Special offers

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Posted at 12:02PM, 16 November 2009 by Stuart Walton - Food and wine writer

Who among us can resist a special offer? Even where all our strongest cynical instincts are telling us that the big high-street stores are not in the business of giving us something for nothing, the psychology of discounts, multi-buys, standard-priced £1 items and introductory offers remains weirdly compelling.

It will now be a race to make sure I get through the mayonnaise before its best-before date

I got chatting to another customer in a checkout queue just recently, and we discovered that our baskets both contained things we hadn't come in for, didn't need, or weren't even aware of wanting. He'd got two packs of mature Cheddar, more than he knew he could get through in weeks, while I'd got two jars each of mayonnaise (which had been on my list) and marmalade (which hadn't).

The whole racket is contributing to food waste. Where you can freeze the extra items, I suppose it makes sense to stock up while the going's good, but cheese? Mayonnaise? It will now be a race to make sure I get through the mayonnaise before its best-before date. I could have it on my breakfast toast, except that I've an industrial quantity of marmalade now to use up - and I don't actually care for toast and marmalade.

Among the junk that arrives with the post each week are special-offer leaflets from the supermarkets. I should just put them in the recycle box, but somehow feel constrained to keep them on file, glancing through them while writing shopping lists and carefully discarding them when the offer periods end. Let's see - I could have two boxes of Terry's All Gold chocolates for the price of one this week, or a sky's-the-limit quantity of Ainsley Harriott cup soup at half-price. Perhaps not.

Large numbers of people are wise to the scam of half-price wine, the favourite reduction still being from £7.99 to £3.99 on wines that were never going to be £7.99 in the first place. With food, though, which we actually need, we become more gullible. The only reason shops that sell everything for £1 are profitable is that quite a lot of what they sell could be bought for less than a pound elsewhere. The same is true of a lot of the special-price items in supermarkets. The pack of salad leaves with a £1 flash on it is 79p a little way up the street.

Multi-buys are a minefield. Two for the price of one is usually fair enough perhaps, but four for the price of three? You're about to be hoodwinked into spending three times what you had intended to. Psychology is all. Special offers and discounts are nearly always printed on a red background. This is because red objects (think of traffic lights) have the property of appearing to be nearer to us than other colours. They stand out from their surroundings and call attention to themselves, making their imperatives impossible to ignore and hard to resist. Brands often pay the supermarkets to have their products at eye-level, while the cheap ranges are usually way down near the floor, where you have to stoop to find them, lowering your standards as you lower your creaking frame.

Can you resist the lure of a special offer?

Comments

Aedara

16 November 2009, 7:41PM
Aedara

I don't know about the buy one get one frees and things like that, quite often I only want one but feel so silly leaving the 'free' one that I end up taking it anyway. BUt the best offers are the ones on fresh meat etc which is close to its sell by date, these can easily be taken home and frozen quickly to be defrosted when you want them and the reductions can be pretty impressive, especially if you go late in the evening. My friends you to exclusively go shopping at Tesco at around 8 to get the lowest prices even if they had to fight off people stealing it out of their trolleys again, apparently its insanity. I often find myself going shopping for one item and coming out with seven, I may have been fooled but at least I have nice food and it almost always gets eaten.

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James

16 November 2009, 10:15PM
James

Special offer - are you kidding? The only thing that's special about them is the profit the supermarkets make. Every offer you buy is logged on the store loyalty card to work out which offers they send you to keep you going to that store. Another sneaky large profit I've found is made from more specialised ingredients - herbs, spices, anything to do with homebaking. If an ingredient looks nice in a cook book they'll charge you a lot for a small amount. If they keep the price around Â£1 - Â£2 you don't notice - but look at the weight/ volume and compare it. Places like Daily Bread, a cash & carry or market stall can be so much cheaper.

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Girl Flower

17 November 2009, 2:25PM
Girl Flower

I try and ignore most 'offers' but sometimes I do get dragged in by them, especially if it is something I do actually want. A while ago when I had tartar sauce on my list I ended up with 3 jars of the stuff (because it was buy 3 for the price of 2) As there are only 2 of us at home we are struggling to get through it all! Having Fish and chips a lot at the moment and I think the last jar may not even be finished (If it is even started!) Any tips on using up a glut of tartar sauce? I do agree with Aedara though that meat at a reduced price near its best before date is a great deal to take home and freeze - probably the best 'special offer' there is.

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Vic

17 November 2009, 2:32PM
Vic

Generally avoid. I assume that the supermarket won't take the hit on its profits, and therefore that it must be the producer / farmer / grower who's been asked to sell or give away their stuff for free or less profit - and that's not fair in my book.

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heather

18 November 2009, 1:31PM
heather

BOGOF on perishable goods should be illegal in the name of cutting down our food waste.

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vicki

18 November 2009, 3:33PM
vicki

I have a large family ( 6 of us) and BOGOF can help to keep the cost of shopping down, products that i wouldn't normally buy due to the cost of buying them in large quantitys work out cheaper than the alternative, but i do check prices and weights to compare what is the best value for money, and like most people i do often leave the supermarket having spent more than i orginally intended.

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Caroline Kerridge

19 November 2009, 5:32PM
Caroline Kerridge

This is nothing to do with BOGOF but I couldn't find anywhere else to post. I have lost my copy of the March 09 issue and need the chicken, leek and mushroom pie recipe. It is not posted on the website. Would anyone have it that they could e-mail me a copy please. I would be ever so grateful. PLease send to mrsportion@hotmail.com. Many thanks in advance

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SandieB

20 November 2009, 1:01PM
SandieB

I try to resist the offers unless it's something I want or use a lot of. I live on my own, so often the giant economy size is a waste of money even if it is on special offer, I'd still rather buy a small one and be able to use it all up. I'm suspicious of some offers, even BOGOF. I suspect that the price you are paying for the one that you buy, is higher than it would be normally for that item if it wasn't a BOGOF. So again, unless I know I will use it up or can freeze the second one I won't buy it. Another trick I've noticed in my local supermarket is that if they have an offer on the giant economy size they don't actually display any of the regular size ones, thereby forcing you to buy the giant economy size (at a higher price) if it's something you've run out of and can't hang on till you can get to another store!

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SUE

11 December 2009, 7:08PM
SUE

What REALLY annoys me is when a jar or tin proudly announces '1/3 extra free'. If I wanted a larger tin, I'd buy one! If a standard tin serves the 2 of us, why would I want one that serves 3?

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Footiewidow

14 January 2010, 9:52AM
Footiewidow

I do my shopping online most of the time and so if there are offers on my list of Favourites then i buy those items but try not to look at all offers anymore as i find this toooo tempting. If i have to go into the supermarket, even if its just for one or two items, I always find myself spending at least Â£15-Â£20, even though I try hard not to I just can not help myself...How bad is that! I feel like I have to look at all the offers just in case!

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