The truth about supermarkets- Price wars

While household budgets are under increasing pressure four of the top Uk supermarkets compete the title of the Uk's cheapest. Sainburys- offers to refund the difference on branded good s if they can be found cheaper elsewhere, Morrisons promotes its price crunch campaign while Asda guarantees to sell any goods 10% cheaper than it's rivals.  Tesco pledge to slash the cost of every brand. Panorama investigates this further according to some customers these deals may sound to be good, but strip away all the jargon and promises of ' huge savings' it is just a tactile approach, which could lead to prosecution for the breach of customer regulation. 

Retails analyst Richard Perks says, 'if there was a price war going on at the moment, we would have sees profits or we would have sever warnings and that is just not happening.  Using the marketing budget as effectively as possible, to be as cheap as possible in how you promote using discount.

A Peers family get the same items every week and have discovered Tesco even though they are promoting their price drop campaign in September, their Price drop items are actually going up and are actually dearer than earlier in the year, for example a packed of Tescos unsalted butter has gone up 12p From originally being 98p earlier on in the year to now becoming £1.10.  Tesco states that is has slashed the price of 1300 of it's products, but in reality this is only a mealy 10% of products they have in their stores.  In result of this the loyalty club card scheme to help fund the price cuts has been slashed, when customers would receive 2 club card points for every item  they buy, it is now resulting to 1.  Anytime you do get a good deal they are compensating this by charging the customer for, for something else.

The advertising standard found that 3 of the top leading supermarkets, have been  misleading customers customers throughout the years, they have banned 3 adverts from Morrisons, 10 from Asda and a disturbing 16 from Tescos 

For example Tesco has an Advert stating that they were they sold 1.8 million baskets were cheaper at Tesco and compared to Asda - link of the advert shown below

http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA8145

This was discovered from the Advertising standard authority that the add only implied 218 thousand products and they didn't even include all the products in them


The WOW Factor

At Asda the special offers online shopping site were offering WOW deals, saying they were items that were cheaper than they would normally be if purchased online.

When checking the history of some of the WOW items it was found that 11 of these items had been on sale at the same price for about 6 months, and four items were actually more expensive then they used to be.  Not much to be saved by this.

Deboarah Harry - A lawyer who advised the Government on Eu consumer protection, regulations and British Law stated the WOW labelling they Asda are promoting could in fact be a breach of the LAw 

"Your average consumer when they learned the truth that the price was not reduced and in fact had been increased almost certainly would not purchase them."

AWhen Panorma contacted them, Asda said that these product should not have been advertised as WOW products and removed them from their website.

The Multi Buys- non deal

This is advertising on the shelf that announced that you can purchase two for these products for £2, but in reality there is no saving there as the product is £1 per item, and dosen't highlight that there isn't a saving there.

This is a very clever way that can make some people buy more!!

Physcologist Gorkan Ahmetoglu wrote a report on the office for fair trading on the influence of promotional tools and offers of savings that Supermarkets use and what effect these have on the customers shopping habits.  He mentions this type of Advertising acts as a Subconscious trigger.

"They are triggering the same reaction as when you eat chocolate. The offer will still attract your attention and a lot of people will not look at the single unit price."


Price Establishing

When price establishing the  supermarket tells us 'slashed the price' of some items 
A reatiler that sells a product at a certain price at a certain time, then sudden realises that Later the price has dropped back to where is was in the first place.

When the BBc anaylised this Tesco's big Price drop seemed to do this often with products such as medium whole fresh chickens, feature promonrnty in it's adds. It rose from £4 to £5 over two months and for the Big price drop it dropped back down to £4.

This method id completely legal as long as the higher price is left in place and established for 28 days or it is in line with cosumer expectation, this may be a problem and may get into trouble with the regulations.

Deborah Harry mentions that this could be a breach of the laws that put in plays to protect customers.

"If it could be established that the average consumer was being misled by the suggestion of a previous higher price... then it could lead to a criminal prosecution."


Tesco says that the pricing practice had breached no rules of and defended the price rises before the big price drop, saying it price was launched in a period food significant higher food costs a that the Pice Drop campaign was to helping to combat inflation, not illuminate it.


Less is More

At Asda a 1kg tub of butter £3.20 advertised to be a bigger pack and better value, but this seemed to be 20p more than buying 2 550g tubs of the same product.


At Tesco the Vanish stain remover was £12 for the 'big value' size, £3 more than if you just bough 3 smaller containers, which would make up to be the exact same content of the product.


This is when 'bigger pack, better value' in fact means 'bigger pack, but costs more'!



No scales

The fruit and vegetables is priced per kilo and some packaged items are often only priced per pack, with no wight listed. Only way was to weight the pack, then do some maths and people simply don't have time.

Sainburys sold five bannanas in a pack for £1, but bought loose for the same number they cost only 42p.

At Asda it was three red onions in a net sold for £2.85, when as bought loosely for the same number it cost just 86p.

AT Morrisons, it was the other way around - a pack of empire apples cost £1.82, where as bought loosely it would cost £2.99.

John Bridegman, the former head of office and fair trade training says supermarkets have the responsibility to be straight to their customers.

"We've got to do much better at giving people the information they need to buy carefully, properly and secure value."


All supermarkets told the BBc that customers like to have an option to buy by weight or pre packed.

Buy NOW!!

A labelled price in Morrisons says Now £2, but fails to state what the price was before.  It states offer ends Sunday, but fails to mention that it cost only £1.65 before.

Morrisons said in their defence, that the product had been more expensive earlier in the year, so £2 was still representing good value for money.

Block 2 Factory Girls

Leslie Chang was a Chinese American journalist who looked at the life's of the workers and what the thought themselves about migration in the city, especially focusing on the women, 'who had the most to gain when leaving the village and the most to loose'. Dongguan  (THE BEAUTIFUL FLOWER CITY)  was one of the biggest cities that had the  largest population of migrant workers across the Hong Kong border. The 'invisible' city to the outside world or a place without memory as things developed and changed so fast they could never keep track of it all.  Most Journalist would write stories on the harsh conditions of the factories and exploited the exploitation of the Chinese migrants and how their cheap labour provides most of the leisure and electronic goods for our credit boom.  I found myself not wanting to put this book down and found three hours had past and still I wanted to continue.  It was interesting how Chang gave a different approach by observing the local buses noticing the divide between the sexes. Their one holiday a year, Chinese new year, young males and females ( never old people on the bus) carrying gifts for home as they head to the central railways station, the men still have that country look about them, where as the women were very different with their fashionable striking styles and often wearing heels for the long journey home. 

"The young men on the bus smelled of gamy sweat, the scent of people who walked long distances outdoors ... The young women were immaculate; they never smelled, and their hair was always sleek and shiny."

 Chang followed the life of the ' Factory Girls' and portrays  the struggles and emotions the girls wen through when leaving the land. Their determination a

Their determination  and drive to make a better life for themselves and their family, back on the land, shows  the divide between the boys who work in the construction industry who show rather less drive enthusiasm. I respect her determination as a journalist and she obviously felt very strongly and determined to research their views as it  appeared very hard to stay in contact with these girls.  The girls  would often not have mobile phones or just loose them. This must have been very worrying for the parents sending their 16 year old girl to a city of such dangers.  

"At every stage they gave bad advice; they specialised in outdated knowledge and conservatism born out of fear ... But once a migrant got to the city, the parental message shifted dramatically: Send home money, the more the better."

Their traditional Chinese views were that the repayment to their  parents this justified the children were grateful for the 'gift of their existence' which repaid their debt, for families bringing them up. It made me think that how our Western Views are very different and most households don't have to prove they are grateful through expense, but simply provide for their own children.  Also the fact that most migrants associated the place where they came from with poverty and were often averse on the topic. Min one of the few girls that Chang stayed in contact with was different and was proud  of where she came and described it as a place of beauty, much like our Western views.  For he city girl they had to make fast decisions in many being venerable to cons artists, but it was their ambition and drive that got them through, their motivation were also similar to western counterparts, heading of  on a gap year and learning to skills to develop themselves as many didn't receive a good education.

"To come out from home and work in a factory is the hardest thing they have ever done. It is also an adventure. What keeps them in the city is not fear but pride: to return home early is to admit defeat. To go out and stay out is to change your fate."

The City of Donggian was rapidly moving city, with 1.7 million factories were described as , the bus stops or trademarks of rapid constant expansion, hoping to deliver to the world faster than ever. it is believed that there are 10 million in the population of Dongguan, 7 million of them migrants some believe it is 8 million, the figures are unclear and this seems to grow one million a year and 7 million of these avoid paying their higher taxes. Dongguan's motto is 'one big city step every year another city in 5 years.'  It was is growing that vastly growing that Government couldn't even keep track of the numbers.  When Chang went to interview the Government she discovered they were all locals.  I found it slightly disturbing that they ignored the migrants  and the major did not have an accurate count for the migrant population.  He also mentioned that there were a lack of resources to check the factories and they rely on the companies or the police to do so.  The companies were responsible for the workers, training , etc. They initially mentioned the migrants workers were of a low quality then later contorted themselves saying they were of a , higher quality and accepted lower wages.  This shows you how much control the Government has over the city and why there is not much equality between the migrants and the locals. The visions that Chang gave you when describing the city was of mass labour, morning exercises and booming slogans for example 'to die poor is a sin' ' through doing something you will learn it'

' If you don't work hard today you will look hard for work tomorrow.  Job application would shortlist people by putting in the application thing such as ' Receptionist appearance and disposition', knows office software and Cantonese. " ''salesperson:female,grade four english''

Min was good example of how she got a job in a factory, had no experience or anything but simply because of her handwriting it should she had been educated, therefore resulting in employment.  Employers discrimination was popular and sometimes state that people that came from a certain province need not even try to apply.  Chang would see notice how fast some of the girl would move from job to job and was surprised they had to confidence to do so also.  The fast growth of job flitting was resulting it in being hundreds of vacancies.  And to lie about your experience was also an inimitable way to get a job. "No one in the factories of Dongguan had been properly educated for the task at hand, Chang also states that because of all this fast change China's education system suffered.

"The needs of the Chinese economy were changing so fast that the education system was not even trying to keep up anymore."

Many of the girls fins success, but this  doesn't necessarily make them happy, or they could loose everything in a instance Wu Chungming was an example of this worked her way up from learning Cantonese and attending lecture, which helped her speak in a professional manner and have the confidence to do so. From starting of as a factory girl to chuanxiao company that charged new member one thousand yuan for a box of tradition Tibetan medicine, in result making forty-thousand yuan a month. This only lasted 2 months until the industry got out of control and people were getting greedy so the Government ceased the chuanxiao companies. Chang found herself jobless and back to where she started. 

In looking into these many girls life's Chang realises a pattern occurring, with the girls stories and their own family migrations.At the very beginning to north east China, then to Tiwan and eventually the US, wherever the migration the danger and venerability do not change foe these girls, but neither does the opportunities and the girls continue from generations to hope to improve them and their families life's.  As I read through the book it became clear that China's message to the girls was one for hope and happiness, to come to the big cities was to better your life and yourself and each and ever person believed they could accomplish this perfect lifestyle.  

This is a book tries to understand China today, it helps you connect with the girls and the life they lead the two girls min and Wu that Chang got to know well were more independent minded than the average migrant.

"The migrant girls never asked me for help, and rarely even for advice. Life was something they faced alone, as they had been telling me from the first day we met. 'I can only rely on myself.'"