Hello to all my victims of large-scale consumerism and mercantilism, today is a dark day since we are going to discuss together the little shenanigans of the supermarket chains to sell us lying stuff without us realizing it. and unfairly rob us of our hard-earned money. Another question we ask ourselves about supermarkets and I’m going to show you how much we get smoked in spite of ourselves.
1. The prices of misleading promotions
Several stores were caught in the act of lying about promotions: customers noticed that the reference prices of the products (before reduction) were different in the catalogs and in the store to make believe that the promotion was even more interesting. And to protect themselves from all complaints, the stores use the excuse of “recommended prices”, stipulating that they can display varied prices for the same product according to the stores of the same chain. Not stupid guys.
2. The famous truffle products
If you like truffles (it’s your choice, not all of us have to taste good) know that you probably get swollen half the time you buy products. In France, to say that a product is truffle it must have 1% truffle inside, suddenly many brands swing the blind of flavors to trap consumers when the products have almost no trace of truffle. Almost one in two products would actually contain less than 1% truffle and would therefore be a lie, a nice scam.
3. Family formats more expensive per kilo
A survey of Foodwatch revealed that many brands were confusing us with their famous family sizes: larger quantities in larger packaging, but above all more expensive per kilo. Pasta, rice, breads, crisps… Many brands and types of products would be affected, sometimes showing increases of 30% in the price per kilo compared to the same products in normal quantities. Keep an eye on the price per kilo before buying, it’s your best friend.
4. The expiry dates of products purchased in Drive
If shopping by drive is interesting to avoid having to go back and forth on the shelves, there is still a small negative point: you don’t select the products yourself. Several Internet users then quite rightly yelled when they realized that several of their products bought at the drive-thru had an imminent expiry date, which almost forced them to cook their entire basket in two days, which can be a bit boring when you go shopping for them. the week.
5. Reference prices that increase after the promo
Imagine you spot a product displayed with the promo at 15€, it goes to 10€ in promo and you come back a week later and it is displayed at 20€. It’s a practice that happens and has a way of pissing off customers rightly since it’s clearly a big asshole technique.
6. Air-filled products
You buy an ice cream and as soon as it starts to melt in the bowl there is already half as much. Classic, several products are concerned by this small technique of adding air to increase the volume without you noticing it. To counter them, the control bodies are now forcing them to register the quantity of ice cream in mass and more in volume, you see a little the techniques of crevards. But it also concerns charcuterie or yoghurts in which we add a lot of water to increase their weight and size.
7. Different packaging that inflates the price
On some product types, you can buy the EXACT same stuff from the same brand at completely different prices just because the packaging changes. Certain brands of detergent in pods or bottles for example, but also at a famous brand of sugar which sells the same quantity at €1.72 per kilo in squares and €4.88 per kilo in sticks. Yeah, it’s abused.
8. The “shrinkflation”, the ultimate asshole technique
Have you ever bought a packet of cereal or a tablet/chocolate bar and thought to yourself “it’s weird it seems there’s less than usual”? Well, this real phenomenon is called “shrinkflation” a contraction of the words “shrink” and “inflation” and concerns certain products that brands continue to sell at the same price while having reduced quantities. Yeah it’s small as a technique.
9. The Batch Product Trap
We tend to think that buying in bulk will save money, getting a four pack of coffee sachets instead of one can seem like a bigger investment in the moment that saves money in the long run. But very often this is not the case, we pay the same price by buying more and under certain conditions it is even more expensive. Yeah, the packaging with “3+1” written does not mean “4 for the price of three”, do not let yourself be screwed but check the price by weight.
