Supermarkets make us pay more for less

We all have a soft spot for our supermarkets – it’s in our bellies.

We like our ‘superstores’ because of the convenience and variety of products they offer. Everything you could want, is there. But therein lays the problem. For supermarkets, competition just doesn’t exist anymore. They have wiped out nearly all of the competition. This gives them carte blanche to do what they want.

Lately, they have done some underhanded things which have caused us to wonder if we should start to look at them, like we do the greedy banks.

Food prices have been climbing steadily and sometimes they can be justified (globalization) but at the same time the value from many supermarkets has been shrinking.

Brand Manufacturers or Supermarkets

Who is to blame? Is it our favourite brand manufacturers or the supermarkets who make products which seem to get smaller, day by day?

As a child, it was very hard to distinguish between a tall full glass and a fat three quarter full one but as an adult, everyone can see through their packaging ‘optical illusions’.

The profits supermarkets make each year is huge. Paradoxically, this is at a time when most people are cutting back on food and consumables.

So how do they do it?
Sneaky pricing, clever purchasing, bulk buying and fierce marketing campaigns, are all part of the recipe for their success. But most of all, they depend on our loyalty, and reluctance to complain, even when we think we are getting a raw deal.

Supermarkets are all about choice. If your brand has been downsized, choose a brand which offers value for money and supermarkets will back it.

We love our supermarkets and the last thing we want is for them to be unprofitable or worse, lose their social conscience.