Are there rules on products size variations?

Posted by QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 17 comments

So recently at the co-op there was an offer on a pack of Blissfuls. Knowing those and the price of them I thought that was a good deal. The pack felt different but I naively thought nothing of it. Then got home and realised that the pack was much smaller than the other ones I had been buying from another shop (Asda). For the same "on offer" price. The other day I picked up some galaxy Minstrels to satisfy my chocolate addiction. Usual price in Tesco, £2.50 for the sharing pack. Again, pack feels different than the last very recent day I bought those. Tesco was out of stock for that sharing size pack for ages. Then it came back. Smaller. From 240g to 217g. Same price. How do shops and manufacturers get away with manipulating prices and product weight like that? I'm always looking at price per kg to compare prices but you can't do that when there's no two products to compare, unless you take your handmade chart with current prices. And if manufacturers even have different sizes of products that they sell to different shops with artificially inflated prices, I mean it's an absolute nightmare figuring out best places for best prices.

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17 Comments

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AcceptableRecord8@reddit

That's what the unit price indication is for

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

Do you mean the price per weight? Like I mentioned in my post?

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tmstms@reddit

Yes. What one needs to do is carry around a mental figure of how much per kilo one wants to pay for, for any given product.

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AcceptableRecord8@reddit

yep - for regular buys yes

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

To make things trickier, for the few who actually look at the price per kilo, sometimes for a random reason, one product is priced per kilo and the same in different packaging prices per gram. Which is of course very very easy to calculate, but probably not for everyone, especially those not used to the metric system. And the issue is obviously is that now, not only would you need to carry around your list prices for kilo, or price per unit, but also have that list from 6 months ago, plus from 2 months ago and last week's, to be able to make the wisest choices in terms of best price.

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McCretin@reddit

Welcome to the wonderful world of shrinkflation.

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

An alternate universe would be nice right about now.

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herefortheriding@reddit

If you want pence per kg, type in number of pence, and then divide it by number of kg. If you want per gram divide by number of grams. It’s the only way to get a comparison!

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Chilton_Squid@reddit

Because they know nobody checks. No there's no law dictating the size of a packet of Minstrels.

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

Ugh, and here I was, about to call the Minstrels police team to report a crime /s

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Shitelark@reddit

I always look at the price per 100g.

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

So do I. And even then, shops don't make it easy to compare with other products or other sizes. But my point was the price/whatever weight now compared to 2 weeks ago. My point was the sneaky price increases that you notice if you are observant.

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annedroiid@reddit

> How do shops and manufactures get away with manipulating prices and product weight like that What do you think would actually stop them doing this? They can size and sell their products however they like. There’s no rules about package sizing.

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

I'm not claiming to have an answer to that question. And I'm fully aware that there are no rules about package sizing. The sneaky size/prices changes are bullshit though. And the way they're barely noticeable unless you're scrutinising every single item and compare to the week before.

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YchYFi@reddit

Each supermarket gets their own promotional size for a product.

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QuirkyFrenchLassie@reddit (OP)

Sneaky. Just realised that is a thing. Been living here for years and really assumed the sizes were the same.

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tmstms@reddit

*I mean it's an absolute nightmare figuring out best places for best prices.* Yes! They know what they are doing! This is exactly how they protect their profits.