Are we being ripped off.....

[BurnleyMickSouth]

I know this is our football message board, but so many different things are mentioned on here, like best plumbers, electricians and so on so forth, so id just like to let people know that are the big supermarkets ripping us off....my example goes like this....earlier today i went to Tesco to do a small weekly shop at Addlestone, i thought id treat myself to a 9 packet of dark 2 fingered mint kit kats, the price with a clubcard was £2-20 a pack, i decided that was a bit steep,i did not purchase them, later this afternoon i went to Home bargains at Byfleet, whilst walking around i saw the same Kit Kats dark mint 9 pack for sale at £1-69 i purchased 2 packs, so Tesco are charging 49pence more for the same product, its disgusting to be honest, has anyone else seen prices like that, no wonder they make millions each year with hikes like that, id be interested to see what people, and fellow Clarets think.

[what_no_pies]

You got ripped off at £1.69. No doubt they'll be 20% smaller than they were a decade ago too. Hidden inflation is the best inflation.

[steve_f]

Home bargains Evergreen complete grass fertiliser £5.99/box. Most garden centres and and other supermarkets the price can vary between £12 and £16 for exactly the same item

[dsr]

Home Bargains and similar seem to get the short date or surplus goods. Every chance that next time you go they won't have Kitkat at all, or at least not the flavour you're after. The big supermarkets pay (and charge) a premium to have fully stocked shelves.

Their net profit tends to be about 4%. They don't have huge profit margins.

[!aiboforceN]

Home Bargains and similar seem to get the short date or surplus goods. Every chance that next time you go they won't have Kitkat at all, or at least not the flavour you're after. The big supermarkets pay (and charge) a premium to have fully stocked shelves.

Their net profit tends to be about 4%. They don't have huge profit margins.

You make a good point about net profit - and I think it's even lower than you've suggested, at a little over 3%.

I think you're only ripped-off when you *feel* you've been ripped off. If the OP had compared the same product with, say, Co-op - where it retails for £2.60 - then Tesco may not have felt like such a poor deal.

I'd also say that perceived "value" means different things to different people - and best value doesn't always equate to lowest price. M&S, for example, is currently Britain's fastest growing supermarket... and it's not even close. They're evolving from somewhere to buy a treat into somewhere to do a weekly shop. There are certainly places to get cheaper food - but not to get fairly-priced food of such high quality and innovation... all produced to the industry's highest ethical standards. Not everyone can afford to shop at M&S, but for those who can, these are the kind of things that add up to value.

I like a bargain as much as the next man - but the decision about where I shop is based on many factors, price being just one of them.

[RammyClaret61]

What you need to look at when shopping if the price per gram/kilo or lb.

For example, at my local supermarket in Oz. A medium bag of Maltesers are something like $4.50 per bag. But $7.00 per 100g. The bigger “share” bag is $7.90, but $4.50 per 100g. These figures are not accurate. But my point is, the bigger bag is almost half the cost value of the littler one.

[elwaclaret]

What you need to look at when shopping if the price per gram/kilo or lb.

For example, at my local supermarket in Oz. A medium bag of Maltesers are something like $4.50 per bag. But $7.00 per 100g. The bigger “share” bag is $7.90, but $4.50 per 100g. These figures are not accurate. But my point is, the bigger bag is almost half the cost value of the littler one.

Sadly over here in the UK supermarkets have caught on to expectations that bulk buying is cheaper… quite often the opposite is now the case. On many occasions you now pay a premium for the bigger bag than multiple smaller ones.

[ChrisG]

What you need to look at when shopping if the price per gram/kilo or lb.

For example, at my local supermarket in Oz. A medium bag of Maltesers are something like $4.50 per bag. But $7.00 per 100g. The bigger “share” bag is $7.90, but $4.50 per 100g. These figures are not accurate. But my point is, the bigger bag is almost half the cost value of the littler one.

Spot on, that's the only good way of comparing like for like items of different quantities

[equinox]

Adbllue.

Is there another product that varies so much in price?

Home Bargains: £4.99 for 5ltr.

Motorway services: £7,000 for 20ltr.

[mikeS]

Aldi centre aisle on Monday full of Christmas stuff.
750gram Panetone £4.99
M&S same size £12.

[ISpeds00]

Only buy stuff that is £1 or less - unless it's a necessity

[CnBtruntru]

Adbllue.

Is there another product that varies so much in price?

Home Bargains: £4.99 for 5ltr.

Motorway services: £7,000 for 20ltr.

Massive difference there!

[Conroy92]

Sadly over here in the UK supermarkets have caught on to expectations that bulk buying is cheaper… quite often the opposite is now the case. On many occasions you now pay a premium for the bigger bag than multiple smaller ones.

Agreed. Sainsbury's often have the 1l vimto at 1.25 and the 2l at 3.

[criminalclaret]

Ripped off or just need to shop around?

It's not a new thing to have different prices and loss leaders to get you in the door and upsell you something else

[Bosscat]

Sadly over here in the UK supermarkets have caught on to expectations that bulk buying is cheaper… quite often the opposite is now the case. On many occasions you now pay a premium for the bigger bag than multiple smaller ones.

Very true ... I asked the wife why she bought the smaller box of Washing powder, and she pointed out the price for the giant economy size worked out £3 more than 3 smaller boxes.
So always check prices before reaching for bulk packs

[Clovius Boofus]

The main supermarkets make me laugh with their loyalty card prices. Mugs think they are getting a bargain, when any fool knows that they have jacked the price up in order to give you a 'discount'.

These days we only use the 'big four' for branded items, and even then, it's worth having a look in Home Bargains or B&M if you are stocking up on a load of household cleaning items etc.

We buy our meat from a good local butcher and the price isn't much different, but the quality is. It's the same with our local greengrocer. Yeah, it's time consuming, but I make time because I find that the quality of supermarket fruit and veg can be very poor - the consistency just isn't there, unlike a good greengrocer. I'll make an exception for M&S, but they are pricier than our greengrocer, even though the quality is similar.

We will also call in at Aldi from time to time, and it's the same with Booths or Waitrose for those treats and produce you can't get elsewhere.

Shop around. For us, the days of rocking up at a supermarket and coming away with a car boot full of shopping are long gone. One caveat - we both work shifts, so one of us will go shopping during a weekday morning when it's quiet. Apart from the butcher and grocer, I don't think we would be arsed doing the rest if we were restricted to weekends.

[AGENT_CLARET]

I was going to book ELO ticket's this morning but there priced at £80 upto just over £160 each, no thank you

[GetIntoEm]

yes we are getting ripped off left, right and centre. its companies maxmising profits, nothing else.

sure the cost of things has gone up, but doesnt translate to the massive increase in prices we are paying.

just look at pubs, some pubs charge £4.80 for a pint of lager, that you can get in a another pub for £3 and still make money

[ClaretDiver]

yes we are getting ripped off left, right and centre. its companies maxmising profits, nothing else.

sure the cost of things has gone up, but doesnt translate to the massive increase in prices we are paying.

just look at pubs, some pubs charge £4.80 for a pint of lager, that you can get in a another pub for £3 and still make money

My local Spoons currently has Worthingtons for 99 pence per pint….we went away at the weekend to Haggerston Castle….£5.79 a pint!!

[Loyalclaret]

My colleague bought 12 Orange Kit Kats for 99p, great value and long date. Some things in those shops are very reasonable compared to supermarkets.

[gandhisflipflop]

Adbllue.

Is there another product that varies so much in price?

Home Bargains: £4.99 for 5ltr.

Motorway services: £7,000 for 20ltr.

Everything is more expensive at services. Fuel is unless you have a fuel card, then you want to visit services because you get a bigger discount than you would at your local garage

[GetIntoEm]

My local Spoons currently has Worthingtons for 99 pence per pint….we went away at the weekend to Haggerston Castle….£5.79 a pint!!

love Haggerston, hope you enjoyed it. its one of our favourite sites

[Big Vinny K]

Everything is more expensive at services. Fuel is unless you have a fuel card, then you want to visit services because you get a bigger discount than you would at your local garage

How much discount ?
Surely not enough to cover the higher prices ?
Most services are at least 20% higher fuel prices than local petrol stations.
Was on the M6 travelling up this week and stopped off at services and diesel was £1.69 and it’s £1.33 at Asda in Burnley.

[gandhisflipflop]

How much discount ?
Surely not enough to cover the higher prices ?
Most services are at least 20% higher fuel prices than local petrol stations.
Was on the M6 travelling up this week and stopped off at services and diesel was £1.69 and it’s £1.33 at Asda in Burnley.

You would be surprised.

This week if you had a BP fuel card for example an filled up diesel on the motorway services you would pay £1.27 a litre.

[Cardclaret]

Many supermarkets work on 60 -70 percent mark ups. So something costing £1 in store has probably cost them 24p. £1 = 20p vat, so 70% mark up of 80p is 56p. So 20p to govt, 24p to the supplier and 56p to the shop. Out of the 56p they have to pay all the overheads of site, staff, merchandising, warehousing,advertising, shareholders dividends etc there is surprisingly little left at the end. Hence the rise of vertically integrated companies selling their goods direct to customers online.

[Big Vinny K]

You would be surprised.

This week if you had a BP fuel card for example an filled up diesel on the motorway services you would pay £1.27 a litre.

Wow.
That’s a 30% differential if you are stopping at the services to fill up and do not have a fuel card. Daylight robbery and taking advantage of those who have to stop at the services. Surprised it is not regulated more by the industry with some kind of cap.

[kentonclaret]

Since the introduction of store Loyalty Cards consumers are lured into thinking that they are getting the best value if it is tagged “Tesco Card” or “Nectar Card” price. Shopping in Sainsbury’s yesterday I wanted a box of Bitesize Shredded Wheat. The smaller box was tagged Nectar Price £2.00. Upon further inspection it was still better value to buy the larger 720g box for £3.50 that wasn’t even on offer.
When the energy crisis hit the price of Flora ProActiv Spread 450g soared from around £3.25 to £4.50. However all of the major supermarkets have this item on Special Offer in turn every few weeks, and I have never paid more than £3.50 buying 2 tubs when available at the lower price.
On another topic what has happened to all of the Taramasalta? Have checked M & S, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco but the item has disappeared from the dips section completely.

[Stproc]

Of course we are being ripped off, but you were looking in the wrong places to see the worst examples.
The big rip-offs are the major, typically American, companies such as Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, Microsoft, et cetera. These massive companies are ripping us off on several fronts at the same time.- they’re killing off the local competition on the High Street, typically paying low end wages and then contributing next to nothing in taxes. All of the profits are heading straight out of the country, it’s no wonder or surprise that the owners of these companies are multi billionaires.

[Herts Clarets]

Supermarkets are also masters at making it difficult to compare products. They will sell one by weight and another by quantity - example 3 red onions in a nice little net sleeve, £1. 3 loose large red onion sold by weight were 56p, so almost half the price. I only found this out when I put the loose ones on the scale to weigh and pay

[gandhisflipflop]

Wow.
That’s a 30% differential if you are stopping at the services to fill up and do not have a fuel card. Daylight robbery and taking advantage of those who have to stop at the services. Surprised it is not regulated more by the industry with some kind of cap.

If you have a business, having fuel cards is essential. There may be some companies that offer b2c fuel cards too.

[Clovius Boofus]

Many supermarkets work on 60 -70 percent mark ups. So something costing £1 in store has probably cost them 24p. £1 = 20p vat, so 70% mark up of 80p is 56p. So 20p to govt, 24p to the supplier and 56p to the shop. Out of the 56p they have to pay all the overheads of site, staff, merchandising, warehousing,advertising, shareholders dividends etc there is surprisingly little left at the end. Hence the rise of vertically integrated companies selling their goods direct to customers online.

Basic foodstuffs and groceries for home prep or consumption is zero-rated.

[exilecanada]

Re: Are we being ripped off.....

I don't know why that question is even being asked! Of course we're being ripped off, and it's blatant, in your face ripping off and we have companies reaction to COVID restrictions to blame for it. As we all know grocery stores and other places of business were forced into closure or restrictions of some kind. These places of business are now playing 'catch up' as far as profits are concerned. Publicly traded companies are the worst offenders, with only their share holders in mind. I'm retired, disabled and living on a fixed income, prior to COVID I could manage quite well on my monthly income without dipping into my nest egg. In order to manage I've had to reduce my grocery bill by quite a margin by purchasing less expensive foodstuffs and cut out other pleasures I enjoyed pre COVID.

[NottsClaret]

We've got one of those surplus food shops near us, The Company Shop. You have to be a member but it's so good. All nearly out of date stuff from M&S, Waitrose etc - if it lasts a week, who cares? And almost given away price-wise. Which is great, because we get to eat like kings and also it's probably good for the planet or something. Honestly think we pay less for groceries now than 20 years ago. Then always go to the market for fruit, veg and eggs.

[dsr]

Re: Are we being ripped off.....

I don't know why that question is even being asked! Of course we're being ripped off, and it's blatant, in your face ripping off and we have companies reaction to COVID restrictions to blame for it. As we all know grocery stores and other places of business were forced into closure or restrictions of some kind. These places of business are now playing 'catch up' as far as profits are concerned. Publicly traded companies are the worst offenders, with only their share holders in mind. I'm retired, disabled and living on a fixed income, prior to COVID I could manage quite well on my monthly income without dipping into my nest egg. In order to manage I've had to reduce my grocery bill by quite a margin by purchasing less expensive foodstuffs and cut out other pleasures I enjoyed pre COVID.

Won't that be more down to inflation? In the UK prices have risen by about 25% since covid, so obviously if you're on a fixed income (and assuming Canada has had inflation of its own) you'll be buying less.

[exilecanada]

Won't that be more down to inflation? In the UK prices have risen by about 25% since covid, so obviously if you're on a fixed income (and assuming Canada has had inflation of its own) you'll be buying less.

So you're saying it's a mere coincidence prices shot up post COVID? I prefer to use the word 'greedflation' The chairman of Loblaws Corporation, Canada's major grocery chain retailer was asked to appear before a government committee to answer why his companies profits have risen so much post COVID. Of course that came to nothing, maybe Trudeau's classic 1960 Mercedes 300 SL gullwing needed some expensive repairs?

Greed is a nasty, nasty illness.

[Burnleyareback2]

Tesco want to make 50% + margin, the likes of Home Bargains, B&M etc are taking less but also taking in volume discount from manufacturers looking to hit volume or sales targets.

The Tesco club card discounts are an absolute scam, they inflate the prices to show a discount or reduce the price and demand the profit margin difference from their suppliers.

Eventually these demands from retailers mean the prices go up, volume goes down and they have to pump volume into the cheaper end of the market again.

Never ending circle.

[Colburn_Claret]

Home Bargains and similar seem to get the short date or surplus goods. Every chance that next time you go they won't have Kitkat at all, or at least not the flavour you're after. The big supermarkets pay (and charge) a premium to have fully stocked shelves.

Their net profit tends to be about 4%. They don't have huge profit margins.

The Wetherspoons of convenience shopping

[IanMcL]

Adbllue.

Is there another product that varies so much in price?

Home Bargains: £4.99 for 5ltr.

Motorway services: £7,000 for 20ltr.

Just pee in your ad blue hole!

[chipbutty]

I was going to book ELO ticket's this morning but there priced at £80 upto just over £160 each, no thank you

Did you not want to see Jeff on his "last" tour?

[JohnMcGreal]

The biggest rip-off of all (by some distance) is the cost of housing.

[Hipper]

Tesco want to make 50% + margin, the likes of Home Bargains, B&M etc are taking less but also taking in volume discount from manufacturers looking to hit volume or sales targets.

The Tesco club card discounts are an absolute scam, they inflate the prices to show a discount or reduce the price and demand the profit margin difference from their suppliers.

Eventually these demands from retailers mean the prices go up, volume goes down and they have to pump volume into the cheaper end of the market again.

Never ending circle.

You've just shown that not all Tesco club card discounts are 'an absolute scam' when you said they might 'reduce the price and demand the profit margin difference from their suppliers'. In other words the price is reduced for the consumer which is what we are talking about.

[Hipper]

The biggest rip-off of all (by some distance) is the cost of housing.

House prices are the closest to a free market you can get. Someone wants to sell a house, someone wants to buy and the two deal with the situation pretty much direct.

Yes house prices are affected by mortgage rates, stamp duty rates and other things but basically it is supply and demand.

[JohnMcGreal]

House prices are the closest to a free market you can get. Someone wants to sell a house, someone wants to buy and the two deal with the situation pretty much direct.

Yes house prices are affected by mortgage rates, stamp duty rates and other things but basically it is supply and demand.

In theory it should be a free market. But in reality the UK housing market is very political and is routinely interfered with, propped up and inflated by the government of the day.

Which is why house prices have inflated way beyond wages.

A complete rip-off.

[jos]

My local Spoons currently has Worthingtons for 99 pence per pint….we went away at the weekend to Haggerston Castle….£5.79 a pint!!

I bet none of the customers were wearing tracky bottoms though!

[basil6345789]

The Wetherspoons of convenience shopping

I'll bet they're the only ones to reduce ale by 1p a pint as per nonsense budget.

[Burnleyareback2]

You've just shown that not all Tesco club card discounts are 'an absolute scam' when you said they might 'reduce the price and demand the profit margin difference from their suppliers'. In other words the price is reduced for the consumer which is what we are talking about.

“Or” key word but thanks for the feedback.

[yTib]

thatcher.

[groove]

Yes we are being ripped off left right and centre. It's not just supermarkets. It's utilities, car insurance, council tax....everything. And I don't fall for the covid nonsense. Its late capitalism rampant profiteering.

[Colburn_Claret]

I'll bet they're the only ones to reduce ale by 1p a pint as per nonsense budget.

They could reduce it a pound, I still wouldn't drink it.

[Spike]

Haffners pies miles cheaper than Pace’s Pies on the Turf