I expect most people have heard of, if not tried, the supermarket 'meal deal'. I know I have, but not often. My infrequent, but at the same time usual, order would be along the lines of cheddar ploughman's, along with a nice chilled Coke Zero and packet of salt and vinegar crisps. Priced separately, this order might run out at around £4.40, however, the benefit of the meal deal and buying these consumables as a package comes in at £3.50 and a healthy saving of 90p (these figures may vary).

So it seems to work all round: consumer gets a deal and the supermarket can quickly shift products at busy lunch times. But the process is far from fool proof, as I found to my cost last week.

I was in the office, it was lunchtime and unusually for me, I was hungry. I wandered round to the nearest supermarket, one of the big four, and though it was a local-type store, I could still see the availability of the meal deal prominently displayed. Grabbing the sandwich and Coke, I headed for the self-service payment area. I didn't really fancy any crisps and, as I rather foolishly walked past the confectionary offers, I lifted the giant slab of chocolate on offer at half price. I then ran each item through the self-service check-out.

Okay, so I now had the meal deal contents and the chocolate, and I proceeded to check-out. However, I was met with an unexpected price of £5.45 – not the £5 which I had anticipated when adding together the meal deal plus chocolate (£3.50 plus £1.50). The store was quite busy and queues were forming behind me but I steeled myself and stuck with the task.

How could this be, that the price was out by so much? After staring at the check-out monitor for some time, it dawned on me and I bolted toward the snacks area, got a hold of the first packet of crisps I saw and ran back to the check-out. Success, as I now ran the crisps through the checkout and heard the familiar bleep confirming the transaction, which now totalled £5. All was well in the world, or was it?

As I walked away from the store, the experience that had just befallen me kept repeating in my head. The logic of which I was still struggling to comprehend. I understand the concept of buying in bulk or, as in this case, complementary buying discount. What really gets me is the notion that, if you fail to buy complementary products in a particular order or set, you face a penalty, which results in the price charged being in excess of the cost of the entire meal. Especially when the only solution to meeting the price is to take an additional product and one which in this case I did not want or need.

My wee mum would be burling in her grave to hear of such madness, though the thought of £3.50 for the meal deal in question would probably have been enough to put her there in the first place. Thankfully, she was spared such nonsense.

I did witness, sometime later in the day, a squirrel standing bolt upright eagerly nibbling on a piece of nut which it was deftly holding in its front paws. I stood for a while and watched the wee thing and you know it made me forget about my earlier experience. Up until now.

Frank Eardley



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