Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Tesco have been trialing a system that changes the accepted way of operating a buy-one-get-one-free offer (BOGOF).
We all enjoy getting something for nothing and for those of us who need to count the pennies an offer where you can buy one item and get another free is very appealing, not least because it can help families make their household budget go further.
One of the problems with this type of special offer has been that by the time you get around to using your free item it may be past its sell by date. So, in a response to this problem Tesco have been running a trial which changes the usual way these deals operate. Instead of having to take both products at the same time you will be given a voucher that entitles you to get your free item the next week when you visit the store.
The trial was to run for two weeks in selected stores and customers choosing pineapple, melon, salad and lettuce offers are able to claim their free product the following week.
Tesco say they will await the results of the trial to see what customer feedback they get but I would expect to see that customers would like this a lot. It would maintain customer loyalty for the individual store since you are more likely to return to the store the following week to get your free product rather than visit the rival stores. Another big benefit of such a scheme is that far less foods will be thrown away unused because it has gone over the sell-by date. So, everybody wins.
It will be interesting to see what develops but it sounds like a great scheme and I would hope this will be rolled out nationally very soon.
Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 9:18 am
We all buy things all the time and sometimes they are significant purchases that we notice but often we have habits and habitual behaviour that makes it all so common we hardly even notice. I have been looking at some figures for regular purchases and it starts to get scary when you look at them over long periods of time.
The habit might be a daily one like smoking which will cost perhaps £5 per day. Maybe that doesn’t sound so much. What if you look at it as £35 each week? Starting to notice it?£150 per month is enough to do something worthwhile with isn’t it? If you look at a whole year it comes out at £1825.00 which would pay for a decent holiday and over 40 years it comes to £73,000
- Daily Cost = £5.00
- Weekly Cost = £35.00
- Monthly Cost=£150.00
- Yearly Cos t= £1825.00
- 40 Year Cost=£73,000.00
It makes you think doesn’t it and I am not picking on smokers here. It’s all about regular habitual purchases and the same cost might apply to having a coffee and a cake or a couple of pints down the pub.
It applies to buying newspapers, magazines, bags of crisps, gym memberships and anything else you do on a regular basis.
How long do you have to work for the annual cost of any of these things. A regular smoker or a drinker might be working one hour in every day to pay for the habit. If you enjoy it and feel it is worth the cost then fine. I am not picking on any particular habit here but understanding how regular payments mount up and seeing the numbers should make you look at them and question if that is really how you want to spend your money.
Quit a daily habit and it might pay for your holiday or allow you to have another holiday. It might enable you to make an extra payment on your mortgage each year and cut the overall cost and length of your mortgage term quite significantly. We tend to focus on money on a day by day basis but looking at costs over the long term can give a broader perspective that might make you question some of those daily incidental expenses.
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
We are constantly told that retailers are desperately trying to encourage us all to buy from their stores. We are bombarded with advertisements offering us great deals and bargain prices but the high street stores are facing not only the recession but also the rise of online shopping.
Having spent some time at the weekend selecting a suitable washing machine I was disappointed to be told that this particular model was not in stock and delivery might take several weeks. I left the store thinking I would try elsewhere but eventually returned home empty handed.
On returning home I did some research online and discovered, to my amazement, I could save around £70 on the cost of the same machine by buying online and have it delivered within two days which is faster delivery than was available from the retail store even if they had this machine is stock.
It’s hard to see how it can be possible for high street stores to cover the cost of managing their stores but still match such online prices. They have my sympathy but they won’t get my money and I will be buying from the site below and you might care to check the prices on offer yourself.
In the interests of being entirely open and honest, the ad above is an affiliate link and this site benefits from any purchase made following a click on it but the prices are exactly the same as if you went to the website directly.
