02.23.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:00 pm by optionplayer
The majority of price cuts in the supermarket price wars between Asda and Tesco in the run-up to Christmas were just 1p, a Guardian investigation can reveal. In contrast, the majority of price increases imposed by the two retail giants during the same period were more than 10p.
This new analysis of supermarket pricing policy shows a “cynical manipulation of the language of value” according to independent expert Professor John Bridgeman, who criticised the use of “price flexing”.
Bridgeman, who as director general of the Office of Fair Trading from 1995 to 2000 conducted official inquiries into the supermarket sector, said the large number of 1p decreases, promoted by Tesco and Asda as thousands of price cuts before the festive season, damaged the credibility of any marketing slogans they used.
“They are not in reality cutting prices but flexing prices, making them go up and down and destabilising the price structure,” Bridgeman said. “All they are doing is introducing so much volatility no one can tell whether prices are going up or down. It can only be to consumers’ detriment and it does their image no good.”
Data taken from Asda’s website by third-party analysts indicates that it cut nearly 800 prices between 16 and 23 December, with two-thirds of the cuts being just 1p and 80% of the total number being less than 10p. It also increased more than 850 prices that week. In contrast, only 6% of the rising prices went up by the same small increment of 1p; 53% of the rises were more than 10p.
The pattern is repeated in data taken from the Tesco website: between 16 and 23 December it cut about 930 prices, 70% of which were by just 1p. It also increased just under 1,000 prices in the same period; in contrast 7% of these rises were by the small increment of 1p, and more than 600 – or 60% – of the price increases were by more than 10p.
Both supermarkets said the majority of price increases in that period can be explained by products which had been discounted coming off promotion.
In Bridgeman’s view, the scale of price changing and the relative size of the cuts and rises is both confusing and misleading to consumers. “The most dangerous thing [for] competition in this sector is price volatility,” he said. “It confuses consumers, deters investors and has driven corner shops out of business because they don’t know what price they have to compete on,” he said.
Paul Dobson, a professor of retailing at Loughborough University who has been studying supermarket prices over a five-year period, says the pattern the Guardian had identified before Christmas matches the overall pattern. Researchers at Loughborough and at Warwick University have found that, overall, price cuts made by the big four UK supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – tend to be small and price rises larger.
His research has found the most common price cut among the big four over five years is 1p. Such low cuts have little impact at the checkout, but introducing them on large numbers of goods enables the supermarkets to claim they are cutting thousands of prices. Over the five years, according to Dobson, these small cuts have been used to mask serious price hikes on a smaller number of lines with a big net effect on bills. “In the big inflationary period of 2008, there were two and a half times the numbers of price cuts in the big four as price rises, but in fact prices overall were rising very rapidly,” he said.
Dobson said his research shows that of the big four UK supermarkets, Tesco is the most prolific user of 1p cuts, and Asda the second most prolific. He also said Tesco changes its prices more than the other retailers.
Asda did not challenge the Guardian figures but said the explanation for the large number of 1p cuts was “straightforward”. “We won’t be beaten on price. So if a competitor goes lower than us on a comparable product, even by just a penny, we will always try and match or beat that price,” said a spokesman. “Whichever way you look at the numbers, Asda is the undisputed lowest price supermarket – as independently verified by mysupermarket.com.”
Tesco also rejected Bridgeman’s interpretation of the significance of the number of small and large price changes:
In a statement, the company said: “We do not manipulate prices in this cynical way. The Guardian and Professor Bridgeman are using data we do not recognise and his conclusion that we are deliberately confusing customers is nonsense.
“This is a competitive market and prices are lower this year than last year. Our customers know us, shop with us every week, trust us and are not confused. Instead of trying to find product price changes to fit a half-baked theory, Bridgeman and the Guardian should look at what has happened to the overall price of customers’ baskets. As the current head of the Office of Fair Trading said last month, the sector is ‘highly competitive’ and prices have ‘come down enormously’.”
Actually it is far worse. As Tesco for example encourage the hypermarket – the constant expansion at reckless costs to the local community – and so with the local suppliers both shops or worse wholesalers , put out of business- the real cost to society is very negative.
Forgetting the whole environment on how they use all sorts of tricks etc to manipulate the surroundings , so to encourage the excessive buying!
Next time you are in an aisle , look how many Fat obese people you can spot!
When about to pay ? look at the ridiculous amount of stuff trolleys are stuffed with !
Tescos play and profit huge, on the gradual and constant dumbing of our society this past 30 years ! remember they have only been developing that long! and look at how much real damage they are doing !
visit any NHS Clinics & obesity rules ! look at the ailes near the checkout , and all junk food sweets , etc etc !
It is no good suggesting that Supermarkets will react & respond and behave responsibly– their mind is on supplying the drug experience , which is go out & shop till i drop!
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02.21.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:53 pm by optionplayer
Irish Politicians are prepared to start change,when?
The system is already far too corrupt.
When you read the story in the Independent,
NAMA-BOUND property developers Derek Quinlan, Treasury Holdings’ Johnny Ronan, Ballymore Properties’ Sean Mulryan and Paddy McKillen, one of the so called “Anglo 10″, have all emerged as major donors to the Vatican.
This, with the Story about the Bank of Ireland saying original loans of 31 Million has fallen to 600,000! should raise questions whether there was criminal intent on the initial valuation & or, with NAMA about to only give a haircut of 20/30%
to the above friends, who have donated to the Vatican, at NAMA expense – this is ‘Daylight Robbery’. Why should the state be making this absurd decision.
Anglo Irish which which there have been many past commenst on and right !! still has the same executives who made many of these reckless loans. For example in UK, they are still in a position of influence, same people, & can direct to those that they feel deserve a steal.
The suggestion is to keep serious pressure up on Professor Jose Manuel Gonzalez Parmo who is the executive member of the ECB from Spain ( ironic, where they too have absurd property related loan problems)
We all know Religion is a serious business but the above meddling, can understandably give the younger generation less hope about what the future beholds. As if the property is truly worth 20/30 percent like what Bank of Ireland have experienced last week, then NARMA must come clean now , before ECB gives the green light! as afterwards is too late!
Murtagh & others must come clean , as it is easy to say i have no money , but where is the cash, ’show me the money’ especially with close links to offshore centres not too far away by a short flight !
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02.19.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:17 pm by optionplayer
We are disapointed & critical as you were caught. Management Mark at IMG & CO are to be blamed !! should have protected you better !!
and so doing , have embarrassed many of corporate Global Village,
that have been doing the same on a smaller scale! for ages !!
Why do folks wish to visit Budpaest, London, Paris, Las Vegas , Miami, Sao Paulo, Sydney etc -
becasue of rented girls so mcuh available !!
without the credit cards &
the corproate spare expense cash this business could not boom !
as for cheating on family life , many like Tiger prior, had lived in denial !
so lets feel sorry for Tiger trapped!
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Posted in Uncategorized at 8:37 pm by optionplayer
How can Simon find sheila , namely Mezhgan attractive.
She has been following, some would say stalking, him for years.
This only illustrates Simon is far weaker & less inteligent that the image makers make himout!
OKay he may have made 150 Million plus from other people ’s embarrassment on TV & exploiting emotions etc but it is creative trash , which will start to disapear as public interest wanes!
a revised New Faces!! has its days! Much money is made through the telephone lines which is a form of deceit – as many are not aware !
Watch his downfall slowly from now on, with this possessive creature on board, what a weird couple!
Simon should have had, the courage to chase Cherly! But then again maybe she would beat up on him! as she is a tough cat!
but obviously he is emotionally weak & quite twisted! then again they are both into mothers!
so enjoy your private travel/ toing & froing between the Coasts etc but it is a disapointment & The Public should have got better, as you have become Public interest!
The begining of a slow downward path-
now with your Growl venture with Green, another questionable player! ( well whose funds is he truly playing !! )
watch the fall!
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02.15.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:29 am by optionplayer
So what has Goldman Sachs and others been up to since 2001
encouraging Greek officials to flaunt their rules and borrow outside their official Euro Limits !!
so more fees for the bankers !
ahh ! and where has Lehman role been in all this ?
Conveniently it is more difficult to know with their perfect timely demise!
but we are told there is a 15 plus year backlog of unwinding !!
Whilst Goldman & others should come clean, as to how many times have they been encouraging such behaviour & with how many Governments !!
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02.14.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:20 am by optionplayer
Tory top brass frustrated by mystery over Michael Ashcroft’s tax status
should also be conncerned with his links with Chavez
especially if Chavez has links wiht CIA and other agencies!
we know in the 70’s 80’s the Americans liked to poke their nose in European Politics, is it now through dubious offshore centres !
Belize is Drugs and more Drugs & much more matters , that most people do not understand !
Financing is a dirty word , when we can not sincerely see the creation route-
look at selective Russian Oligarchs ! no one seems to care
look at selective so called Billionaires Globally
whilst the Trade from Afghanistan Drugs Boom Globally
Time enough for some Political groups to ask soul searching questions ! & not avoid the truth! as it is becoming too much of a deceitful world ! where words are cheap and spin is plentiful
and no one truly cares, who matters !
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02.13.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:55 pm by optionplayer
Why is no one demanding to know
who is funding this War in Afghanistan ?
9 years later and we are sending 15000 troops into more battle
WHO PAYS THE OTHER SIDE ?
WHO SUPPLIES THE AMO!EXPLOSIVES !! MEN !!
Drugs & the trade must be highly involved & lucrative ?
so who trades the drugs , so guns etc can be bought
and who protects this supply route
enough from all politicans globally!!,
who continues a deceitful and dangerous conflict
World War 2 lasted 6 years YES 6
here we have so far 9 years playign dangerous games
a war that suits people not to win!
so who is conning who, for whom??
we have supposedly MI5 6 etc and the rest of the world , investigating what !
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Posted in Uncategorized at 5:18 pm by optionplayer
Lib Dem frontbencher Jenny Tonge sacked over call for Israeli soldier inquiry
We know we live in peculiar times , when a politician can not make a serious independent comment, which has substance without being ridiculed by a weak Leader like Clegg.
To be afraid of upsetting Israel, when there is reason to at least debate, discuss a serious issue, organ transplant smuggling etc with a supposed area of the world , were we all are
pretending to be concerned ! Haiti!! What hypocrites we all are !
Please! once again decisions are made by the spin doctors and no one is prepared to at least think!
Israel gets away with far too much, and plays the bully to often!
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02.11.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:26 am by optionplayer
Office politics snuffed out Fine Gael’s brightest star
Like you, I’ve been listening to many opinions on the George Lee episode. The one thing that has stood out in all the conversations is just how out of touch the political insiders seem to be with the rest of the population. The political insiders — the politicians themselves, party members and canvassers as well as the political pundits and correspondents who live inside the world of the Dail — speak of George’s betrayal, his petulance and something called procedure. Of his many crimes, the idea of not knowing your place appears to be a significant offence.
On the other hand, you examine the polls taken by ‘Liveline’ and the like and you get a totally different picture. The average person believes George; the average person trusts him and supports his move to quit. If these polls are to be taken at face value, could it be that the political “insiders” are out of step with the civilian “outsiders”?
Arguably we have a clear division between, on one side, the wizened, “nose-tapping” cynics who believe they know how things should be done and, on the other, the wide-eyed, possibly naive, optimists who hope for change. The George Lee saga could well be the first skirmish in a long war between those who believe the system should be defended — the insiders — and the outsiders who believe the status quo is part of the problem. One of the most significant and consistent criticisms of George by the insiders has been that he didn’t do his time. Some say he couldn’t hack it. But hack what? Hack the “slowly, slowly, don’t rock the boat” world of biding your time, playing the game and, ultimately, engineering a career based on climbing up the slippery pole. Of course he couldn’t hack it and why should he? He wasn’t voted in to do that.
Another politician yesterday spoke earnestly of learning the ropes. He suggested that George didn’t really give himself a chance to understand how the system worked. But why should he have? Surely the point is that the system is the problem and if someone with his specific talents (for economics) is seen as being of equal value in an economic crisis to another backbencher who can’t spell monopoly, then what is the point in the whole exercise? Either we vote for competence or we don’t.
To the observer, it is difficult not to conclude that George scared the daylights out of lesser able contemporaries who decided that the only way to deal with a bright star was put manners on him. So leave him out, let him cool off. Anyone who has worked in an office will recognise the tell-tale signs of office politics.
One of the classic ploys in this game is to let it be known that the person’s assets are in fact superficial and a liability for the “hard graft” of the ground war. And so it came to pass. Amazingly, another factor that emerged as a stick to bash him with is that George Lee is famous, articulate, intelligent and a great communicator — and rather than these being attributes that could be deployed usefully these are seen to be the dubious affectations of a “poster boy”, leading to slurs such as narcissism and self-absorption.
When are the political insiders going to realise that there are people like George Lee who stand out from the crowd because of the very talent that distinguishes them from others? This is why people follow them. This is why 27,000 people vote for them, precisely because they are not like everyone else. Sorry, the world isn’t equal. Some kids are better at football than others, that’s just the way it goes and the one who is better gets picked.
George Lee’s crime was honesty and having the courage to ask, why? Why should it be like this? Why should we serve time on the backbenches? Why should the best economic communicator in the Dail who has forgotten more about economics than most of our politicians will ever learn, have to sit and listen to men on his own side make things up as they go along — spoofing and clutching at second-rate notes scribbled by advisers?
Just in case you think this is one high-profile economist defending another one, I acknowledge that I know and like George Lee. We were both economists in the Central Bank years ago — so we go back a long way. I have huge respect for his talents and know that he has “living room” appeal. Ordinary people believe him because he has been both right and honest in his work over the years. What the insiders don’t understand is that he has done his time, just not in the Dail. He has done his time where it really matters, in people’s living rooms. This is his currency. It is not celebrity, it is credibility — and credibility is what is lacking in politics.
Not deploying George Lee effectively is not an academic point. Fine Gael’s “good” bank was the best solution to our banking crisis. It is a basic model used in many countries. There is no need for a NAMA; instead the old banks should be allowed to disappear and their deposits transferred to a new bank. The State is the major shareholder in the new bank and so can make a huge profit for taxpayers when it is sold. The old creditors take a nasty haircut but get equity in the new bank and they stay in the game. That’s the basic story. It is easy to sell, easy to understand and far preferable to the NAMA monster (which the IMF told the Government close to a year ago wouldn’t work).
But instead of getting George Lee to sell this idea to the electorate which he would have done in his sleep, and in so doing might have created a united front against NAMA with a credible alternative, Fine Gael didn’t deploy him effectively. God knows why. Selling this idea should have been his and his alone and the older, more established politicians should have been big enough to see that he was the best man to sell it. He is the man that your auntie believes. The trust of the aunties and mammies of Ireland is hard earned. They see through show-boaters. They remember who said what when. They remember in the last few years, George Lee told it as it was. Who in Fine Gael is going to replace him? Who is going to do things differently now?
Worse still, whether you agree with the way he departed, who — with experience — will now contemplate joining one of the established parties now? On the other hand, maybe this episode brings closer the emergence of a totally new party looking to change, not preserve the system.
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02.08.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:52 pm by optionplayer
Tears!!
When the subject matter is a decision that resulted in many hundred’s of thousand of Iraqi deaths . many more maimed, & many UK citizens killed & maimed too.
WHERE is a true & sincere interviewer, who can seek the truth, & the pathetic man wishes to cry !
make him cry & RUN AWAY!
as to Be behind the Piers Morgan tear jerking show, to be released ! about Brown, and his long ago lost baby! wow!
& to be assisting the Labour Party re election campaign-
the supposed master of spin-Alisrair C, probably had not had enough drink, before a show ,
so to display his brand of dutch courage !
what a spineless sinister member of this new media thanks to 12 years of Labour recklessness & greed& sleaze!
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