When is a supermarket special really a special?

Forums › Off topic › When is a supermarket special really a special?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

1907 posts

Uber Geek

#1048689 20-May-2014 11:33

Every time I walk in to Countdown specifically, I see special stickers spammed everywhere. Almost everything is on special...It's insane!

mattwnz

20141 posts

Uber Geek

#1048691 20-May-2014 11:36

Some supermarkets have been on trouble before for the way they market. Of you have any concerns you should let the commerce commission know about it.

Sidestep

1013 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1048701 20-May-2014 11:41

Geektastic:
Fred99: That's typical - and they all do it.
A trickier trick that they do is with frozen chickens where they actually will have a worthwhile special with a big notice behind the freezer bin stating "Tegal No, 16 Chickens $7.99" . The freezer bin will have a mix of #16 and #14 chickens in it, and the #14 chooks will be about $13.99 each - that price will be displayed on a little tag. If you sit back and watch - many people don't look and bung the first chicken they pull out of the bin in their trolley. This should cause problems at the checkout - if people notice when they get scanned or check their bill. But no - as the type of person who check their receipt and keep an eye open as goods are being scanned, are also very careful about checking prices of things before they out them in the trolley.

Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

Genetic Improvements (breeding, not GM) and improved feeds means intensively farmed birds can be harvested at 5 weeks or less with a good weight/cost ratio.

If a greater weight/size is required they can be grown out longer – to greater weights, but there's a diminishing return unless people are willing to pay a premium.

So KiwiNZ's right. We're (customers) happy with that size/price.

Edit:spelling again

andrewNZ

2487 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1048713 20-May-2014 11:55

Geektastic: Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

There's nothing silly about the NZ sizing system, we're a metric country. A size 14 chicken should be about 1.4kg a size 22 should be around 2.2kg. Simple and sensible.

As for the size, I imagine it's dictated by demand.

The one thing I don't get is that there seems to be very limited demand for your whinging about NZ, yet the supply continues to flood the market... It must be poor marketing I suppose.

richrdh18

210 posts

Master Geek

#1048726 20-May-2014 12:16

Its only special when beer is under $20 a doz

nigelj

856 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1049851 20-May-2014 15:43

robjg63: A supermarket I used to go to often left the 'special' tags on the shelves after the special had finished.
I think it was just poor housekeeping rather than trying to deceive.

Most supermarkets are pretty good about this if you point it out to them in a "I think something is wrong with the labelling" kind of way. Happened round Xmas when they had specials on ham ending on odd dates and they forgot to take a couple of signs down and forgot to reprice a couple of legs so there were was a real mish-mash of different prices, butchery manager came out and after a couple of minutes worked out what happened and ended up saying "well, take as many or as few as you want at the sign price, nice spotting". Oddly that was Countdown Westgate, one in particularly not famed for it's CS or butchery....

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1049858 20-May-2014 16:03

ahmad:
Geektastic:
Fred99: That's typical - and they all do it.
A trickier trick that they do is with frozen chickens where they actually will have a worthwhile special with a big notice behind the freezer bin stating "Tegal No, 16 Chickens $7.99" . The freezer bin will have a mix of #16 and #14 chickens in it, and the #14 chooks will be about $13.99 each - that price will be displayed on a little tag. If you sit back and watch - many people don't look and bung the first chicken they pull out of the bin in their trolley. This should cause problems at the checkout - if people notice when they get scanned or check their bill. But no - as the type of person who check their receipt and keep an eye open as goods are being scanned, are also very careful about checking prices of things before they out them in the trolley.

Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

We don't use antibiotics in their rearing

That might seem to be the official policy, but it's far from the reality.
They do use zinc bacitracin in NZ, routinely, for pigs as well as chickens.
Here's the poultry industry statement - you need to read this twice - because it's so ambiguously worded, some people might think it's saying "no - we don't use this stuff".
Bottom line is of course they use it, it increases feed conversion ratios significantly, even if there's no outbreak of acute disease in the flock it's used as a "prophylactic". So when is prophylaxis "needed"? Well all of the time if you want to turn a profit.
Argument for it's use is that it's not an antibiotic commonly used in humans, and it stays in the gut of the animal.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

trig42

5809 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1049861 20-May-2014 16:06

andrewNZ:
Geektastic: Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

There's nothing silly about the NZ sizing system, we're a metric country. A size 14 chicken should be about 1.4kg a size 22 should be around 2.2kg. Simple and sensible.

As for the size, I imagine it's dictated by demand.

The one thing I don't get is that there seems to be very limited demand for your whinging about NZ, yet the supply continues to flood the market... It must be poor marketing I suppose.

Had to +1 this.

Geektastic. Why don't you just go back to the UK. It is SOOOOO much better there in every way. I don't think I have seen one post from you saying the way it is done/what is in NZ is good, so why the hell are you here. You make the stereotypical Whingeing Pom look quite the angel. Did your mother not tell you that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all?

trig42

5809 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1049867 20-May-2014 16:09

robjg63: A supermarket I used to go to often left the 'special' tags on the shelves after the special had finished.
I think it was just poor housekeeping rather than trying to deceive.

Of course you buy several things and dont look too hard at the time - but then looking at the receipt later you realise that you paid more than you thought for an item.

I now pay attention to the 'special' label - they usually have a finish date on them.

Also -I love it when you are looking at something like spray cleaner/liquid soap. They often have refills. Should be a little cheaper because it doesnt have the spray pump and you think you are doing the environment a favour. Look again. Seems quite often the refills actually cost more than the whole unit.

Most often, the refills are bigger than the original, so you do get better value. What is slightly annoying about that is, once you have filled your trigger bottle or whatever, you have leftover which either sits around going yucky/getting in the way or gets thrown out - clever packaging by these companies I think.

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1049870 20-May-2014 16:17

trig42: Did your mother not tell you that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all?

World wouldn't progress if this was always stuck to.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#1049883 20-May-2014 16:34

ahmad:
trig42: Did your mother not tell you that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all?

World wouldn't progress if this was always stuck to.

If that was the case, the the parameters used to measure "progress" should be shifted.
"Progress" is often just something in the eye's of the beholder, "you can't stop progress" a cynical slogan to say that building a Club Med on a beautiful beach is inevitable as it's "progress", when it's also probably a giant step backwards for mankind.
Manners are important.

ahmad

1937 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1049890 20-May-2014 16:42

Manner are important but nothing wrong with an opinion that things are done better in the UK. Tact may have helped his case but just how precious are we?

SepticSceptic

2186 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1049916 20-May-2014 17:12

Quite often I take a marker pen and write the special price on the item as I place it in the shopping trolley. One is usually too busy loading up the conveyer to keep a close eye on the items being scanned, and by the time one gets home and realises there's a couple of dollars out, is it really worth heading back to the supermarket to double check the pricing and mess around getting a refund for a dollar or two ?

I guess this is what the supermarkets are counting on, customers not bothering for a buck or two.

So the marked items are placed on the conveyer last, so I can review the price as it is being scanned.

Have picked up better discounts at Countdown, rather than Pak n Save, usually in the later hours of the evening for perishables, and sometimes have to hunt around at the bottom of the shelves for the better bargains, or at the back of the meat chiller to find the ones that customers overlook.

Geektastic

17942 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1049944 20-May-2014 17:37

KiwiNZ:
Geektastic:
Fred99: That's typical - and they all do it.
A trickier trick that they do is with frozen chickens where they actually will have a worthwhile special with a big notice behind the freezer bin stating "Tegal No, 16 Chickens $7.99" . The freezer bin will have a mix of #16 and #14 chickens in it, and the #14 chooks will be about $13.99 each - that price will be displayed on a little tag. If you sit back and watch - many people don't look and bung the first chicken they pull out of the bin in their trolley. This should cause problems at the checkout - if people notice when they get scanned or check their bill. But no - as the type of person who check their receipt and keep an eye open as goods are being scanned, are also very careful about checking prices of things before they out them in the trolley.

Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

The Chicken sizes easily feeds a family in NZ. But of course we never do it right here do we , only the UK does it right

Yes yes, flog that dead horse some more. I have never heard Kiwis in the UK compare things to NZ.....

The chickens here feed 2 people with maybe a but left over for a sandwich.

Our local butcher gets his from Tegel and won't bother with less than a size 22 (because, despite being a kiwi he agrees the usual ones are too small), whereas you hardly ever see that size in the supermarket.

Geektastic

17942 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1049949 20-May-2014 17:42

trig42:
andrewNZ:
Geektastic: Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

There's nothing silly about the NZ sizing system, we're a metric country. A size 14 chicken should be about 1.4kg a size 22 should be around 2.2kg. Simple and sensible.

As for the size, I imagine it's dictated by demand.

The one thing I don't get is that there seems to be very limited demand for your whinging about NZ, yet the supply continues to flood the market... It must be poor marketing I suppose.

Had to +1 this.

Geektastic. Why don't you just go back to the UK. It is SOOOOO much better there in every way. I don't think I have seen one post from you saying the way it is done/what is in NZ is good, so why the hell are you here. You make the stereotypical Whingeing Pom look quite the angel. Did your mother not tell you that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it at all?

To make things better for you guys of course. You won't progress unless you look outside...! ;-) You should listen to the Kiwis in the UK telling us how much better it is here before throwing stones. It's natural to compare things when you have two points of reference.

It's not really dictated by demand as much as supermarkets and Tegel deciding what works for them I suspect. Since they don't offer us a choice of sizes other than sometimes a very limited range they would't really know if we'd all buy size 22 instead of 12 etc would they?

1 | 2 | 3 | 4