I've always felt that Aldi's shelf pricing rather confusing. All other supermarkets to me are pretty straight forward, but with Aldi, you're always wondering if you're looking at the right price. When I mention this to others they also say they get confused. Is the pricing above the product or below the product. Sometimes I actually think this is a strategy to get us to buy the more expensive product by mistake. Yes, call me a cynic.
However the other day my wife asked me to pick up the bigger garlic bread from Aldi as I'd previously said it was much cheaper than Coles. Turns I was completely wrong. OK, cheaper by one cent accordingly the latest catalogue.
But here's went things went astray. I was expecting to pick up the garlic bread for around $1.70 so as you can see in the picture at $1.69, I thought I was buying exactly what I wanted.
Picked up the bread and proceeded to the checkout at which time the lady rang up the price $2.79. I asked the checkout lady if that was right. The price I said was a $1.69. She asked if I read the price below or above the item. I said below. She said that's where I'd made my error as you have to check the price above. OK. I accepted I'd made an error.
Then I started thinking as I left the shop. Wait a second. That garlic loaf was on the bottom shelf at the right next to the wall. There's no other product that could possibly be below the item. So I returned. To the left were three boxes of twin garlic bread with the price in front of the middle box. There was only one row of garlic bread loaf with the price as you can see directly in front. The packing staff had placed the items and the tags in the reverse of what they should have been. It was so well done it was hard to spot there was an error since everything lined up with prices in the middle, but totally wrong.
Now that also meant the checkout lady had no clue as to how the prices are labelled on the shelves at Aldi. I decided to investigate the pattern. On the fridges where you find the cooler items, the labelling is in front and below the item. On the shelves where you find items that don't need to be refrigerated, the prices above and behind. Who does that? Who in their right mind designs a pricing system where you have prices labelled in two different ways so that even staff don't know what they're doing.
Call me a cynic, but retailers know exactly what they're doing when it comes to placement of product and pricing. But in this case an error was made, but to compound that a second staff member incorrectly advised me when I challenged the incorrect price.
I must admit I was quite surprised to see there was only a cent difference in the price. Aldi has a reputation for low prices. However on a previous price test where I compared Coles, Aldi, and a green grocer for fruit, Aldi only had around a third of the prices cheaper and were more expensive than Coles and the green grocer for the other two thirds. So do shop around and check your prices. Don't get tricked with the marketing and advertising. Do your own research.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
However the other day my wife asked me to pick up the bigger garlic bread from Aldi as I'd previously said it was much cheaper than Coles. Turns I was completely wrong. OK, cheaper by one cent accordingly the latest catalogue.
But here's went things went astray. I was expecting to pick up the garlic bread for around $1.70 so as you can see in the picture at $1.69, I thought I was buying exactly what I wanted.
Picked up the bread and proceeded to the checkout at which time the lady rang up the price $2.79. I asked the checkout lady if that was right. The price I said was a $1.69. She asked if I read the price below or above the item. I said below. She said that's where I'd made my error as you have to check the price above. OK. I accepted I'd made an error.
Then I started thinking as I left the shop. Wait a second. That garlic loaf was on the bottom shelf at the right next to the wall. There's no other product that could possibly be below the item. So I returned. To the left were three boxes of twin garlic bread with the price in front of the middle box. There was only one row of garlic bread loaf with the price as you can see directly in front. The packing staff had placed the items and the tags in the reverse of what they should have been. It was so well done it was hard to spot there was an error since everything lined up with prices in the middle, but totally wrong.
Now that also meant the checkout lady had no clue as to how the prices are labelled on the shelves at Aldi. I decided to investigate the pattern. On the fridges where you find the cooler items, the labelling is in front and below the item. On the shelves where you find items that don't need to be refrigerated, the prices above and behind. Who does that? Who in their right mind designs a pricing system where you have prices labelled in two different ways so that even staff don't know what they're doing.
Call me a cynic, but retailers know exactly what they're doing when it comes to placement of product and pricing. But in this case an error was made, but to compound that a second staff member incorrectly advised me when I challenged the incorrect price.
I must admit I was quite surprised to see there was only a cent difference in the price. Aldi has a reputation for low prices. However on a previous price test where I compared Coles, Aldi, and a green grocer for fruit, Aldi only had around a third of the prices cheaper and were more expensive than Coles and the green grocer for the other two thirds. So do shop around and check your prices. Don't get tricked with the marketing and advertising. Do your own research.
Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
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