BØ I MIDT-TELEMARK MUNICIPALITY (Nettavisen): Prices in grocery stores have been adjusted at a great pace recently. The price war on Easter-related goods is extra aggressive this year.
As Nettavisen has mentioned, the price of many Easter goods is 50 per cent lower this year than last year.
But it is also possible to make very bad purchases.
Bad sausage deal
Kiwi sells wooden packs of Gilde barbecue sausages and advertises with “Cheap” and that “Kiwi pushes the prices”.
The three-pack of grilled sausages costs 99.00. But in the counter nearby are the same grilled sausages from Gilde in individual packages for 27.90. This means that it is cheaper to choose three individual packages than the three-pack variant.
Feel free to advise Nettavisen’s journalist about matters!
- A three pack costs 99.00
- Three individual packages will be 83.70
This results in a clearly higher price per kilo for the economy package with wood:
- Wooden packaging: 55.00 per kilo
- Single package: 46.50 per kilo
– You are being deceived
– You’re being tricked then, says Kiwi customer Tom Robert Lunde (62), whom Nettavisen meets at Kiwi on Bø in Midt-Telemark municipality.
– The wife put such a wooden package in the shopping cart, but then I studied the price more closely. And then I discovered that it is clearly cheaper to buy three single packs than a three pack, he says.
He doesn’t think anything of “illogical” prices at the store.
– It is confusing and it is very easy to make a mistake, says Lunde.
More Solo blunders
Vilde Lia Kleiv (25) is also on a shopping trip at Bø. She has just taken a four-pack of Solo in the pram, but is shocked when she hears that it is cheaper to buy four individual bottles of Solo instead of a four-pack.
– I understand that the store will sell. They are smart, and we go straight on, she says.
A bottle costs only 7.10. If you choose four individual bottles instead of a four-pack, you actually save 1.50.
- 4 X 1,5 liter Solo: 29,90
- 4 single bottles with 1.5 liters Solo: 28.40
– I took the four-pack because there was a big poster saying it was on offer. You have to follow along incredibly well. It’s tiring and you’d rather not spend too much time in the shop, says Vilde Lia Kleiv.
At Kiwi på Bø, the result of a slightly strange pricing of Solo and Solo Super without added sugar is also noticeable. No wonder that many choose Solo with sugar at 7.10 instead of Solo Super at 21.50. Naturally enough, the sugar soda is torn away first.
When Nettavisen confronted Kiwi with this earlier Friday morning, communications manager Kristine Arvin responded as follows:
– The main rule with us is that sugar-free should always be the cheapest, and normally Solo Super is the cheapest.
Quick lunch and Synnøve confusion
Synnøve Finden’s brown cheese is another example of pricing that is not easy to be wise about. It is cheaper to buy two small packages than one big one. And that even if two small packages provide more cheese than one large one.
- Large: 60.10 (kg price 77.05)
- Small: 27.70 (kg price 51.71)
Sweets are perhaps the category where there have been the most price changes recently. When Nettavisen visited Kiwi in Torggata in Oslo on Thursday, you could buy both a three-pack and a six-pack of Kvikklunj. And the price difference was only 20 øre.
- Three-pack with Kvikkunsj: 20.00
- Six-pack with Quick Lunch: 20.20
On Friday, the prices were adjusted so that the three-pack costs 14.80, and the six-pack 20.00.
– Check the note
Rune Kaino Nikolaisen runs the website Gjerrigknark.com. He knows very well that you have to take extra care, but not everyone does.
– Especially when there is a price war, as now, you have to be extra careful. The pricing can be very confusing, he says.
He highlights the super offer on Waffle mix from Toro.
– It is easy to take the family pack of Toro Vaffelmix, but it is the small pack that is the cheapest, he says.
The small package costs only 4.80, while the large one costs 17.10.
– Remember that posters in the shop do not count towards the checkout, it is the price tag on the shelf and your checkout tag that apply. That’s why you have to check more carefully than usual before you grab the right products – and of course afterwards when you’ve paid, says Nikolaisen.
– God service
Although there may be prices that confuse and make us pick the wrong ones, there are many good buys and dos too.
– Price wars on Easter goods are fantastic for consumers, says Nikolaisen.
He has also experienced that the staff have uninvitedly helped him to make better choices in the store.
– The other day I was made aware by an employee in my local Kiwi shop that it was worth buying individual bottles of Solo rather than the four-pack. It’s good service, I think, says Nikolaisen.
Kiwi: – Artificial price
Nettavisen has sport Kiwi about why there are “illogical” prices in the store, and whether there are extra many such prices now during the Easter price war.
We also asked Kiwi the following:
- Do you understand that customers find it difficult to keep up?
- Will this get better over time or do we just have to accept that the prices are a bit weird now and then?
In an email, Kiwi’s communications manager Kristine Arvin writes this:
«The main rule is that larger packages must have a lower price per kilo or liter than smaller ones. But there is fierce competition and, in connection with the festive season, certain goods can be pushed extra far down in price and get what we call an artificial price.»
