Fighting back against supermarkets

Asda have a new offer on 500g Readybrek packs, now available at "2 for £3" - don't buy it for a minute!

Shortly before [Read: In the last 7 days] this fantastic "offer" for customers was advertised on shelf and on their website, the actual price of readybrek was, yes you guessed it, £1.50 per pack.
At the same time as the "2 for £3" offer came on, asda increased the regular price of readybrek 500g packs from £1.50 to £2.18 (this is a staggering 45% price increase)

At a time when family budgets are stretched to breaking point, we could well do without mismarketing and deceptive practices from a supermarket, which advertises that they are "saving you money everyday" - the simple message to them, is stop playing corporate games with people's household budgets!

I did ask Asda (and the new twitter account "asdahelp" - which doesn't show up in #asda search results) how this readybrek "2 for £3" was an offer, they declined to answer, not once, but FOUR TIMES!
We did get a new follower - asda service team - but no response from them either. (How many twitter accounts do they need/staff?)
Asda's silence speaks volumes, I don't know how they get away with it!

Our local asda and tesco, have the same price on a warburton's toastie loaf or £1.35 (As of Jan 2012) - they order these in by the hundreds/thousands every week.
Our local petrol forecourt shop have them at £1.20 - they are consistantly lower in price than asda and tesco - they order in just 30 loaves every week.

If asda and tesco are "saving you money everyday" and stating "every little helps" - why are their prices for a warburtons toastie loaf artificially higher than local independants that buy from a nearby cash & carry (where the current trade price is 92p) and in considerably lower volumes each week?

I suffer from the occasional migraine. As with any fellow sufferer, once you find out what can counter it, you keep a stock of the medication in your home, car, etc.
Cocodamol is my preferred choice of medication.

Running very low last week, I nipped into our local Tesco store, to pick up a packet.
"We have the regular branded ones or our own tesco version..." said the lady at the counter.

*Out of principle, I never buy supermarket own brands. Sounds daft I know, but own brand goods are priced at the price that branded products used to be, the branded price is almost always over inflated to give the false impression that the supermarket own brand is good value... which it is not.

I'll take the branded pack please...
"That's £4.66 please!"
HOW MUCH?
"Our tesco own brand is over a pound cheaper?"
You mean they are the price that the branded ones used to be, before your own version came out?
"The branded ones are more expensive because you are paying for their name!"
I don't believe you are correct with that statement!
"It's inflation as well..."
At £4.66 that would make inflation around 50%... I don't think so!

I double checked today with our own local pharmacy. The branded ones are available off the shelf, to the public, for a staggering... £3.11
Proof if it were needed, that tesco is over inflating the price of branded goods to make their own version appear cheaper and good value.
In the case of cocodamol, they contain exactly the same ingredients, the same number of tablets, but now the customer has to pay the same price for their own brand of product (making them more profit) or pay way over the odds for the trusted branded version.

The sooner those in power get a grip of this sharp practice, the sooner the inflation rate will start to fall.

It's already common place, to find supermarkets advertising "Two for one" or "Three for a pound" offers, whilst pushing up the price of the individual item, not only to make the offer look more attractive, but also as a way of increasing prices once the "offer" has ended.

Asda have sunk to new depths with this approach.

Heinz beans and sausage tins shot up in price to 97p from 65p a while back and have recently been the subject of a "Two for a pound" offer on gondola end promotions.
Having been returned to 97p for a couple of weeks, this week saw them included in the asda "roll back" promotion.
They have been reduced to 88p per tin, with a big yellow shelf edge sticker saying "Roll back" and a stick out roll back tab.
In the corner of the label, in tiny writing, it states that the regular price of said tin of beans and sausages, is £1.02 - a price I have never seen in our local asda!

Surely a supermarket, like any other business have a product on sale at the price on the ticket for 28 days before it can then advertise it as a regular price and offer a promotion on it?

Where are trading standards and what are they doing about it?

Warburtons thick sliced loaf (800g) is the product in question here.
We have a tesco and asda close to each other.
Currently as I post, asda are charging £1.39 for the warburtons bread, tesco are charging £1 - both put up the regular shelf price within 24 hours of each other.

Both were £1.37 - asda now charging £1.39 and tesco non offer price has increased from £1.37 to £1.39

None of the few local stores left have increased the price of their warburtons bread.
It is common knowledge that supermarkets move into an area then undercut local shops to become established, once they close or start to struggle, the supermarket raises their prices (tesco admitted doing this in our area on petrol, selling it 1p per litre more than their own store down the road, even though it was supplied from the same delivery, the reason given was "due to a lack of competition!")

More and more I am picking up on the fact that both tesco and asda in our area are increasing prices at the same time, often by the same amount.
Lurpak butter, both tesco and asda increased their prices of lurpak butter, both introduced a new salty version, again, at the same regular shelf price, both tesco and asda have recently increased their regular shelf price of lurpak butter to £1.60, again at the same time (This is a 60% increase in price since Feb 2011).

I am seriously considering lodging a formal complaint with trading standards and other relevant bodies regarding this practice. The competition commission should be on the look out for big businesses doing this as standard.
It's blatently ripping customers off!