Retailers frustrated by price-flashed packs
Print15 September 2010
The price isn’t right for a number of retailers who have expressed frustration at the increasing number of products in price-flashed packs arriving in their stores.
Independent shop owners have said such packs effectively remove their ability to set their own prices, because under consumer law, consumers are entitled to pay the lower price advertised.
Damien Callinan, who owns the Day Today in Craigcullen, Carlow, told ShelfLife believes the increasing prevalence of price-flashed packs will serve to reinforce customers’ perception that the multiples are cheaper.
“In my opinion, it’ll make the supermarkets look better because they will sell below the flashed price, but we can’t afford to do that, so it makes us look bad,” he said.
Callinan expressed concern over the impact price-flashed packs exert on margin. “It’s not worth our while to sell the products at the flashed price,” he added.
Another retailer who asked not to be named, noted that while margin was affected, the greatest inconvenience posed by these packs was that they often arrived in store “unannounced.”
“Dropping to a margin of 6-10% is not really practical for most retailers because you’re not making enough to cover it. However in the short term promotions would be worth it; our main gripe is that [price-flashed product] comes in apparently unplanned, unannounced, and unknown. And sometimes it has arrived on the shelf without us knowing.”
He added that brands frequently use the same barcode for the new price which creates confusion in-store. This creates “extra administration” but is also “embarrassing” when customers arrive at the till and store’s system has not been updated to reflect the new price.
“The products don’t have a different barcode, so already we’ve got the item at one price and another one comes in very quickly at the flashed price. There’s no advice, there’s no communication, and that’s the bit that catches us unawares,” he said.
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