Which? has accused Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s of misleading their customers by creating “special offers” which are no offers at all.
All three retailers were found to discount products and leave them at a lower price for a far longer period than they were at the original price.
Sainsbury’s, for example, sold Carex Anti-Bacterial Handwash for 10 days at the higher price of £1.60, and then labelled it "was £1.60 now £1" for 28 days.
This sleight of hand contravenes Department of Business guidelines, which were created in 2010 precisely to stop retailers trying to fool consumers over discounts and promotions.
One of the guiding principles is that “special offers” should not run for a longer period of time than the original price.
Another practice is to raise prices to make a double offer seem attractive. For example, Asda increased the price of a Chicago Town Four Cheese Pizza Two-Pack from £1.50 to £2 as it went into an offer where you could buy two for £3. It went back to £1.50 as the ‘offer’ ended.
In Scotland, Tesco sold 4 bottles of Budweiser as ‘was £4.50 now £4’ for 21 days. It was sold at the higher price for 15 days, 41 days before the offer started.
Eight out of ten consumers say they seek special supermarket offers, which most believing this helps their budget. Which? believes this makes it all the more important to quash such chicanery.
Asda said: “We would never deliberately mislead our customers”. Sainsbury’s said the handwash was “mistakenly priced”.
Tesco said: “We apologise for this labelling error, and have since introduced new systems to prevent it happening again.”
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