Some of Morrisons deals leave shoppers worse off

Morrisons has upped the ante in its bid to compete with the discounters on price - and announced it will be cutting the price of 200 items.

So it's particularly embarrassing that at the same time, an online glitch meant it was running multi-buy discounts that left shoppers worse off.

Morrisons has cut the price of essentials like bread, butter and milk by up to a third. It's the first wave of discounts under the brand's new Chief Executive David Potts - who hopes that a policy of lower prices will rescue Morrisons from its current woes.
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Glitch

However, he won't be particularly delighted that his first announcement has been marred by poor execution. The glitch was spotted by researchers at The Mirror. They identified, for example, an offer on 1kg bags of Silver Spoon sugar. Morrisons was offering one bag for 52p, or two for £1.20 - that's a 16p price hike for buying two. Researchers also tracked down a multi-buy for Bucks Fizz, at £2.49 each or £5 for two. And there was a Heinz baby food offer for 55p each or 10 for £6.

Morrisons explained that the problem was due to the fact that the prices had been cut, but there had been a delay in the cuts being reflected in the multi-buy offers. However, the irony won't be lost on Potts, who had announced that as part of his price cuts, he also planned to make multi-buys more straightforward.

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Multi-buy madness

He can take a little comfort from the fact that multi-buy mistakes are nothing new to eagle-eyed shoppers. Twitter is awash with photographs of price stickers offering discounts across all the supermarkets - where a multi-buy offers no discount at all - or is more expensive; where the new price is exactly the same as the old one; and where the new price - marked as 'half price' is anything but (and in many cases is actually higher than the original).

Sometimes, these mistakes work in the customer's favour. There have been particularly rewarding mistakes in the past, such as when Tesco charged 1p for mints that were meant to cost £1.25, and £1.50 for a bottle of wine usually retailing at £9.99.

However, the fact that so many mistakes occur means we cannot rely on bright signs and multi-buys to alert us to deals when we are shopping. In an ideal world it's a good idea to take an old receipt with you to check the new price is actually better than the usual one, and a calculator to help you do the maths on more complex deals. At the very least it pays to check each deal properly before loading up the trolley.
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