Asda selling bananas for 46p/kg? At least it's using alcohol sales to subsidise the cost of fresh produce rather than the other way round, as is often the case. But as the meaning of value is undermined we mess with the shopper's brains at our peril.
Consider the tale of a recent supermarket promotion. Behind me in the queue at Sainsbury's a few weeks ago a lady was pushing a trolley laden with hundreds of jars of a cook-in curry sauce she had cleaned out the entire display. Not surprising really, with each jar on promotion at 4p.
Who was this savvy shopper? An army catering chef creating a slap-up curry for 200 squaddies, or perhaps an independent c-store owner stocking up at a price no wholesaler could hope to match? No she was making jam for a local fête and was saving herself £92 by buying 200 cook-in sauces at 4p each rather than 200 empty jars at 50p each from a hardware store. "So you're not going to eat any of the sauce then?" I asked. "God no," she replied. "That muck is going straight in the bin."
Moral: shoppers love a bargain, and are often way smarter than you think.
And here's another tale, concerning Trebor's launch of Extra Strong Mint gums. At my local c-store, I forked out 60p for a pack and only later discovered this was an entry-level gum with an rsp of 32p. So kudos to the c-store owner for pocketing the extra 28p. But, as our Focus On Confectionery report shows (see p47), the impulse sector's historically massive overtrade in take-home confectionery has slumped from 570% to 214%, and one of the reasons is price differentials such as this.
The moral is the same: shoppers (even this one) are often way smarter than you think. And the lesson applies just as much to suppliers as to retailers. If you want the independent trade to remain viable, the shopper must retain a sense of value. It's time the price-marked pack made a comeback.
Consider the tale of a recent supermarket promotion. Behind me in the queue at Sainsbury's a few weeks ago a lady was pushing a trolley laden with hundreds of jars of a cook-in curry sauce she had cleaned out the entire display. Not surprising really, with each jar on promotion at 4p.
Who was this savvy shopper? An army catering chef creating a slap-up curry for 200 squaddies, or perhaps an independent c-store owner stocking up at a price no wholesaler could hope to match? No she was making jam for a local fête and was saving herself £92 by buying 200 cook-in sauces at 4p each rather than 200 empty jars at 50p each from a hardware store. "So you're not going to eat any of the sauce then?" I asked. "God no," she replied. "That muck is going straight in the bin."
Moral: shoppers love a bargain, and are often way smarter than you think.
And here's another tale, concerning Trebor's launch of Extra Strong Mint gums. At my local c-store, I forked out 60p for a pack and only later discovered this was an entry-level gum with an rsp of 32p. So kudos to the c-store owner for pocketing the extra 28p. But, as our Focus On Confectionery report shows (see p47), the impulse sector's historically massive overtrade in take-home confectionery has slumped from 570% to 214%, and one of the reasons is price differentials such as this.
The moral is the same: shoppers (even this one) are often way smarter than you think. And the lesson applies just as much to suppliers as to retailers. If you want the independent trade to remain viable, the shopper must retain a sense of value. It's time the price-marked pack made a comeback.
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