In recent advertising campaigns by this country's leading Supermarket chains they make all kinds of claims , using a cynical lateral kind of thinking we should look at these so called claims a little closer and determine the truth behind these claims.
Asda claim they have rolled back the price on nearly 5,000 products, this begs the question , have we the customers been paying over inflated prices on these 5,000 products all this time ? and can we believe the rolled back price was the correct price then or was that an over inflated price at that time too ?
Tesco have the Buy one get one Free offers on many Brands , as some of these offers are on fresh produce and the sell by date in most cases of these fresh products means a short shelf life , are we to believe the generosity of Tesco or have they just over stocked and need to unload or get rid quick before it goes rotten resulting in a 50% or more loss to Tesco's profit on these items , the greed generated in its customers quest for a bargain results in its customers having bags of potato's or Oranges rotting in our Bins and footing the bill for Tesco's overstocking ?.
The Supermarket Petrol stations are no strangers to this type of Selling , They buy their fuel in Bulk at greatly discounted rates because of the sheer volume of fuel they are able to sell on their forecourts , The Buy £50 of shopping in our store and we will give you 5 pence off every liter of fuel you buy at our petrol station also begs the question , just how much profit is being made by the Super Market on every liter of this greatly discounted bulk bought petrol in the first place , and the £50 increased turnover generated 5 pence off offer must surely cost very little in the way of reduced profit when set against the increased profits in the store ?.
Having driven most of the small shop keepers out of business in our towns and cities and increasing the amount of business they do , Are these Super and Hyper Markets really good for us ?, Their gross annual Turnover is greater than the National Assets of some European Countries and the amount of muscle this affords them when negotiating prices and Contracts is forcing many suppliers to the brink of Bankruptcy in their attempts to get us the customer the best possible price or are they ? or are they in fact just increasing their profit margins ? , Roll Back Prices , Buy one get one Free , 5 pence off , are these really Bargains ? or are we Sheep just asking to be fleeced just a little bit more??? .
This is just a personal opinion and a simple cynical look at advertising , alledgedly.
£5 for 18 bottles of Export larger they said,sounds good to me I'll get ten boxes while they're cheap.Online shopping ,might as well get a few bits while Im there.
Delivery turns up all the other stuff but the beer,these items were not availiable today and you have not been charged for them...........................Thanks , I think I was had
Man goes in to a hardware store where they are selling top of the range Solid front Doors for £30.00, " I'll have one of them " says the man , "sorry , we are out of stock " says the shop assistant ," oh" says the man, " tell me , how come you can sell these doors at £30 when every other shop I've been to are selling the exact same doors for £189.99 ?" , " AH! , well , when we have them in stock our price is £189.99 too "
A lot of the time companies (particularly supermarkets) run these deals as something they called a 'loss leader'. In effect they sell the item at a loss but the fact is its encouraging spend within the store as people are thinking they got a bargain so they make it up on other items. They commonly select items that most people buy anyway (i.e. bread, certain veg, tins of beans etc..). The only true way to work out if you're getting a good deal is by looking across the whole basket of goods and comparing it to the equivalent elsewhere.
Marketing...................... a well thought out age old con, designed to fleece the customer; to follow on from the Hooker, these shiseters also have been known to have a maximum of one to two items max at the 'special' price, after that they've either 'sold out' or put out new / latest stock at the RRP price.
Just gets people in through the doors, when they realise they've missed the 'BARGAIN' customers look at alternative products at a higher price so as not to go away empty handed, most punters see through this practice with all the sales bollex you see all over the high street, but since the law was changed dropping the 6 month RRP practice regarding how sales are conducted you really have to have your wits about you to actually get a bargain.
I used to supply a number of customers who supplied the "leading supermarket" and it is interesting to note a few things from the above.
The buy one get one free offer is an idea by the supermarket but is actually mainly funded by the manufacturer.
When the supermarket pays a quality visit at the suppliers premises, it is pre-empted by a letter saying "we are going to carry out a quality audit on x date and will be staying at y hotel" and the supplier has to pay for the hotel!
The supermarket operates a penalty clause for deliveries not "on time and in full". So that if the supplier delivers outside their specified delivery time and/or do not deliver the full or correct amount, they pay a fine. This can be up to £1000.
The suppliers make small margins per item but deal with the supermarkets because of the volume involved so a penalty such as above can totally destroy any profit they make.
If a supplier relies on one supermarket, and that supermarket decides to place it's business elsewhere this can put a company out of business. It happened to one of my customers.
There are loads more examples but the supermarkets use their immense buying power to really crush down on their suppliers.
By the way, does anyone remember when M&S used to brag about most of their clothes being made in the UK. Now it is mainly made overseas and their are signs all over the store saying how they are reducing their carbon footprint. Of course, if they went back to UK suppliers they could reduce it even more. Except of course they can't now as all the clothes manufacturing is done overseas.
customers look at alternative products at a higher price so as not to go away empty handed, most punters see through this practice with all the sales bollex you see all over the high street, but since the law was changed dropping the 6 month RRP practice regarding how sales are conducted you really have to have your wits about you to actually get a bargain.
