BOGOF! Are you getting a good deal?
Supermarkets are full of these amazing-sounding 'buy one get one free' offers. But are they really the bargains they seem to be?
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When doing my shopping, I often take a list to make sure I don't buy things I don't need and create waste, and to try to stop myself buying things I probably shouldn't be eating. But once the supermarket doors have slammed shut behind me and I'm bombarded with BOGOFs and tempted with two-for-ones, all sense goes out the window and I find my trolley filling with all sorts of things I didn't plan to buy.
But I try to reason with myself that I'm getting a bargain. "Of course I'll use 2kg of potatoes before they go bad - although my flatmate and I will be eating potato soup every day for the next couple of weeks. And 2 multipacks of crisps is better than one. Same goes for the 2 packets of biscuits... I wonder why I'm getting fat?" (Because, as I'm sure you'll have noticed, BOGOFs seem to often be for junk foods.)
I'm not the only one who has been seduced by BOGOFs, only to find themselves casting out the rotting remains of unused fresh produce later: it has been estimated that 4.1m tonnes of food is thrown away each year, at an average cost of £420 per household. If we bought less BOGOFs maybe that amount would decline. In fact, the BOGOF has been considered such a huge cause of waste that a ban was encouraged last year, although it was not made legal.
In response to the wastage created by BOGOFs, Tesco introduced the BOGOF Later deal, where you are issued a ticket for perishable goods that allows you to collect your free item at a later date. But since vouchers will probably get lost or forgotten and stocks may not last, surely the best option is simply to make goods half price? Some supermarkets are phasing out BOGOFs to replace them with half price deals, but it seems as though crisps, biscuits and other unhealthy foods make up the bulk of the offers. So the effects may be reduced on waste but perhaps not on our waists.
Do you think that supermarket two-for-one deals are worthwhile or do you think we are still be conned and forced to create waste and eat unhealthily? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
