Supermarket Challenges

Sorry @a1ex2001, its just an idiot tax. There are too many idiots out there who are more than willing to fritter away their money and businesses know this and act accordingly.

People are 'shocked' at how little we spend on food and I just don't get why. All we do is write a shopping list and only buy what is on the list, it means you a) only buy what you actually need and b) use everything you buy so you don't throw anything away. It is really not a difficult concept to execute.
 
Sorry @a1ex2001, its just an idiot tax. There are too many idiots out there who are more than willing to fritter away their money and businesses know this and act accordingly.

People are 'shocked' at how little we spend on food and I just don't get why. All we do is write a shopping list and only buy what is on the list, it means you a) only buy what you actually need and b) use everything you buy so you don't throw anything away. It is really not a difficult concept to execute.
But many people clearly struggle to ‘execute this concept’ and you are saying it is ok for businesses to exploit this for profit, it’s bizarre that you would see people punished for weakness to make rich people richer all the while creating excess waste as things are bought and not needed.

I do the whole shopping list thing and I don’t feel so smug and superior that I look down on those who struggle!
 
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How is spending 10-15 mins thinking about what you want to buy and writing it down and then only buying those things is something that 'many' people generally struggle with?

We are not talking about issues with the fringes of society here, these 'offers' are taken up by the mass market. They need the mass market to take up these offers otherwise the manufacturers wouldn't support them. Its a lazy/idiot/don't care tax, if you fall into that category, more fool you.

It's a business, their role is to make money. They are not your friend or there to minimise how much you spend. Their objective is to literally increase the average basket spend taking place in store. Every single supermarket plays this game, the middle isle of Aldi is literally full of high profit things you don't need, didn't intend to buy but end up in peoples baskets anyway.

If you don't like it, buy shares in Tesco.... oh wait, the shareholders of Tesco are not 'getting rich' off the back of customers poor purchasing decisions. Their share price hasn't moved in 5 years. It was just below £300 in 2019, its now just over £300.
 
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I shop at Asda (online) and Aldi (offline) and never heard of supermarket challenges until this thread.

Does Supermarket Sweep count as a supermarket challenge? :-)

I despise the dual-pricing of items though with Clubcard and Nectar prices vs non-loyalty prices.
 
How is spending 10-15 mins thinking about what you want to buy and writing it down and then only buying those things is something that 'many' people generally struggle with?

Apart from our usual items, we both make our meals up for the week by what we see and fancy when visiting the supermarket or farm shop, not a struggle, unless I always buy the same **** week in week out ;)
 
Sainsbury have done one via Nectar where you get extra points for completing 5 shops by a certain deadline. I get it, trying to convert occasional shoppers into regular ones. But I don't like the idea of them encouraging people to buy more food than they need.
 
Morrisons do crappy ones used to be about 40 quid for 4 out of 6 weeks, then they changed it to something like 60 quid...

probably go up again soon to 80

I think the reward points were about a tenner in vouchers, almost impossible to get the reward points any other way so probably the worst loyalty card going, I barely ever check the app anymore, the only discounts it gives me are crap.

Most offers instore buy 2 four whatever price I avoid like the plague as well.

What happened to straight forward BOGOF?
 
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Sainsbury have done one via Nectar where you get extra points for completing 5 shops by a certain deadline. I get it, trying to convert occasional shoppers into regular ones. But I don't like the idea of them encouraging people to buy more food than they need.


We're doing this at the moment. I mean, not because of their offer, but because we shop at Sainsbury's anyway. So joke's on them hahaha.
 
Lidl in Sweden do stupid **** like this.
The app has scratch cards, entry into raffles, "free" products when you spend over certain amounts.

It's all a bit stupid if you are susceptable to junk like this.
They do it here too, I just signed up for Lidl plus, and whilst you do get discounts on a few things just because, the main "points" thing is that when you hit spending limits you then get vouchers for money off a thing, which is probably stuff you wouldn't normally buy anyway, and then 10% off if you hit £250 spend in a month.

The Sainsbury's one is points for every £1 you spend which you can then use as a discount on anything you buy as well as specific savings on certain items, and then vouchers for extra points on stuff that you routinely buy.

I cant see me getting much use out of the Lidl one as it just seems to be there to get you to spend more with very little benefit, where as the Sainsbury's one encourages me to shop with them without trying to force me to over shop in order to get anything at all.
 
Most of the categories I selected are things that are non-perishable, such as cat food etc so no biggie if I have to buy an extra pack or so since I would have been buying anyway.

If that's the case then the people commenting that it's a tax on stupidity or idiot tax etc.. have it backwards.

Paying full price for non-perishables as part of some "weekly shop" out of habit because that's what you're accustomed to is the "idiot tax" here vs planning it better and taking advantage of discounts/bulk buying when available.
 
I read this the other day but have yet to actually find one of these 'challenges' to see what they're actually proposing people do. Can someone post a link to one of the promotions?

I do maybe have a Tesco clubcard account but no idea where my clubcard is. I have a nectar card somewhere too but I've never used any of the points even though it's linked to Ebay so builds up some points. Do Asda have a card?
 
If that's the case then the people commenting that it's a tax on stupidity or idiot tax etc.. have it backwards.

Paying full price for non-perishables as part of some "weekly shop" out of habit because that's what you're accustomed to is the "idiot tax" here vs planning it better and taking advantage of discounts/bulk buying when available.

Naturally and most people will take advantage of that.....unless you're poor. Then you don't have the space to store it. Or that multipack promo of the washing powder is 50 CHF when you buy a couple packets.....except you don't have 50 chf to spend just 30 CHF.

Poverty does not always allow optimal decision making.

(But agreed most people are just stupid). I buy nice coffee beans for my machine. It's usually around 20 CHF a packet which most people just buy when they need it. But they repeat the same promo a few times a year where it makes the beans around 12 CHF. I don't need the money but why am I going to throw away money for the sake of buying a fair bit of it and having it in a cupboard next to the machine and never run out).
 
Picked up some bits at Tesco a couple of days ago. £30+ on the scanner, zap the loyalty card (not mine but it's on my phone) and suddenly it's £20 for the lot. Feels like a con.
 
Naturally and most people will take advantage of that.....unless you're poor. Then you don't have the space to store it. Or that multipack promo of the washing powder is 50 CHF when you buy a couple packets.....except you don't have 50 chf to spend just 30 CHF.

Poverty does not always allow optimal decision making.

Nah, they're typically just disorganised/dysfunctional types making bad decisions (which is why they're poor in the first place) - it's not like the typical Tesco offer requires you to take delivery of some huge pallet of goods. And when people otherwise opt to buy fags, beer, Sky TV etc.. they could afford to buy basic non-consumables in bulk.
 
So for example my 10 categories I selected,
Fire pit (which is tesco own brand BBQ stuff) Need to spend £47 to get 1180 points which is £11.80 (or double if you use for airport carparking etc), this is fresh and frozen so just buy frozen if your like us and have impromptu BBQs
Felix, cat food
Sheba, as above (we use both)
Tesco Pet, so their food and treats etc, likely to be only partly used. rewards are at £8, £12 and £18 spend
Growers harvest, tesco own brand tinned foods etc, used a bit, may or may not get rewards, but includes stuff like tinned tomatoes I use in cooking
Creamfields, tesco budget range of milks, creams etc, we do use some for the ice cream maker, spends are low, £3 £5 and £8 targets for max reward of £2 (25% in effect), not sure on this one
Pot noodle, as I said above I buy them when on offer, only need to spend £8 so I would easily buy that if they went onto offer
Cupboard fillers, this is stuff like curry sauces, fajita kits, pasta sauces etc (but the named brands), again we do use these at times. Again quite low spend max is £9 so again will be looking for offers on stuff we buy
Sharing food, lots of stuff, from deli food to sharing crisps, savory biscuits etc, again low spend only £8 for £2 in clubcard points
Radox, we use the shower gels and its £6 for £1.5 in points (most are 25% if not all, haven't checked)

Rest are (tailored to us) Whiskas (cat), Cravendale, Tonights dinner (stuff like schwartz mixes, tesco taste shack etc), Onken, Stockwell (tesco own brand flour etc), Arla (yougurt etc), Loreal (all their stuff), Schwartz (spices etc), and Yo! (all their stuff)

The rewards and spends vary a lot, by far the largest for us was Firepit, Felix and Sheba. Will almost certainly hit the max on Firepit, not sure on sheba and felix but will certainly make sure I at least hit the middle one.
Runs until June 30th.

As we use the tesco points for airport parking, airport hotels etc then we genuinely do get doubel benefit from tesco points. So for example buying 6 radox shower gel we would use anyway, getting £1.50 in clubcard points and turning that into £3 seems pretty much a no brainer.
 
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