Waitrose Tesco Price Match only Half True

Upmarket Waitrose (part of the John Lewis Partnership) has a Price Match campaign with the UK's biggest supermarket Tesco. Shelf edge labels show they are the same price as Tesco on thousands of everyday branded products.

But Waitrose shoppers who rarely venture into downmarket Tesco may not be getting the full picture. This weekend I visited both supermarkets. Waitrose is Price Matching Tesco on 2 leading brands of cheese.

Catherdral City Mature 200g is £2.15 in both stores. But in Tesco you get 2 packs for £2. Barmy I know, but that is better than buy one get one free. The Waitrose shelf edge sticker makes no mention that you could not only save 15p but get another pack free if you bought the cheese at Tesco.

The other cheese offer is Saint Agur. Waitrose Price Match Tesco at £1.99. But Tesco currently offers buy one get one free, so for £1.99 you get not 1, but 2 packs - the equivalent of 99p a pack.

So, yes Waitrose is technically Price Matching Tesco, but they're only giving customers half the picture.

Waitrose do actually tell their customers this - if they bother to read the terms and conditions of the offer.

http://www.waitrose.com/offers/brandpricematch_terms.aspx

The terms state: "If Tesco has an item on a multi-buy promotion (for example 'buy one get one free') we will still match the single unit selling price of the item but not offer the free product".

Wow. That's a great offer Waitrose, half the value on Tesco's special offers. Of course Waitrose customers will never know - because they don't often venture inside Tesco. Well done Waitrose - a marketing triumph!

Divine Fairtrade Chocolate

I like chocolate and I love a deal. My friend Katie knows both of these things and because she's a friend she phoned to brag about a deal she had spotted at Tesco.

Lindt 70% dark chocolate is my favourite, at Tesco 100g costs £1.29. Displayed right next to it is a bar called 'Divine'. The price on the shelf is 54p but in fact when scanned at the checkout it sold at 51p.

Divine is different from Lindt. It's a Fairtrade bar. The Fairtrade cocoa beans are from Ghana and the farmers own part of the company www.divinechocolate.com .

So Tesco sell Divine for 51p. Sainsbury's and Waitrose also sell this ethical Divine chocolate - but for 79p. That's 65% more expensive.

So who's profiting? The cocoa farmers are getting a guaranteed Fairtrade price of $1600 per tonne for the cocoa, then there are shipping, manufacturing, wholesale, marketing, transport costs and VAT at the shop.

I wonder what the supermarkets pay for a 100g bar? Tesco can't be selling for a loss at 51p and I really hope Sainsbury's and Waitrose aren't pocketing the extra from the 79p they charge. Perhaps they pay more for the bars (The Ghanaian farmers own part of the company too remember).

The Taste Test

OK, so its Fairtrade and its good value - but I hear you ask - does Divine taste any good? Well Katie and I like blind tasting, so independently we can report a unanimous yes. Against Green & Blacks organic dark I would say the difference is indistinguishable. For me Lindt is still favourite (more bitter and more vanilla taste) but as I can buy two and a half times as much Divine for the same price as Lindt and it tastes just as good as G&B, Divine gets my vote.

Oh, and I can feel a warm glow while I'm eating the chocolate because I'll be helping those Ghanaian farmers.