The "what on earth are tesco thinking" thread

[James H]

You're not being very consistent stu. Rather like how you try and belittle my education AND conciseness even though the way you've done it you utterly contradict yourself.

I haven't, but go ahead and do it yourself...

Haven't what?

Two brain cells to rub together, it would seem.

[rdobbie]

But the 'Value' range is the biggest scam of them all - the fine mince isn't quite as fine and the packing machines which seal the celophane top on don't inject as much oxygen in so the meat doesn't look as red. On the shelf the slightly coarser, darker 'value' mince might look a cheaper and inferior product, but it's technically exactly the same as the higher priced 'normal' range, which itself is barely any different to the even higher priced 'finest' range.

It's interesting to note that also that the cheaper ranges require more time, manpower and machinery to make than the expensive one does - and I can't see the slightly increased fat content making up for this.

These 'tiered' ranges (for fresh meat at least) are little more than a masterpiece of marketing where the cheaper products are specially processed to look inferior rather than actually being so.

And there's another aspect to the Tesco Value marketing which is far more sophisticated than people realise.

As soon as Value became well established and synonymous in peoples' minds with "the lowest possible price a product can be produced/sold for", they started to introduce Value variants of hundreds more products - many of them items you might have regarded as luxuries ten years ago and not within the original scope of a cheapo "basics" range.

But the clever bit is this: many of these "new generation" Value items aren't cheaper than Tesco Normal - they're more expensive! But this has been disguised through fiddling with the shapes and sizes of the packaging.

Take their All Butter Shortbread Fingers for example: you see a Tesco Normal on the shelf for 60p and a Tesco Value for 43p.*

At first glance both packs appear to be the same size. Safe in the knowledge that Value is always the best, er... value (hence the name), you chuck the Value variant in your trolley.

But hang on. The Value variant is 125g and the Normal variant is 250g. Gram for gram, that means Tesco Value is 43% more expensive than Tesco Normal.

By only altering one dimension on the pack (the depth) it really isn't obvious, daft as it sounds, that the Value variant is only half the weight.

True, the price/weight ratio is stated on the shelf (by law) but I bet 99% of people wouldn't read this because it wouldn't even cross their minds that the Value variant could be more expensive!

*Prices correct as of 25/09/08, as checked on Tesco.com.

[m-in-m]

But the clever bit is this: many of these "new generation" Value items aren't cheaper than Tesco Normal - they're more expensive! But this has been disguised through fiddling with the shapes and sizes of the packaging.
...
By only altering one dimension on the pack (the depth) it really isn't obvious, daft as it sounds, that the Value variant is only half the weight.

True, the price/weight ratio is stated on the shelf (by law) but I bet 99% of people wouldn't read this because it wouldn't even cross their minds that the Value variant could be more expensive!

I recall a similar thing with orange and apple juice, but at Sainsburys and the difference between their own label and their basics range. You really do have to check at times.

[Andrew Wood]

The way I see the new 'own brand' discounter labels in Tesco (a lot of which aren't 'made for Tesco' eg the soft drinks) is to position them as products for people that wouldn't be seen dead buying Value, but want to save pennies. Snob value, if you will.

However as already said, they aren't selling that well - yet - but there are more to launch next week across the store. Time will tell.

[lukey]

I tried one of their pizzas today. It was poor.

It's a lame attempt to subvert the Aldi approach and I doubt it'll stick for the basic lines it's trying to fill. For example, if I'm picking up a block of cheese to stick on toasties, I'm not looking for anything particularly exciting, but I'm very likely to default to Tesco's own-brand as a fairly safe quality/price trade-off. There's already a plethora of various brands that cover that value spectrum, and these 'discount brands' will just be another one to not factor into my decision making process. My Tesco is pushing these brands on the end caps and they're going largely untouched. Worryingly, the second I picked up that pizza someone behind me pressed a button on something that looked repurposed from reading gas meters, while glaring at the freshly-disturbed shelf.

[Pete]

is it still littering the bit in front of the cafe?

i went to sainsburys today. they're doing something similar, except the concept is "try sainsburys own brand, just as good but cheaper or your money back". Makes far more sense.

[lukey]

is it still littering the bit in front of the cafe?

i went to sainsburys today. they're doing something similar, except the concept is "try sainsburys own brand, just as good but cheaper or your money back". Makes far more sense.

I meant my Tesco as in *my* Tesco. The horrid Metro with no aisles. I'm yet to see Riverside's spectacular yellow and red budget cacophany. I look forward to that day.

[Pete]

I meant my Tesco as in *my* Tesco. The horrid Metro with no aisles. I'm yet to see Riverside's spectacular yellow and red budget cacophany. I look forward to that day.

*oh* well they do need room for their well used and well thought out tesco direct "branch of argos" thing they installed in there instead of say, one of the stores where there is actually any room for the thing.

that reminds me, mildly interesting tesco chip and pin pay at pump news, but do i dredge up the other tesco thread for that or put it in here?

[lukey]

I think the forum can withstand this devastating SPLINTERING of Tesco news. Don't know if this is the direction you're going in, but I don't approve of the inexplicable replacement of the Chip and PIN readers with the bottom-loading variety. Don't care for that one bit. Oh no.

[Pete]

No i was referring to the fact that they - in their wisdom -upgraded the petrol station at Lochee (the small store they plan to close within 5 months) to chip and pin, but the one at riverside was still completely out of action in terms of pay at pump last time I looked.

Mind this is the company who installed brand new tills in south road, and demolished the whole place 3 months later.

[cdd]

Take their All Butter Shortbread Fingers for example: you see a Tesco Normal on the shelf for 60p and a Tesco Value for 43p.*

At first glance both packs appear to be the same size. Safe in the knowledge that Value is always the best, er... value (hence the name), you chuck the Value variant in your trolley.

But hang on. The Value variant is 125g and the Normal variant is 250g. Gram for gram, that means Tesco Value is 43% more expensive than Tesco Normal.

I have two theories for this sort of thing at Tesco

1. is that they have an absolutely monolithic pricing structure where nobody knows what the other departments are doing leading to nonsense like this
2. is that they have an incredibly organised pricing structure and all this is intentional

The cynic in me points to (2).

I quite like how Tesco are completely unscrupulous, though. They are not above creating all new brands and hyping them up with lots of pretension to make you think they are high quality when in fact it's rebranded Tesco rubbish. Their most recent one is a brand of sandwich called "Fresh in the capital" which says it's made for tesco in very small print at the bottom. Mind you, one fake brand Cocopia chocolate is actaully rather nice. I like the large slabs of white chocolate. I feel bad about buying it on principle, mainly, though.

I think the "Pet food" principle applies with all products, namely the more brands you control the better. M&S control almost every brand in their store, including Cola: you won't find Coca Cola in an M&S.