Not quite the joke it seems, - updated

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rafezetter

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Update:

When I first posted this issue - it received very little traffic and some frivalous comments.

Well now it seems, finally, these practices are being exposed to the wider public; and many agree this is dishonest and misleading.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/sh ... WEML6619I2

It has nothing at all to do with PHE regulations, and TESCO's reply of "the gap is there to ensure a good seal between the meat, so they are not touching" sounds odd when you consider that almost all other meat they sell is slabbed one on top of the other, slightly fanned out as you might represent it in a plate.

So, what makes this and all the other products packaged like this, so special? And please DO try to remember that wasteful excessive packing costs the environment, before replying this time.

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Original post:

As you do - you're roaming the internet and go off on a tanget when something catches you eye, but the more I watched this particular vid - the more it became obvious there are deepers issue going on here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJcCWYVWCXY

It was @ 5.30 it hit me - but do look at all of it as I think this is something all consumers should be wary of (on top of the ridiculous amazon packaging practises) - I've even checked a few of them and they are not fake, several so called "reputable" companies including Waitrose and Tesco's are guilty of this behaviour.

Another reason for "buyer beware".

I should also point out, I've been quite sensitive to this issue for some time - many is the time I've noticed shops selling items in several sizes only to notice that the "bulk pack" larger size was actually MORE EXPENSIVE per gram, than the basic size stuff - if you pay attention to the small price on the shelf labels, which sadly I do, or other such clever marketing.

Asda do a 6 pack of PLAIN breaded chicken fillets for £4 or 3 packs for £10. Seems like a good deal, and in truth I'd been buying them for a while..... right up until I notice a few spaces over that "southern coated" breaded chicken fillets are £1.99 for 4. I urge you to do the maths yourself.

And that's just the first issue....

The second is the INCREDIBLY wasteful packaging that goes into these items, in order to deliberately deceive customers they are getting more value than they actually are, obviously the largest percentage of them use plastic as their main packaging.

I'm so unnerved by the clear and obvious examples of blatent and excessive use of packaging I'm actually considering some sort of campaign to bring this to the wider populations attention.

With absolutely no clue how other than social media, to get it done effectively.

The Govt plan of 20% less packaging waste is all well and good, but some of these need 50% reduction, and more to become anywhere near accurate to the quantities inside.
 
Some years ago I asked a kid in Asda to fetch me half a ton of tomato ketchup. He asked me if I was sure I wanted that much and I said I'd take far more, but my car wouldn't carry it. The shelf price was .0001p per kilo .................... curiously, the sauce next to it was marked at something like £890 a kilo.
 
This is the reason I will only go shopping if Carol Vorderman and Garry Kasparov are with me.
 
Maybe I'm playing devils advocate, but i very rarely come across these issues and I do pay attention to these kinds of things. I'd suspect most of these cases are human error or the price is reduced for some other reason, most likely they need to get rid of something because the dates up or it's being replaced.

I'd be very surpised if there was actual intent to attempt to fool people.

I'm assuming large retail stores for the above. For places like ebay and Amazon ... anything goes and you really do have to keep your wits about you.
 
transatlantic":1jd6vfdl said:
Maybe I'm playing devils advocate, but i very rarely come across these issues and I do pay attention to these kinds of things. I'd suspect most of these cases are human error or the price is reduced for some other reason, most likely they need to get rid of something because the dates up or it's being replaced.
I'd be very surpised if there was actual intent to attempt to fool people.

A friend of mine was an enforcement officer for Trading Standards. His team used to take Tesco to court, pretty much every single month without fail, for handfuls of charges under the offenses of False Advertising, and Misleading Price Indication. Tesco usually pleaded no contest and just paid the fines, as they were only about £5k a time... not even pocket change to them.

It's not human error. It's just down to who catches and pulls them up on it.
 
A tesco and other supermarkets I quite often notice confusing prices with a couple of smaller packets costing less than the same qty in a larger packet.

Also in a number of shops the breakdown of the price in £ per unit is often different units to make it difficult to compare prices.
 
People automatically think larger packs = cheaper pro rata, and wholesalers and retailers know it. Many years ago I was shopping (commercially) and saw a huge promotion on bars of soap. I started to load the trolley, then stopped, putting the slabs of large bars back and replacing them with small ones. The small ones were way, way cheaper per ounce. The sales woman asked if there was any problem and I explained why I'd done what I'd done. She smiled and told me I was only the third person in three days that had noticed and she'd sold thirty three pallets of the stuff.
 
HappyHacker":1qrkjzgq said:
A tesco I quite often notice confusing prices with a couple of smaller packets costing less than the same qty in a larger packet.

That is the very reason I have, almost completely, stopped using Tesco because it is so common I don't think it is human error. I do still buy their everyday value cornflakes at 40p a 500g box though. :)
 
The profit made verses the small fines imposed if caught out is reason enough for my cynical old mind to think that some of these mistakes are not really mistakes but calculated risks :!:
 
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