Saturday 28 February 2009

Tesco Value Range - Prices are Nuts

Tesco Value Roasted Salted Peanuts - back to 21p Feb 28 2009

Tesco Value Roasted Salted Peanuts - 37p as priced December 2008

Tesco Value Peanut Price Watch ...June 2008 - February 2009
20p, 21p (Up), 30p (Up), 32p (Up), 37p (Up), 35p (Down), 21p (Down)

Regular readers will remember that I emailed Tesco CEO Terry Leahy in December to ask why Tesco Value Roasted Salted Peanuts had jumped in price from 21p to 37p (Tesco Shelling Out More For Nuts)

Tesco replied blaming the rising cost of nuts (105%) and changes in currency exchange rates (40%).

Since December Sterling's value against most other currencies has continued to slide.

Today I was literally stunned to see that the price of Tesco Value Roasted Salted Peanuts has come crashing back to 21p. So much then, Tesco, for your previous 105% nut price rise and 40% currency crash explanation for the price almost doubling.

You might draw the conclusion that Tesco simply makes up the prices of its Value range based on what they think shoppers will pay, rather than what they cost to source.

You might draw that conclusion. I know I do.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well Tesco run a business. THey have products to sell and they have to price them. If they price them too high people will not buy them.

Prices can and do go up and down all the time. There is also fierce competition in the supermarkets as well. Its a no brainer really.

Jerry Foulkes said...

You're completely right, but I think you may miss my point. It's not the price, it's the principle I'm highlighting.

Tesco claim the honour 'Britain's Biggest Discounter'. They pretend to be on the side of the shopper.

So why write to the customer (me) and pretend a bunch of other reasons are at play (peanut price rises, currency fluctuations) when what you really mean is 'shop somewhere else if you don't like our prices, we're a business'?

Recently Tesco has pushed price rises too far, as they now realise. As a result Tesco is currently losing market share - which probably accounts for the latest reduction in prices.