Fighting back against supermarkets

Asda have increased the prices of some tinned goods, with the weather going colder and autumn on the way.

Heinz beans and sausage - from 90p up to 99p
These have been over priced for some time now, when the prices started going up a few months back, the credit crunch starting in Nov 2008 is when established analysts (including the respected grocer magazine) questioned the price rises of beans.
With the prices on the commodities markets stable and even dropping, as well as alluminium prices falling, it's difficult to justify why supermarkets are continuing to increase the price to the customer?
Perhaps with this 9% increase (almost three times the rate of inflation) there will soon be a "Sale" on Heinz beans and sausages, where the price will be reduced to what it was previously - some 9% cheaper than Asda have increased it to today.

Heinz soups - from 78p up to 82p (5% increase)
This price increase comes with another typically worrying factor involved. The amount of Heinz soups on display has been reduced, the shelf space given to Asda's own branded soups (which are conveniently more profitable) has increased and the offer is now 5 tins for £2.00
Buying a single tin of Asda's own brand soup, will now cost the customer almost exactly the same price as Heinz soups used to be!

Two examples of preparing for colder weather and harder times financially for many people.
Students going back to university buying supplies, customers moving towards tinned goods as a quick alternative meal in the colder climate, etc.

You would think that a supermarket that advertises to "Save you money everyday" (add an asterix after that slogan, as conditions apply depending on the type of product you buy) would be a bit less profiteering on basic staple goods?

UPDATE:

"Asda said its latest monthly income-tracker poll showed that family budgets continued to come under pressure: families had £7 less per week to spend in July, a 4.2% decline on last year. "These are increasingly uncertain times for millions of families across the UK," added Clarke.

A separate report commissioned by Asda also points to a tough outlook for consumers and warns of a potential spending crunch at Christmas. The Centre for Economics and Business Research thinks that UK families face having the lowest amount of disposable income for two years in the final quarter of 2010. It predicts that disposable income in the final month of the year will be £172 – £5 lower than December 2009 and the same level as December 2008." (source - The Guardian, 17th August 2010 - click for full report)

So if families will find it tough in the coming months and Asda's own commissioned reports show that disposable income is falling, why, if Asda really care about their customers, are they increasing the prices of tinned branded goods that everyone knows, more families buy?

Nothing to do with "Helping our customers save money," and all to do with maximising profits now and offering fake "sales" later in the year, where the price will return to what their customer's would have paid anyway!

A demonstration in how people face an impossible battle, when it comes to supermarket pricing. This example is courtesy of Asda (To be fair, it could be any one of the big supermarkets).

Product - Little angels cotton wool pleats (Asda own brand, there are no other brands or packs available).

On sale in the baby aisle last week (Have been for months), for 87p, a 200g pack - 43.5 pence per 100g
This week, price is now £1.47 for a 300g pack. (These replace the 200g pack) - now 49 pence per 100g (This is a 5.5 pence per 100g INCREASE in price - 15.5 pence per 300g pack)
This is a 12.6% increase in price! (Inflation rate is supposed to be around 3.5%) This increase in price is almost 4 times the rate of inflation!
A mother buying one pack per week, to wash and clean her baby (so it is plausable) will be spending £7.75 extra a year (Based on 50 weeks @ 15.5 pence extra Asda put on the price)

Asda offer put on at the same time as the new higher price: "Buy two for £2.00" - your receipt at the bottom shows that "You have saved - 94p" - Not true, you have actually only saved 61p (6 x 100g @ 43.5p - before Asda increased the price per 100g)

With the offer, the cost to Asda per 100g is 33.3p - however the customer is now forced to purchase 300g per pack (instead of 200g) clearing more product for Asda. I'd guess that 33.3p per 100g more than covers Asda's overheads and costs on this product?

Once this offer ends, the customer - in this case most likely to be a mother with a baby or toddler - if they shop at Asda, are forced into paying an extra £7.75 each year and buying an extra 5kg of product!

All shops do this with their prices?
Maybe, but for every 129 customers, out of the thousands that walk through Asda's doors everyday, that buy the cotton pleats - that's an EXTRA £1000 in Asda's profits, off just one single product line.
How many thousands of products does your local Asda store stock?
£7.75 could currently give me one month of broadband access, almost cover a months TV license, it would cover a full week's milk bill, etc.
If Asda manage to do this with 10 products that I buy regularly, that would be the equivalent of one weeks shopping, for a family of four!
Local shops do not advertise that they are, "Saving You Money Every Day!"

Asda, as with other supermarkets, should place an asterix * after each of their slogans - in this case the * would mean... *unless you have a baby or a toddler!

Supermarket's combine various methods to work out pricing to achieve the most profits possible, mainly by using demographics (that's another post entirely), in conjunction with the information it can collect about YOU and your shopping habits and buying history.

The old addage is applicable in supermarkets, more than ever:

Knowledge is POWER!

The more information that you hand over to supermarkets, the more they will use this information to take money from your pocket.
There is a good reason why Tesco and Sainsburys use a company called Dunnhumby, that monitors shopping habits via loyalty cards, (Check out their website here) it's that successful, Tesco bought into the company and are now it's majority shareholder!
Not only do the supermarkets gather information about you, whilst pledging "Not to sell this information to other companies" this doesn't stop them selling on "analysis of this data" - you see, there's always a way around it.

There is no way of stopping supermarkets gathering information about it's customers?
By doing things differently, over a period of time you can mess up the information that it thinks it has about your shopping habits - here are some that I use:

• NEVER use a loyalty card - Asking for trouble, they are used to build up a profile of you and your habits. When combined with information that you have to submit when you sign up for the card, ie, email address, home address, children, personal circumstances, etc. Supermarkets already know about when and how much you spend, before you have even reached home with your shopping.
  It is not just supermarket loyalty cards either, boots, barclaycard, etc, many companies use your information and sell their "analysis" on to other companies.
• ALWAYS pay in cash - Even if I have to use the supermarket's cash machines, where ever possible I always pay in cash. Paying by card is almost identical to using a loyalty card. The same principles apply, only with the added bonus for the supermarket of seeing how you pay for goods, ie, credit or debit card, etc.
• Shop on different days, at different times - Supermarkets store your shopping information over months/years. Shopping at the same time on the same day of the week, by analysing your purchases then can quite accurately assign your visit to their store, to the information they already have about you.
  A simple change of day, say a Thursday night instead of regular Friday afternoon can mess their information up.

Sad as I am, I have even on occasion withdrawn some cash from Tescos cash machines then driven off to Asda (and vica versa)  and spent the money there (in cash of course) just to mess up their snooping.
Ideally, all this wouldn't be neccessary, as supermarket shopping for my weekly shops, will be done away from the supermarket, that is my aim.

Articles on this topic:
From 2003 but still relevant today (Guardian)
More articles will be added as I come across them.