Fighting back against supermarkets

The Going Rate...

For supermarkets that hope that the British public cannot add up.

The easiest way to avoid being ripped off is to know (or have a rough estimate of) the going rate for the product.

A good place to start is Andrex toilet roll multi-packs.
There's a good reason why the supermarkets offer you three different pack sizes to buy, confusion costs.
Some are better value than others, some are blatantly more expensive and some pack sizes are just another way they can differentiate from other supermarkets.

The first thing to bare in mind, is that multi packs should work out cheaper than the traditional pack size, if bought in the same quantity.

Tesco are currently selling various multi-pack sizes for Andrex toilet rolls:
(For ease of clarity, I'll just go with the three packs I was looking at)

9 roll "classic" pack at £5.95
24 roll "gentle clean" at £11.85
16 roll "supreme quilts" at £11.50 but clubcard price is £9

To start with, I look at the bog standard, classic 4 pack.
Tesco selling these at £2.85
For years they were £1.90 to £2 - then the supermarkets (in unison, funny that!) started upping the price of these (to make the multi packs appear good value)
My Going Rate starting price would be £2 for every 4 rolls.

9 roll "classic" multi pack is £5.95
2 times 4 rolls = £4
The one roll left over is costing me £1.95
This is not good value.
(Even if my going rate was £2.50, 8 rolls would work out at £5 (62.5p a roll) - leaving 95p for the final roll)

24 roll pack at £11.85
6 packs of four rolls at £2 (my going rate) works out at £12, a saving of just 15p, when buying 24 rolls!
Not really good value.

16 roll pack at £9 (if you have a clubcard)
4 packs of four rolls at £2 (my going rate) works out at £8, yet tesco are charging £9, a pound more!
Not good value.

None purchased.

Now I know, people will comment with things like, "Your going rate is too low" and "don't buy from there then!" etc, etc.
I don't care.
I know what my going rate is for things, I apply it to see if there's any value in supermarket "sales"

Multi-packs are supposed to be much cheaper, buying in bulk so to speak, more often than not, this is clearly not the case.
Savings from buying the regular small packs are sometimes nil, sometimes a few pence and sometimes supermarkets' are charging more for a multi-pack.