reason was,it was a sort of sales promotion anyway.Maybe what you said is just what is called the "attention economics".
@animegirl334 (3263)
• United States
5 Jan 13
It is weird. I guess it's possible that the companies think that the consumers don't notice. It's hard sometimes, calculating how much buying in bulk costs. Like 100g of chips for $3 and 150 for $4.2. Many times it is hard to figure out. Luckily most people have cell phones with calculators so we don't have to fall for it when companies overprice bulk items.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Jan 13
Asda always have the breakdown on the same small shelf label that the price is on, so the 300g refill pack would have £5 along with £1.67 per 100g at the side. Even without that label I would have no problem with such basic arithmetic, although I do not pay so much attention most of the time.
I first noticed this a few years ago when 1 saw Weetabix on sale at conflicting prices. A pack of 12 Weetabix was less than half of the price of a pack of 24, which is difficult to miss. Anyone can multiply by 2 or divide by 2.
@Lovegreen (376)
• Philippines
2 Dec 12
Analyzing these figures can be very tiresome and a lot of people just have no patience, so I think many customers do not even notice.
@RaineLockheart (219)
•
2 Dec 12
Asda is horrible. -_-
Try Morrisons or Tesco if you have one close by.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
2 Dec 12
I do shop at both of these stores. If I am buying a branded product such as Nescafé coffee or Warburton's bread then it does not really matter where you buy it, so Asda is the obvious choice because it is cheaper there.
For some items, such as Madras curry I will travel to Tesco because I prefer theirs to Asda. The Tesco Chicken Madras is actually 50% dearer than the Asda one, but it is worth the extra money.
