Jul 8th, 2008
The Importance of Complete Advertising
While I would stop far short of calling this deceptive advertising, it’s the kind of advertising that drives me crazy: this week’s Safeway flyer lists 12 packs of Diet Pepsi as “Buy Any 2, Get Any 3 Free”.
This would unquestionably be a better deal than no sale but it tells me very little about how much the soda would actually cost. I had to actually go into the store to discover that the actual price was $6.49 per 12 pack for the first two, before getting the remaining three at no charge. That ended up being a cost, pre tax and pre deposit, of $12.98 for 60 cans of soda, a per can charge of $0.216 per can (a bit under 22 cents each).
In contrast, a different local grocer, Times, decided to sell cases (24 packs) of Diet Pepsi for $10.00 per two pack; in other words, with a charge of $10 for 48 cans, which results in a cost, again pre tax and pre deposit, of $.2083 per can–about three fourths of a cent less per can. But even if the cost was the same or maybe a hair more, I’d still be tempted to go to Times just because they made life easier for me by actually printing the price of the soda in the ad.
Trust me, Safeway is not alone in this (and Safeway is somewhere I will continue to shop, despite this incident). Costco, which I’ve written about many times in this blog, is notorious for shipping coupon books that list “$2 off” or “$5 off” but not having a trace of the actual price of the item anywhere in the book (in their defense, these are usually national coupons, and prices vary from state to state if not city to city).
What I will say, however, is that I’m much more likely to do business with someone who is full and complete in disclosing to me how much they charge. While I appreciate that price shopping is always necessary, appropriate service–including letting your customers know how much something costs–goes a long way toward making sales. For this month at least, I’m buying my Diet Pepsi at Times.
