So there I am carrying out the weekly shop at Sainsbury's, perusing through the spice section in search of ground cinnamon that will be joining an array of ingredients later on that day - baking session. Debating whether to purchase the well known Schwartz brand, or indeed Sainsbury's own make.
Sainsbury's Ground Cinnamon: £0.79/unit......£0.17/10g
Schwartz Ground Cinnamon: £1.40/unit..........£0.42/10g
It was at this pinnacle point in the short story that a lady working in this section approached me and brashly stated - 'I used to work at the Schwartz factory and the spice in that Schwartz bottle is the same as the spice in that Sainsbury's bottle. They're identical. Schwartz handle Sainsbury's spices, they just slap on a different label and charge less.'.......I made a hmmming sound......'So buy Sainsbury's' she continued.
How has this become morally allowed...charging someone far more...just for a label? Fashion. Computers. Food. It exists in everything. Such greed.
The more I witness branding in this context, the more I dislike it. Branding to manipulate people in to forking out extortionate prices for an item of the same calibre less than half the price sitting right next to it.
I wonder if the fat-cats sitting in their watchtowers snigger down on our capitalist society, rubbing their hands together and planning their next move in an almost Mr Burns from the Simpsons type manner.
How do you know the woman wasn't a plain clothed Sainsbury's operative scouting the isle and gently pushing consumers on to Sainsbury's own brands with her devious little mind games?? "I used to work for Schwartz" she says "I used to work for Heinz" to another... dum dum DUM!!!
ReplyDeleteYes it's quite insulting isn't it! I always find myself thinking this about Nurofen. It contains 200mg ibuprofen and costs a couple of quid per pack, when funnily enough, any of the Boots, Sainsburys, Tescos etc own brand of ibuprofen costs around 30p for the same number of tablets - also 200mg ibuprofen!! My mother falls for it every time.
ReplyDeleteStill, you probably wouldn't want to be seen with that plain-looking Sainsbury's Basics Cinnamon, would you? That's pretty much what you're paying for, the right to tell the others: "Yeah, that's right. I'm allowing myself a slightly more expensive jar of cinnamon."
ReplyDelete(Assuming such a thing as Basics Cinnamon exists, of course.)
'...wouldn't want to be seen with that plain-looking Sainsbury's Basics...'
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough I don't walk down the streets brandishing my cinnamon container! What you're inevitably saying is that peer pressure/social pressure has stretched as far as the supermarket food aisle... Isn't this just a little bit insane...?