Hacker News Reader

I kind of consider supermarket practices a "stupidity tax", Ab Fab really has something to take responsibility for here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsohPbnp1b8

(Skip to 3.25 in the video for the classic quote).

Thannks for that big laugh, Patsy and Ed never fail to deliver.

> "Meal Deals" are a fantastic scam that charge you more for eating less. If you don't take the crisps or drink it doesn't "count" as the meal-deal, and the individual items cost more.

How is "If you add a third item the price sometimes goes down" a scam?

The real price is the "meal deal" price. The individual prices are scam prices which buyers will often pay if they aren't paying complete attention.

M&S run the real scam. They don't even do a meal deal. It just costs you £7.

I don't think that's quite true. If I just want a bottle of water I wouldn't buy a meal deal to get the real price. Some of the meal deal items are subsidised more than others, it's true, but that doesn't make it a scam. Paying £3.50 or whatever for quite a lot of stuff is pretty amazing.

You don't honestly think the supermarkets are letting you have it our of the goodness of their hearts do you? It's obvious what is going on:

* £3.50 is the price. That means they'll make a profit on that. It's a "low" price because it's garbage, tasteless, low-quality junk food,

* The supermarkets know which items are more likely to sell separately. Like your bottle of water example. So those items are individually priced higher while others that rarely sell separately (like sandwiches) will be individually priced low. Whatever it really is, the supermarket has all the data, they know how to win.

Similarly, it's like how people think shoplifters steal from the supermarket. The supermarket knows how much stuff gets stolen each year. They price accordingly. Shoplifters steal from you.

> * £3.50 is the price. That means they'll make a profit on that. It's a "low" price because it's garbage, tasteless, low-quality junk food,

This is wrong. They won't always make a profit. On some items they make a loss.

> * The supermarkets know which items are more likely to sell separately. Like your bottle of water example. So those items are individually priced higher while others that rarely sell separately (like sandwiches) will be individually priced low.

This is also wrong. These items a) have an actual unit price, which will differ depending on various factors, and b) compete with other vendors selling the same or similar, and c) need to be there or shoppers won't go the the shop in the first place.

There are many forces acting on these prices. Thinking profit is the only force is bound to be wrong.

Tesco posted a profit of about £1.5bn in 2022. Where exactly do you think this comes from?

I know about loss leaders, but I severely doubt meal deals are loss leaders considering they are placed at the front of the shop and customers often come in to buy them at lunch time. They are competing with the likes of Gregg's here.

It doesn't matter about the individual technicalities. What matters is the bottom line. You aren't beating Tesco.

> Tesco posted a profit of about £1.5bn in 2022. Where exactly do you think this comes from?

I think it comes from everything they sell. You're taking the business' overall performance and seemingly attributing it all to people not buying meal deals when they could.

> I know about loss leaders, but I severely doubt meal deals are loss leaders considering they are placed at the front of the shop and customers often come in to buy them at lunch time.

This is the definition of a loss leader. Bring people in to buy it, and they'll buy a few other things at the same time.

> What matters is the bottom line. You aren't beating Tesco.

These conversation-ending grand statements aren't relevant. I'm not trying to beat Tesco.

How is "if you try not to eat more than you need and create environmental and energy waste, we will punish you" not a scandal ?

> And don't get me started on automatic checkouts, which are basically "mugging robots" designed to rob humans.

How does that work? Are you saying they charge more for the same purchases?

They charge the same price for slower service.

Please place your item in the bagging area. Unrecognized item in the bagging area. Please scan items one at a time.

That’s a very specific thing for the UK.

I have not seen those annoying checkout scales anywhere else in Europe.

In Finland in some shops you can take a barcode reader and bag the things directly as you go. In the automated counter you just put in the scanner and pay.

There are no scales and nobody would notice if you just don't scan the item. In theory there are "random" checks. I've never seen one happen though. Not having a huge desperate underclass makes many things a lot smoother.

In the USA the implementation of self checkout varies wildly, and seems to be linked to the socioeconomic condition of the neighborhood.

Grocery shopping in rich neighborhood = scale has a large tolerance and will not stop you from continuing to scan if you place something unexpected on it. You can scan and bag in whatever order without the machine making any accusations.

In a poor neighborhood = you scan an item and put it on the scale, then put your bag from home on the scale to bag the first item. The scale is set to a strict tolerance and stops scanning items “UNEXPECTED ITEM IN BAGGING AREA” and you have to wait for an employee to unlock it.

As they say “there’s nothing more expensive than being poor”, and bad self-checkouts is just another factor in that.

That an implementation problem. In the Netherlands self checkouts are very quick and painless. There are no weird ceremonials or a bagging area or whatever.