Pricewatch: A reader in Kilkenny has had a number of bad shopping experiences recently, particularly when it comes to special offers, and he says they have left him wondering if the trust between retailers and shoppers in Ireland is becoming a thing of the past, writes Conor Pope.
Robbie Heffernan admits that he is not the principal shopper in his house but, in need of a toothbrush recently, he went into a Waterford pharmacy. By happy coincidence, the chemist in question was running a special, offering any three dental products for the price of two, with the cheapest being free.
"So I bought three toothbrushes only to be charged for three." He pointed this out to the shop assistant, who explained that she was a locum and credited him the cost of the third toothbrush. "I only purchased three toothbrushes to avail of the offer," he says.
Some days later Heffernan went into his local supermarket in Kilkenny where as part of a special offer, Ben & Jerry's ice-cream was reduced from €5.99 to €2.99. He made some other purchases in addition to his Ben & Jerry's, but when he checked the receipt he noticed he had been charged full whack for the ice-cream. "The assistant advised that 'some of the bar codes hadn't been registered for the special offer' and credited me the €3 difference. Again I only purchased the ice cream because of the special offer."
He wonders whether other consumers are routinely suffering the same fate and not noticing, and asks if there is any sanction or penalty to ensure that retailers don't get away with what he says is, in effect, overcharging the consumer. "I don't shop much but the trust relationship with some retailers is becoming tenuous."
Another PriceWatch reader, Aoife Carr, has had similar problems. In a Dublin pharmacy recently she saw that a face cream from Vichy was on special offer, which promised a €2 discount, so she picked up a bottle and headed to the till. She was charged the full price and mentioned the oversight to the assistant who argued the toss with her before eventually conceding that the discount did apply to the product in question.
Another reader, while shopping in a Wicklow supermarket, saw an offer involving a brand of biscuit on a three-for-the-price-of-two deal. She put three packets in her basket, only to be told at the till that the offer only applied if three identical varieties of the brand in question were bought - something which wasn't made clear in the aisles. She complained and was eventually given the third packet free.
We contacted the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs who said that they do get complaints about retailers failing to deliver on promised special offers. "We get the occasional complaint and when that happens, because it is a potential misleading price and something we take a sufficiently serious view of, we send out an inspector." The spokesman said the onus was on the retailers to ensure the prices at the tills matched the special offers in the aisles and if they failed to do that and were caught by ODCA inspectors, they could face prosecution.
Müller Vitality
€2.49 for six 100-gram bottles €4.15 per kg
Highs: This has a pleasant vanilla flavour which is reminiscent of a melted ice-cream cone. It is good value and has a nice texture. It is not excessively sweet and you can also drink as many of them as take your fancy without worrying about overdosing on the goodness.
Lows: And there's a lot of it about. In fact, all the wholesomeness promised can get a bit irksome after a while. Is "feel-good bacteria" a medical term? You have to ask, as Müller has seen fit to emblazon this legend in a large (ish) font on the front of the bottle, although to be fair all the brands are guilty to some extent of selling their product's feel-good properties.
Verdict: Good value and tasting.
Star rating: ***
Flora Pro-Activ
€3.69 for four 100-gram bottles
€9.22 for 1kg
Highs: This is an excellent product which not only tastes great, but also promises to "dramatically" lower your cholesterol, thanks to the addition of plant sterols. It's pleasantly creamy and is nicely tart, and tastes, in short, like an old-fashioned yogurt.
Lows: Whether it has any appeal to people with no interest in its cholesterol-reducing properties is questionable. The instructions tell you to consume no more than three grams of plant sterols daily, or slightly more than one bottle of this yoghurt. At 92 cent a bottle, this is the priciest of the yogurt-based drinks.
Verdict: Great tasting and good for your heart.
Star rating: ****
Yakult
€3.99 for seven 65ml bottles, €8.76 per litre
Highs: Yakult is the only brand to recognise that there are, in fact, seven days in the week and assuming you do a weekly shop and buy one seven-pack each time, you'll always have a dainty bottle to hand. It tastes almost medicinal, reinforcing the notion that it's good for you.
Lows: It also tastes very sweet and as the only drink that isn't yogurt-based, it is comparably quite watery. It's made from reconstituted skimmed milk, which no matter how you dress it up, sounds a little grim. It's pricey and the bottle opening is tiny so you have to affect an almost genteel air when drinking it, as if sipping tea from the finest bone china.
Verdict: Too sweet and too dear.
Star rating: **
Danone Actimel
€2.29 for four 100-gram bottles €5.72 per kg
Highs: This a well-known and widely available pro-biotic yogurt drink - Danone has recently released a cholesterol-lowering version too - which is entirely reliable and very pleasant. It has a nice tart taste which you would associate with natural yogurt yet is not excessively bitter. It has a consistency that makes it easy to get in a couple of early-morning swallows.
Lows: Danone tends to sell Actimel in packs of four or eight in supermarkets which means you can either buy enough to get you just half way through your week or buy one too many - they are sold in individual bottles too. At just over 57 cent a bottle it's not cheap.
Verdict: A good way to start your day.
Star rating: ****
