Shoppers PO’d Over BOGOs

By George Anderson

Some single people and seniors believe they are being unfairly penalized by retail store deals that reward multiple purchases of a product while not offering the same unit pricing for the same item bought in lower quantity.

Helen Arnold, a senior citizen from Arnold, Md., told the Washington Post, “This is not fair for the elderly who do not need quantity because of storage problems or price. Many are on limited budgets and cannot afford to buy volume, and many cannot use quantity.”

Michael Sansolo, senior vice president of the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), said manufacturers often set the terms of deals such as a buy-one-get-one (bogo).

Author, media personality and industry analyst Phil Lempert, said, “We have to remember that the reason that manufacturers offer these deals to supermarkets is that they want — or sometimes need — to sell more product quickly. It could be the end of a quarter, or sales in a particular store or geographic area are down, and they need to induce more shoppers to try their products.”

If consumers don’t like the terms of the deal they can let the store know, said Mr. Sansolo. If consumers feel as though they’re not being heard after doing this, there are still options.

“There’s always another supermarket to shop at,” he said.

Moderator’s Comment: Do deals offering discounts on multiple item purchases while not offering them when a single item is bought discriminate against
seniors, singles or others? How should a store, which caters to a large senior citizen population for example, deal with this issue should it be raised by customers?

Consumers may not like it but getting better prices for quantity purchases is the way of business. If one price were applied to all regardless of the quantity,
then large retail chains wouldn’t enjoy the purchasing/pricing advantage over independents that they do. –
George Anderson – Moderator

• Singled Out by Two-for-One Sales – Washington Post