Consumers baffled by supermarket bargains
As you walk away from the check-out with your two-for-one deals and cut price bargains, you may think you are taking home the cheapest trolley-load available.
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But according to a new study supermarket offers are not what they may seem. The survey, by Lightspeed Research, found that one in five customers asked to name the best value packs of potatoes, mushrooms, Easter eggs, coffee, milk and bacon struggled to find the cheapest deal.
The mixing of metric and imperial measurements was, it seems, to blame. Many of those surveyed were left baffled when asked to calculate the price per gram or kilo, and then compare the varying options.
In fact, 21 per cent chose the wrong option on mushrooms and coffee, 43 per cent failed to pick the cheapest milk and potatoes on offer and a whopping 66 per cent (two out of three) were unable to name the best bacon deal from four options.
Young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 were the most likely to be bamboozled, while the older generation, aged 55 to 64, had fewer problems.
In total one in 10 shoppers had resorted to taking a calculator to the supermarket.
Ralph Risk, marketing chief at Lightspeed Research, told the Daily Mail: "It seems people get very confused when metrics are mixed - from pints to packets, grams to kilos, jars to loose fruit and veg.
"Older consumers proved to be the most deal-savvy, with those aged 55 to 64 most able to identify the best deals from a series of real supermarket examples."
The astonishing array of offers available on our supermarket shelves has led many to assume bigger is cheaper. A massive 86 per cent of those polled said they automatically assume the larger pack will work out cheaper.
Not so, say Which? The consumer watchdog published a study in November which found that more than 600 items sold by the big name supermarkets were more expensive weight-for-weight, if bought in the larger sizes.
But our assumptions when it comes to bulk-buying and special offers is good news for Tesco and the like because our confusion means we're often missing out on the cheapest deal.
Are you left baffled by what are the best supermarket offers and have you resorted to taking a calculator to do the weekly shop? Let us know below...
