9 Best Crevard Retail Tricks, Pay More for Less | Topito
Hello to all my victims of big consumption and mercantilism, today is a dark day as we are going to discuss together the little shenanigans of the supermarket chains that sell us lies unnoticed and unfairly deprive us of our hard-earned money. Another question we ask ourselves about supermarkets and I’m going to show you how much we get smoked in spite of ourselves.
1. The prices of misleading promotions
Several stores were caught lying about promotions: customers noticed that the reference prices of the products (before reductions) were different in catalogs and in stores to make people believe that the promotion was even more interesting. And to protect themselves from complaints, stores use the “recommended retail price” excuse, requiring them to display different prices for the same product in different branches of the same chain. No stupid guys.
2. The famous truffle products
If you like truffles (it’s your choice, not all of us need to taste good), you know you’re probably puffing up half the time you’re buying produce. In France, to say that a product is truffle, it must contain 1% truffle, suddenly many brands close the taste to deceive consumers when the products contain almost no trace of truffle. Almost every other product would actually contain less than 1% truffles and would be a lie, a nice scam.
3. Family formats more expensive per kilo
A poll at watch food showed that many brands confuse us with their famous family sizes: larger quantities in larger packages, but above all more expensive per kilo. Pasta, rice, bread, chips… Many brands and product types would be affected, sometimes showing price increases of 30% per kilo compared to the same products in normal quantities. Before you buy, keep an eye on the price per kilo, it’s your best friend.
4. The expiration dates of the products purchased in Drive
If shopping by car is interesting to avoid walking back and forth on the shelves, there is one small negative point: you do not choose the products yourself. Some netizens have then rightly cried out when they realized that some of their drive-thru-bought products had an imminent expiration date, almost forcing them to cook their entire cart in two days, which can be a bit tedious while shopping for them the week.
5. Reference prices increasing after the promotion
Imagine you discover a product that is shown with the promo for €15, it costs €10 in the promo and you come back a week later and it is shown for €20. It’s a practice that happens and can justifiably upset customers as it’s clearly a big asshole technique.
6. Air-Filled Products
You buy an ice cream and as soon as it starts to melt in the bowl, there is already half as much. Classic, several products are affected by this small technique of adding air to increase the volume without you noticing. To counteract them, the control authorities are now forcing them to register the amount of ice in mass and more in volume, you see a little the techniques of Crevards. But it also affects cured meats or yoghurts to which we add a lot of water to increase their weight and size.
7. Different packaging that drives up the price
For some product types, you can buy EXACTLY the same items from the same brand at wildly different prices just because the packaging changes. For example, certain brands of detergent in capsules or bottles, but also a well-known brand of sugar that sells the same amount for €1.72 per kilo in squares and €4.88 per kilo in sticks. Yes, it is abused.
8. The “shrinkflation”, the ultimate asshole technique
Have you ever bought a packet of cereal or a pill/candy bar and said to yourself, “It’s strange that it seems less than usual”? Well, this real phenomenon is called “shrinkflation,” a contraction of the words “shrinkage” and “inflation,” and affects certain products that brands continue to sell at the same price even though they have smaller volumes. Yes, it is small as a technique.
9. The batch product trap
We tend to think that buying in bulk saves money, and getting a four-pack of coffee bags instead of one can seem like a bigger investment right now that will save you money in the long run. But very often this is not the case, we pay the same price by buying more and sometimes even more expensive. Yes, the packaging with “3+1” written does not mean “4 for the price of three”, don’t be fooled, check the price by weight.
