Bargains in Waitrose

[88V8]

Misprint, shurely... no, they have deep-discounted packs of carrots, brussels, potatoes, parsnips... 30p.

And always something cheap on the fresh meat/fish in the afternoon, and in the frozen cabinet they have lamb hearts.

Even Heston stuff at a discount, and so it should be, some of it

V8

[6Tricia]

A bargain? Kg price at Lidl 19p!!

Tricia

[bungeejumper]

19p also at Tesco (for club card, which is free). Half a kilo of parsnips, ditto.

Our (smallish) local Waitrose doesn't have a fresh fish counter, which means it still has something to learn from Morrisons. But it's good to know that it has lambs' hearts in the freezer. Let's hope they haven't sold out of that nice chianti.

BJ

[bungeejumper]

Should have added, for the sake of fairness: Waitrose does indeed have some pretty good deals. Better still if I'm in store early to check out the discounted for quick sale cabinets. Their wood fired pizzas take a bit of beating, and when reduced to three quid they're especially fantastic. (Ideal for the freezer.) Their racks of fruit & veg are replenished/replaced more frequently than in some other stores I could name. Just be careful not to buy organic/Duchy of Cornwall stuff, personally blessed by the very hands of our own King Charles, unless you really mean to.

Wine and beer is pretty well represented at the less extravagant end of the scale, with regular price promotions, but again, you do have to be careful not to pick up a £25 bottle by mistake. Our own branch has hardly any low alcohol beers, which is probably more of a comment on the tastes of our town than on management policy. They do some pretty good tangy reduced fat cheeses. And their Cumberland sausages, at roughly the same price as Tesco, are a thousand times better.

BJ

[servodude]

A bargain? Kg price at Lidl 19p!!

Tricia

I don't think the Lidl ones come loaded with quite as much "smug" though

[CliffEdge]

How much difference does it really make whether you spend £2000 pa at Lidl or £4000 pa at Waitrose on food? For essentially the same items.

[scrumpyjack]

There were free carrots in Tesco today - a box marked Rudolf

[dealtn]

How much difference does it really make whether you spend £2000 pa at Lidl or £4000 pa at Waitrose on food? For essentially the same items.

About £2,000 I think.

However, spending £4,000 in Waitrose on better quality items than spending £2,000 on the commoditised bulk deals Lidl are accessing through their supply chain may represent a different proposition of comparison (though likely off topic for this particular board).

That's capitalism and choice for you.

[BullDog]

Could do worse than pick up a couple of bottles of Jansz sparkling wine reduced at the moment in Waitrose. A delicious champagne style Tasmanian sparkler and it even comes in a nice box for Christmas lunch. Couldn't resist collecting a few bottles myself yesterday.

[servodude]

Could do worse than pick up a couple of bottles of Jansz sparkling wine reduced at the moment in Waitrose. A delicious champagne style Tasmanian sparkler and it even comes in a nice box for Christmas lunch. Couldn't resist collecting a few bottles myself yesterday.

Shhhh! Don't tell them!
It really is a cracking drop (as is "42deg South" - Tasmania seems to do the sparkling thing really well)

[AF62]

Waitrose does indeed have some pretty good deals. Better still if I'm in store early to check out the discounted for quick sale cabinets.

I find the opposite with Waitrose and that their ‘reduced for quick sale’ are often very poor value because of their devious pricing practices.

A lot of their chilled items are buy one for £x and multiple for £y, for example one is £4.50 and three are £10.

Now nobody in their right mind buys the one for £4.50 rather than the notional £3.33, but when they come to mark down because it is that days sell by date, the £4.50 is the price they discount from - and often the discounted price is more than the notional multi-buy price!

[bungeejumper]

A lot of their chilled items are buy one for £x and multiple for £y, for example one is £4.50 and three are £10.

Now nobody in their right mind buys the one for £4.50 rather than the notional £3.33, but when they come to mark down because it is that days sell by date, the £4.50 is the price they discount from - and often the discounted price is more than the notional multi-buy price!

Let me get this straight. You expect them to give you an additional discount on top of another discount that would have applied if you'd bought three of something, but you didn't?

BJ

[swill453]

A lot of their chilled items are buy one for £x and multiple for £y, for example one is £4.50 and three are £10.

Now nobody in their right mind buys the one for £4.50 rather than the notional £3.33, but when they come to mark down because it is that days sell by date, the £4.50 is the price they discount from - and often the discounted price is more than the notional multi-buy price!

Let me get this straight. You expect them to give you an additional discount on top of another discount that would have applied if you'd bought three of something, but you didn't?

For something that's about to become unsaleable, yes.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

Let me get this straight. You expect them to give you an additional discount on top of another discount that would have applied if you'd bought three of something, but you didn't?

For something that's about to become unsaleable, yes.

In principle, you're right of course. A sandwich with 12 hours to go is worth about as much as an unsold airline seat on the runway. You have to try and sell it for whatever it will fetch, because after that it'll be worth nothing.

But we get into murky water if we try to attach that reality into vaguely morality-laden ideas of what deals a retailer "ought" to offer. The law of capitalism is that stuff is worth what the market will pay for it, and if the supplier mis-prices it, then he has no-one but himself to blame.

Everyone knows that Waitrose is more expensive than its rivals for most things, and that it can only be a nice surprise if we find the contrary happening from time to time. But then, my local computer store/jeweller/perfumier habitually charges 40% more than its rivals, and if that's because most of its customers have more money than sense, then that's not really a moral question, is it?

The logic applies in other fields as well. My local plumbers' merchant will charge me £280 for a pump that I can get for £125 on the web. It can do that because most of its customers are professional plumbers who can afford the higher prices, because they'll simply pass them on to their customers. (And more to the point, it's because they can walk out of the store with the goods today, while they need them.)

The bottom line is that the pump is probably worth £125, and everything above that is down to the convenience factor, and to the specific characteristics of the customer base. Which is where we came in? I don't think Adam Smith would have said that any of that was wrong.

BJ

[AF62]

A lot of their chilled items are buy one for £x and multiple for £y, for example one is £4.50 and three are £10.

Now nobody in their right mind buys the one for £4.50 rather than the notional £3.33, but when they come to mark down because it is that days sell by date, the £4.50 is the price they discount from - and often the discounted price is more than the notional multi-buy price!

Let me get this straight. You expect them to give you an additional discount on top of another discount that would have applied if you'd bought three of something, but you didn't?

BJ

Yes, because nobody buys the individual products so the individual prices are fake prices to make it look as if you are getting a discount when you are not.

The logic applies in other fields as well. My local plumbers' merchant will charge me £280 for a pump that I can get for £125 on the web. It can do that because most of its customers are professional plumbers who can afford the higher prices, because they'll simply pass them on to their customers. (And more to the point, it's because they can walk out of the store with the goods today, while they need them.)

No that isn’t why your local plumbers merchant charges £280 for a £125 pump.

The first reason is that they don’t want to deal with individuals who ask silly questions, so it is a ‘go away’ price, but if the individual is stupid enough to pay it…

The second, and more important reason is that the professional plumber can show Mrs Miggins their customer the invoice that the pump cost £280 and add their labour on top.

What the professional plumber doesn’t tell Mrs Miggins is that he will get a month end retro discount of £155 from the plumbers merchant on his settlement account.

[CliffEdge]

A lot of their chilled items are buy one for £x and multiple for £y, for example one is £4.50 and three are £10.

Now nobody in their right mind buys the one for £4.50 rather than the notional £3.33, but when they come to mark down because it is that days sell by date, the £4.50 is the price they discount from - and often the discounted price is more than the notional multi-buy price!

Let me get this straight. You expect them to give you an additional discount on top of another discount that would have applied if you'd bought three of something, but you didn't?

BJ

Yes, because nobody buys the individual products so the individual prices are fake prices to make it look as if you are getting a discount when you are not.

The logic applies in other fields as well. My local plumbers' merchant will charge me £280 for a pump that I can get for £125 on the web. It can do that because most of its customers are professional plumbers who can afford the higher prices, because they'll simply pass them on to their customers. (And more to the point, it's because they can walk out of the store with the goods today, while they need them.)

No that isn’t why your local plumbers merchant charges £280 for a £125 pump.

The first reason is that they don’t want to deal with individuals who ask silly questions, so it is a ‘go away’ price, but if the individual is stupid enough to pay it…

The second, and more important reason is that the professional plumber can show Mrs Miggins their customer the invoice that the pump cost £280 and add their labour on top.

What the professional plumber doesn’t tell Mrs Miggins is that he will get a month end retro discount of £155 from the plumbers merchant on his settlement account.

You never see a plumber on a bike.

[swill453]

No that isn’t why your local plumbers merchant charges £280 for a £125 pump.

The first reason is that they don’t want to deal with individuals who ask silly questions, so it is a ‘go away’ price, but if the individual is stupid enough to pay it…

The second, and more important reason is that the professional plumber can show Mrs Miggins their customer the invoice that the pump cost £280 and add their labour on top.

What the professional plumber doesn’t tell Mrs Miggins is that he will get a month end retro discount of £155 from the plumbers merchant on his settlement account.

You never see a plumber on a bike.

Ha, too easy! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-58929721

Scott.

[dealtn]

A lot of their chilled items are buy one for £x and multiple for £y, for example one is £4.50 and three are £10.

Now nobody in their right mind buys the one for £4.50 rather than the notional £3.33, but when they come to mark down because it is that days sell by date, the £4.50 is the price they discount from - and often the discounted price is more than the notional multi-buy price!

Let me get this straight. You expect them to give you an additional discount on top of another discount that would have applied if you'd bought three of something, but you didn't?

BJ

Yes, because nobody buys the individual products so the individual prices are fake prices to make it look as if you are getting a discount when you are not.

Simply not true. Many people buy single items available on multi-offers. Even in Waitrose.

[WrenChasen]

Could do worse than pick up a couple of bottles of Jansz sparkling wine reduced at the moment in Waitrose. A delicious champagne style Tasmanian sparkler and it even comes in a nice box for Christmas lunch. Couldn't resist collecting a few bottles myself yesterday.

I happened to be in Waitrose not long after reading your comment and decided to give the Jansz a go (it helped that it was on offer) and in a taste test with friends on Christmas Day it absolutely knocked the socks off the Piper-Heidseick NV Brut I'd already bought.

Thanks for that.

[BullDog]

Could do worse than pick up a couple of bottles of Jansz sparkling wine reduced at the moment in Waitrose. A delicious champagne style Tasmanian sparkler and it even comes in a nice box for Christmas lunch. Couldn't resist collecting a few bottles myself yesterday.

I happened to be in Waitrose not long after reading your comment and decided to give the Jansz a go (it helped that it was on offer) and in a taste test with friends on Christmas Day it absolutely knocked the socks off the Piper-Heidseick NV Brut I'd already bought.

Thanks for that.

Happy to have helped! For the money it's a steal and a great choice of Christmas Day bubbles. A realistic high quality alternative to Champagne. I have some earmarked for New Year.