Supermarket shoppers being mislead by special offers

Wed, 19 Oct 2011
 
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Britain’s supermarkets may be misleading consumers with some of their money saving promotions, according to new research by Which?

The consumer watchdog found that a number of grocery retailers have been offering goods at 'half price' only days after being sold at a higher price, leading shoppers to think they are getting a better deal than they actually are.

Consumer protection guidelines state that products must be sold at the same price for 28 consecutive days before a retailer can cut the price or introduce a special offer that claims to save customers money.

However Which? found multiple breaches of this guideline after buying the same basket of goods each week at Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Marks and Spencer for three months.

These included Sainsbury’s cherries sold at half price for eight weeks when the supermarket admitted they were only at the higher price for 15 days. Likewise cherries from Morrisons were being sold at half price despite only two weeks at full price.

Other examples of misleading deals included Asda strawberries and raspberries advertised as "rollback" when they weren’t; M&S blueberries sold at a discount price for 13 weeks out of 14; and Tesco putting Hardys Crest Cabernet Shiraz Merlot (75cl) on offer for 12 weeks out of 14.

The findings are made even more concerning by figures from Which? that suggest six in ten supermarket shoppers swap items they were intending to buy for those on special offer, while nearly four in ten (38 per cent) often buy items they weren’t intending to because they are on offer .