The Consumer Crusader
I think I might be losing it a bit (note - that is spelt "losing", not "loosing" by the way) because I seem to be making some rather strange mistakes that I would not normally make. For example when I put the shopping away today I put the baby wipes in the fridge and the milk in the cupboard.
Hopefully I am not losing the plot, this time I shall put it down to being rushed, hot, bothered and the fact that I still had my sunglasses on which made navigating the kitchen slightly more challenging than usual.
There are a zillion and one things to do around here. The washing has reached a new peak since the warm weather came - the children have developed many new and interesting ways to get mucky in the garden. I seem to be constantly running out of clothes. How is it that I do a wash load every day yet a boy owning 7 pairs of shorts can still run out? There's a load just finished sitting in the machine now waiting to be hung out, but it shall have to wait half an hour as I've got the pen between my teeth so to speak and have to bash one out (a blog!!!)
There was lots of follow up on the Town Centre chat page to yesterday's blog entry which certainly caught the public attention, in fact over 300 hits by the time I went to bed last night. I went back in today and had a good look around. I can confirm having checked the prices of all my staple grocery items that prices remain as they were for all the commodity items, and are in line with Tesco prices elsewhere. However, much more space has been dedicated to higher margin lines and also to single serve - for example with drinks. I imagine this is how they intend to drive increased profits. There are many many more facings now of single drinks e.g. Coke and less space to multipacks. As I have said before, buying single drinks or chocolate bars is a mugs game. But lots of mugs go shopping so it will probably work.
This is in danger of turning from a parenting blog into a shopping blog but there are so many things I could write about the supermarkets, it could be a blog in itself. Perhaps I should self style myself as "Jason Ayres - the Consumer Crusader - fighting evil supermarkets across the land". I could quite see myself doing that as a weekly column in one of the papers - exposing all the scams. I'd like to be so feared by the big chains that when they see me walking into their store I strike as much fear into their hearts as if the grim reaper himself had just walked in!
OK, I am getting a bit carried away. Anyway I did my bit today to maximise my returns. In Tesco I took all my shopping up to the till, £30+ worth and then put it through as 3 separate shops, they came to £10.00, £10.05, and £10.25. In my bag I had several £3 off when you spend £10 vouchers that were handing out like confetti during the refurb. So each of my £10+ shops was accompanied by a voucher, saving me a princely £3 each time, so overall, £9 off. How many of you would think of doing that? That's an extra £6 saved! Brilliant! That's enough to buy 3 copies of my Kindle book! Amazing!
I wrote a while back about these Brand Match schemes that the supermarkets run where they say you have saved so much on your shopping and such like with some accompanying tips e.g. split your shop into two, look back you'll find them. It struck me that on every shop I have done since these schemes came in, my ticket has informed me that I have saved money on my shop today, whether it be at Asda, Sainsbury or Tesco. I have never received a voucher for money off next time. At first I congratulated myself on being a shrewd shopper. But then I thought some more about it and the penny dropped.
People tend to buy items that are on offer in the shop they happen to be in. For example if you are someone who likes to buy 12 packs of cola and don't mind whether you have Pepsi or Coke, you just buy whichever is on offer then this is how it works.
Let us say that Tesco have their 12 packs of Coke at half price - while Sainsbury are full price. On Pepsi it is the other way round. If you shopped in Tesco you'd buy the half price Coke, if you were in Sainsbury you will buy the half price Pepsi.
Either way, when you get your receipt, this will be added to the money it is claimed you have "saved". You haven't really at all, you've just chosen the brand on promotion in whichever store you happened to be in. It's just one more way that supermarkets try and create the illusion that they are doing you a favour and they are cheaper than the others. They also are trying to make you feel good about yourself and that you are a shrewd shopper and you really are beating the system! But you aren't - you are being very cleverly milked of your money. Don't be fooled people!
But you can beat the system! I am confident I got value with my £3 vouchers today as I was buying predominantly low margin items. If you don't know what the mark up is on various things, I might cover this in a future blog - or in my Crusader column in the newspaper should it ever get off the ground. Who knows, I shall just keep writing away and hope to be discovered!
One other thing to follow up on - the whole "horse meat" thing was mentioned again on facebook. If you haven't seen it, I ventured the opinion that if major supermarket chains can get caught out, who knows what we might be eating from burger vans, kebab shops, at festivals etc. I would have thought that was far harder to police than checking out the supermarkets. It never gets mentioned though. Perhaps people aren't that bothered about what they are eating at 2am after 10 pints, I know I never was.
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.
Hopefully I am not losing the plot, this time I shall put it down to being rushed, hot, bothered and the fact that I still had my sunglasses on which made navigating the kitchen slightly more challenging than usual.
There are a zillion and one things to do around here. The washing has reached a new peak since the warm weather came - the children have developed many new and interesting ways to get mucky in the garden. I seem to be constantly running out of clothes. How is it that I do a wash load every day yet a boy owning 7 pairs of shorts can still run out? There's a load just finished sitting in the machine now waiting to be hung out, but it shall have to wait half an hour as I've got the pen between my teeth so to speak and have to bash one out (a blog!!!)
There was lots of follow up on the Town Centre chat page to yesterday's blog entry which certainly caught the public attention, in fact over 300 hits by the time I went to bed last night. I went back in today and had a good look around. I can confirm having checked the prices of all my staple grocery items that prices remain as they were for all the commodity items, and are in line with Tesco prices elsewhere. However, much more space has been dedicated to higher margin lines and also to single serve - for example with drinks. I imagine this is how they intend to drive increased profits. There are many many more facings now of single drinks e.g. Coke and less space to multipacks. As I have said before, buying single drinks or chocolate bars is a mugs game. But lots of mugs go shopping so it will probably work.
This is in danger of turning from a parenting blog into a shopping blog but there are so many things I could write about the supermarkets, it could be a blog in itself. Perhaps I should self style myself as "Jason Ayres - the Consumer Crusader - fighting evil supermarkets across the land". I could quite see myself doing that as a weekly column in one of the papers - exposing all the scams. I'd like to be so feared by the big chains that when they see me walking into their store I strike as much fear into their hearts as if the grim reaper himself had just walked in!
OK, I am getting a bit carried away. Anyway I did my bit today to maximise my returns. In Tesco I took all my shopping up to the till, £30+ worth and then put it through as 3 separate shops, they came to £10.00, £10.05, and £10.25. In my bag I had several £3 off when you spend £10 vouchers that were handing out like confetti during the refurb. So each of my £10+ shops was accompanied by a voucher, saving me a princely £3 each time, so overall, £9 off. How many of you would think of doing that? That's an extra £6 saved! Brilliant! That's enough to buy 3 copies of my Kindle book! Amazing!
I wrote a while back about these Brand Match schemes that the supermarkets run where they say you have saved so much on your shopping and such like with some accompanying tips e.g. split your shop into two, look back you'll find them. It struck me that on every shop I have done since these schemes came in, my ticket has informed me that I have saved money on my shop today, whether it be at Asda, Sainsbury or Tesco. I have never received a voucher for money off next time. At first I congratulated myself on being a shrewd shopper. But then I thought some more about it and the penny dropped.
People tend to buy items that are on offer in the shop they happen to be in. For example if you are someone who likes to buy 12 packs of cola and don't mind whether you have Pepsi or Coke, you just buy whichever is on offer then this is how it works.
Let us say that Tesco have their 12 packs of Coke at half price - while Sainsbury are full price. On Pepsi it is the other way round. If you shopped in Tesco you'd buy the half price Coke, if you were in Sainsbury you will buy the half price Pepsi.
Either way, when you get your receipt, this will be added to the money it is claimed you have "saved". You haven't really at all, you've just chosen the brand on promotion in whichever store you happened to be in. It's just one more way that supermarkets try and create the illusion that they are doing you a favour and they are cheaper than the others. They also are trying to make you feel good about yourself and that you are a shrewd shopper and you really are beating the system! But you aren't - you are being very cleverly milked of your money. Don't be fooled people!
But you can beat the system! I am confident I got value with my £3 vouchers today as I was buying predominantly low margin items. If you don't know what the mark up is on various things, I might cover this in a future blog - or in my Crusader column in the newspaper should it ever get off the ground. Who knows, I shall just keep writing away and hope to be discovered!
One other thing to follow up on - the whole "horse meat" thing was mentioned again on facebook. If you haven't seen it, I ventured the opinion that if major supermarket chains can get caught out, who knows what we might be eating from burger vans, kebab shops, at festivals etc. I would have thought that was far harder to police than checking out the supermarkets. It never gets mentioned though. Perhaps people aren't that bothered about what they are eating at 2am after 10 pints, I know I never was.
If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please take a look at my books on Amazon (Paperback & Kindle), where you can read lots more of the same! Click here.
Over the last few month's. after keeping an eye on all this horse meat that has gone on, the first thing that crossed my mind was the meat in burger vans. The taste has gone down hill, it just taste's of nothing.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting close to 40 and the man boob's are starting to take a nice shape, so i'm very picky what i eat now.
I'm Terry from facebook by the way Jason.
Hi Terry - yes I am the wrong side of 40 now and Moobs are a problem. For other people who mention it, anyway, I personally am not that bothered, I think it adds character. And I will need them if I ever successfully bring my superhero character "The Moobed Marvel" to television.
DeleteAs for burger vans - yes, I don't think they are as good as they used to be. There is one I used to frequent and still do occasionally which used to make the most amazing home made and tasty burgers but it is my perception that they have got smaller (or maybe I got bigger) and don't taste as good as they used to. Still, this van is still way above any other, and it is the only one I will use these days.