Not such super markets

Getting a bargain isn't so easy, reports Debbie Davies

Everyone wants a bargain. The supermarkets have thousands on offer. But do we get what we bargain for? The Consumers' Association says the proliferation of price cuts, free gifts and bonus points in supermarkets today actually confuses prices and makes price comparison and shopping around more difficult. Latest figures suggest it has a point.

AC Nielsen, a market research company, says our supermarket shopping habits have changed surprisingly fast over the past two years. One- third of us used to shop around between supermarkets; now only one in four does so. Our eye has moved instead to loyalty card bonus points and in-store promotions. Two years ago less than two-thirds of us always looked out for special price offers; today, 85 per cent of us shop this way. Our interest may be in filling our trolleys with promotions from the Olympiad of special deals on display; the reality is that the proportion we buy on promotion has hardly changed. Of the shopper's trolley, Nielsen says, last year 21.8 per cent of groceries selected were on promotion compared with 21.2 per cent the previous year.

So a shopping environment that makes big promises about giving so much away free does not necessarily mean more savings for shoppers. Worse, it can cost you money.

Clive Vaughan, retail director with Verdict, a company that studies supermarkets, says that there comes a point at which more price promotion is counter- productive for shoppers. "Faced with a kaleidoscope of signs, customers can lose touch with price positioning," he says. At this point, according to the Consumers' Association's theory on confusion pricing, shoppers have no choice but to stick with a brand of retailer or product they know in the hope that the familiar can be relied on to offer the best value for money.

In practice it is easy to see how the supermarkets' torrent of promotions and price cuts can leave you bewildered and even out of pocket. This is what happened to me when I went on a supermarket sweep in search of bargains:

l Information overload. Three items I bought registered a higher price at the check-out than that advertised on the shelf. Providing you know the correct price, stores will check your information and correct their mistake, as they did in my case, or risk falling foul of misleading price legislation. Supermarkets rely on staff to synchronise prices displayed on shelves with those charged at the check-out. This means thousands of changes in store every week: Tesco claims it offers 2,000 price promotions in addition to 600 lowest price deals; Sainsbury runs a more sedate 1,000 special promotions, but the entire offer changes every week. With supermarkets open seven days and 24-hour opening mooted, Nick Aderly, head of in-store marketing and promotion at Sainsbury, admits: "There are times when the supermarket's shelf tickets do not tally with prices charged at the check- out." Electronic shelf-edge pricing is the ultimate thermostat on promotions, allowing supermarkets to turn offers on and off, up and down, electronically, with simultaneous changes across the point-of-sale program and the shelf edge, but the cost of installation means that this may be some way away. More likely are hand-held scanners which will roam the store with you, flashing promotional messages at you as you shop.

l The missed opportunity. Common sense tells you that everyone will pick up the free product when they are buying something on the promise of "buy one, get one free" - a "bog off" as the trade calls it. In fact, manufacturers such as Bird's Eye, which run "bog offs" on everyday grocery lines, know that between 5 and 20 per cent of shoppers will miss out on the free product, effectively paying twice what they should have for buying the single item. Like the National Lottery's unclaimed millions, every supermarket must have its stack of unclaimed freebies. It would be simple to rectify. "Buy one, get one free" offers could be banded together, or the supermarket point-of-sale terminals could be programmed to relay a message at the check-out that the customer is entitled to a free item, rather than the current system which comes into play to deduct the second item only when the customer takes it. I missed out on free hot cross buns, frozen vegetables and cheesecake, all on "buy one, get one free" promotion, because I did not see the signs or was not reading the promotional messages carefully enough. And don't expect staff at the check-out to tip you off. Even when I tried buying some of the most heavily promoted "three for two" offers, no one told me that when you buy two you can take another pack for free.

l In the dark. Supermarkets are selective about how they advertise deals and special prices around the store. Confectionery promotions, such as Tesco's current promotion on Lindt chocolate, which allows you to buy one and get another at half price, would seem highly relevant at the kiosk you typically find at the entrance to supermarkets. Here, purchases are very often confectionery. In fact, Tesco makes no mention of the promotion at its kiosks, although it displays Lindt here along with other confectionery. You need to be shopping in the meat department before you come across the promotional message. So the shopper who is already likely to buy confectionery buys unaware of his entitlement to another bar at half the price, while the promotion tempts those buying meat to add chocolate to their trolley. I was caught out with a soap powder promotion. Following the "buy one, get one half price" sign, I chose the powder next to the sign, checking the size of pack I needed to buy - 3kg - with the promotion message. In fact, the promotion was on another brand of powder, so I paid full price for my 6 kg of soap powder.

l The duds. 200 extra points on your loyalty card when you buy two packs of Typhoo 160 tea bags at pounds 2.99 per pack is a far speedier way to earn rebates than adding points at the usual rate of five for every pounds 5 spent. This offer featured in Sainsbury's Reward Card promotion last month but it appeared less attractive when I compared the price I paid for tea. Instead of pounds 5.98, I could have paid pounds 2.68 for two packs of Waitrose 160 tea bags. Yes, paying pounds 3.30 more for two packs of Typhoo gained an extra 200 points, or pounds 2 voucher, but as it was foil-wrapped, round tea bags with tea of specified origin that I wanted, Waitrose fitted the bill just as well as Typhoo.

This bunch of promotions added more than pounds 6 to my bill, against which I can set savings. I have just about managed to break even. My natural appetite for promotions is not quite as strong as it once was.