Overpricing…

[PhilipV]

15 hours ago, Frosty said:

Why is Woolies more expensive than other brands? Besides the LSM target market for Woolies higher than say Checkers or PnP, they are the only retailer than has end-to-end temperature control in the supply chain; that costs more to keep maintained and running than a retailer without it in all areas.

And the stores respect the cold chain. Iveseen a manager at WW send a half packed Pallet back into the cold chain because it was taking too long to get into the fridge. 

15 hours ago, dave303e said:

Milk off the farm is R5,20/litre. Which includes all the cream(which is skimmed off and sold at R120/Litre) So you paying a premium for a brand name, some packaging and some convenience in both of those pictures.

Transport, packaging, marketing and middleman margins all add up. We're paying for convenience of not having to drive out to a farm to get milk. 

11 hours ago, babse said:

Is woolies really more expensive than other retailers though 

Not in staple items like milk and brown bread, but stay away from pre-made food and the Chuckles aisle if you don't want a flat wallet. 

[esCape-ist]

Based on the opinions here, I'm amazed woolworths is doing so well financially. Yes, they are taking a knock the past few years from Checkers who upped their game dramatically, and now PnP doing the same. But they still posting solid earnings.

So since the general consensus is Woolies is expensive and only for the wealthy, there must be a lot of really wealthy people in the middle class suburbs.

Reality is, like mentioned above, woolworths doesn't offer an entry level or budget price option. They only cover the middle of the market, and do that really well, and then have a range of premium products that are actually really good quality, but you need to pay a premium for them.

If you actually do a proper price comparison, an compare the same type of products between checkers, pnp and woolworths, everything costs about the same, give or take 5-10% either way. But you can't compare the cheapest pnp no name brand baked beans, with a can imported borlotti beans from woolworths. That silly.

Meat used to be a lot more expensive at woolworths, but now days the price is pretty much the same between checkers/pnp/woolies, but the quality of woolworths and checkers is way above pnp.

Woolworths chicken is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Much much lower saline content than the others, which means almost no shrinkage when you cook it. The free range chicken at woolworths also tastes a damn side better than others, and whether it's on brand strength alone, I trust the rBST and growth hormone free sticker on the woolies chicken, because it tastes so much more “natural”. Same can be said about the eggs. The woolworths free range eggs are a much deeper yellow, and a lot closer to that of my own free range eggs from my garden variety chickens at home.

 

Bread/milk/cheese/rusks/coffee/tea/eggs/cereal etc there is almost nothing between the stores on price. Granted you compare the same products. Milk might be a exception, but the woolworths milk is a step above, with faircape from pnp or checkers being the closest comparison, but then the price is close again.

 

But to get back to the point, love them or hate them, specialised delivers a good product at a market related price, in every sector of the market. Yes, s-works is insanely expensive, but at the comp, elite and pro levels, their bikes often provide better value compared to similar offerings from competitors. If you want to hate on a brand for “overpricing” I think Santa Cruz and Yeti are better targets - granted they do not offer any entry level options, you still pay a hefty sticker price for the badge there, specifically on their “entry level” stuff.

[esCape-ist]

Case in point:

For around R75k you can get either an Allu SC Tallboy or a Carbon Epic Evo.

With the SC you get a 16kg bike, with a spindly RS Recon fork, and a SRAM SX/NX Combo drivetrain.

 

On the specialised, you get a 13kg bike, with an SLX drivetrain and a Reba fork. 

Neither of these bikes are cheap, but compared with the rest of the market, which is overpriced?

[117]

11 hours ago, MORNE said:

People love saying so…and yes if you only look at certain things - they are. People love doing the basket test, but put pnp house brand tuna in there vs ww’s which is john west quality lol. Like everything in the pre-made isles or the organic meats…or chippie or sweety corner. Discovery shafts you too if you buy that stuff…so R25 for a pack of gummies is not where the hurt stops.
 

 But today I went to go buy milk, bread and cheese at WW, saw the price for 6 boxes of milk and literally said WTF..no way, it was 15% cheaper last week. So i didnt buy it…drove to PnP, same…R85 fir 6, checkers house brand…82 for 6..on special, food lovers, same. Parpalat R107 for 6. Then realised…WW at R88 for 6 is fine, a loaf of crap sasco sam costs R20 anyway…ill pay 21 for the nice stuff thanks. And on Discovery you get 25% back anyway…50% if you are preggos lol ( who said babies cost money?😅).
 

900g chedder will cost you R130+ almost everywhere now, i just wait for the mid month 2 for R180 at WW, same price everywhere lol xcept if you eat that nasty ladysmith crap they sell at foodlovers.
You can still buy smart at WW, and yes, their fruit and veg puts other places to shame when it comes to taste and longevity. WW brand cleaning agents like dishwashing tablets etc are WAY cheaper than Finish and the likes for example.
Ppl are just ignorant. Ive bought jungle oats at ww for R25 n box when its R39 at PnP.  Just be smart and know who has what on special when imo. And abuse rewards everywhere.

All the long life 1lt milk comes from the same factory. They only change the packaging for the different retailers

And yes, milk is bike related - its important for that latte or flat white you ask for when visiting the fourways area, broo

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lechatnoir]

2 hours ago, ouzo said:

Back to the Woollies vs xyz shop and the product lasting.

Not to far from us is a massive fresh produce wholesaler. They are a bit inconvenient to get to so we have only tried them twice. All the fresh fruit and veg we bought from them were not only bigger than what you get at "supermarkets", but they also lasted a heck of alot longer. And the pricing was in general on par with our usual "supermarket" stores.

Based on the branding on the packaging they all came from the usual farms etc. that supply the "supermarkets". 

 

 

i bought peppers from Woolies and had them in the fridge. lasted forever. in fact, much longer than the one i picked fresh from my garden, which i can't imagine being fresher. so what am I putting into my body when I am extorted at Woolies? good things, I'm sure, but good for whom?

[dave303e]

16 minutes ago, esCape-ist said:

Case in point:

For around R75k you can get either an Allu SC Tallboy or a Carbon Epic Evo.

With the SC you get a 16kg bike, with a spindly RS Recon fork, and a SRAM SX/NX Combo drivetrain.

 

On the specialised, you get a 13kg bike, with an SLX drivetrain and a Reba fork. 

Neither of these bikes are cheap, but compared with the rest of the market, which is overpriced?

Titan RS Cypher pro- Carbon, GX AXS, my medium is a shade under 12kg with pedals all for R80k...

13 minutes ago, 117 said:

All the long life 1lt milk comes from the same factory. They only change the packaging for the different retailers

And yes, milk is bike related - its important for that latte or flat white you ask for when visiting the fourways area, broo

 

We took a farm dog to live with us in town for a year or 2 when we were still in Randburg, she used to turn her nose up at long life milk.

As long as your flat white is not ruined by someone adding almond juice or soya juice in your coffee. Note the term juice- milk from mammary glands, juice from flavourants. 

1 hour ago, PhilipV said:

And the stores respect the cold chain. Iveseen a manager at WW send a half packed Pallet back into the cold chain because it was taking too long to get into the fridge. 

Transport, packaging, marketing and middleman margins all add up. We're paying for convenience of not having to drive out to a farm to get milk. 

Not in staple items like milk and brown bread, but stay away from pre-made food and the Chuckles aisle if you don't want a flat wallet. 

Ya it is convenience you are paying for like I said, fair enough as well, people gotta eat along the way. 
Our costs went up around R20k a week with the recent blip in petrol costs. I am very glad I am a data scientist living on a farm and not a farmer.

48 minutes ago, esCape-ist said:

But to get back to the point, love them or hate them, specialised delivers a good product at a market related price, in every sector of the market. Yes, s-works is insanely expensive, but at the comp, elite and pro levels, their bikes often provide better value compared to similar offerings from competitors. If you want to hate on a brand for “overpricing” I think Santa Cruz and Yeti are better targets - granted they do not offer any entry level options, you still pay a hefty sticker price for the badge there, specifically on their “entry level” stuff.

Specialized is not always a great market related price if you look at the example I give above. It is a good one, but there are a lot more competitive options in the mid range.
 

[Duane_Bosch]

1 hour ago, esCape-ist said:

Woolworths chicken is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Much much lower saline content than the others, which means almost no shrinkage when you cook it. The free range chicken at woolworths also tastes a damn side better than others, and whether it's on brand strength alone, I trust the rBST and growth hormone free sticker on the woolies chicken, because it tastes so much more “natural”. Same can be said about the eggs. The woolworths free range eggs are a much deeper yellow, and a lot closer to that of my own free range eggs from my garden variety chickens at home.

 

I once did work for a well known feed manufacturer and the FD of the company said something to me. His exact words were "free range is a marketing term" If the chicken really was free range you'd be paying R500 for it.

[Headshot]

https://www.specialized.com/za/en/s-works-carbon-zee-cage-ii--right/p/173135?color=274179-173135&searchText=43020-0502

 

R1450  28g

around 1/5 the price weighs about 20g more, if that. I find it offensive that they even sell this cr@p.

[Showtime]

20 minutes ago, dave303e said:

Titan RS Cypher pro- Carbon, GX AXS, my medium is a shade under 12kg with pedals all for R80k...
 

I also have a Cypher and would buy the same again but I think for a big brand the Specialized price is fair. With the  brand comes the expectation that the R&D and experience ensures that the geometry and basics will be spot on. This has been my experience with Specialized bikes, that they feel sorted.

The downside with a big brand for me is economies of scale. If they can save some money on components it scales into big margins quickly whereas Titan can give you that full XT groupset without a huge difference to the company bottom line.

[splat]

9 minutes ago, Headshot said:

https://www.specialized.com/za/en/s-works-carbon-zee-cage-ii--right/p/173135?color=274179-173135&searchText=43020-0502

 

R1450  28g

around 1/5 the price weighs about 20g more, if that. I find it offensive that they even sell this cr@p.

So, who's the problem in this situation ?
The company selling it, or the people buying it at that price ?

[Jewbacca]

4 minutes ago, Headshot said:

https://www.specialized.com/za/en/s-works-carbon-zee-cage-ii--right/p/173135?color=274179-173135&searchText=43020-0502

 

R1450  28g

around 1/5 the price weighs about 20g more, if that. I find it offensive that they even sell this cr@p.

In the same breath an aero skinsuit can cost up to 100k or get one from Decathlon for under a grand. 

Again, cycling really can and does cater for a vast market. You can keep a really nice 1x10 speed bike on the trails for cheap. 

Our definition of 'nice' is just warped and what people perceive as being what they need is even more disturbing

[eala]

20 minutes ago, Duane_Bosch said:

I once did work for a well known feed manufacturer and the FD of the company said something to me. His exact words were "free range is a marketing term" If the chicken really was free range you'd be paying R500 for it.

If they open the feedlot doors ,they call it free range .Plenty videos on the scam 

[bleedToWin]

48 minutes ago, dave303e said:

Note the term juice- milk from mammary glands, juice from flavourants.

It's just a word bro.
Botanists and biologists have been sharing the word for centuries without any confusion or disagreement. 

[M L]

13 hours ago, Frosty said:

Yes, they are.

As long as people shop there, and pay the higher prices, they can keep charging the same higher prices.

The same with Specialized; they have a market willing to buy their product. As long as that market is buying the product, they will keep selling it.

You know I've thought about the price of eggs for example.

The price of truly free range, as in Boschendal free range eggs must be at least 20x the cost of normal Checkers eggs. Yet they only cost 2 or 3x. 

So that begs the question, who really has the largest margins?

[117]

1 hour ago, dave303e said:

As long as your flat white is not ruined by someone adding almond juice or soya juice in your coffee. Note the term juice- milk from mammary glands, juice from flavourants

Even funnier if a fourways gym booitjie walks into the coffee shop and asks for a flat white with almond juice

[M L]

2 hours ago, esCape-ist said:

Based on the opinions here, I'm amazed woolworths is doing so well financially. Yes, they are taking a knock the past few years from Checkers who upped their game dramatically, and now PnP doing the same. But they still posting solid earnings.

So since the general consensus is Woolies is expensive and only for the wealthy, there must be a lot of really wealthy people in the middle class suburbs.

Reality is, like mentioned above, woolworths doesn't offer an entry level or budget price option. They only cover the middle of the market, and do that really well, and then have a range of premium products that are actually really good quality, but you need to pay a premium for them.

If you actually do a proper price comparison, an compare the same type of products between checkers, pnp and woolworths, everything costs about the same, give or take 5-10% either way. But you can't compare the cheapest pnp no name brand baked beans, with a can imported borlotti beans from woolworths. That silly.

Meat used to be a lot more expensive at woolworths, but now days the price is pretty much the same between checkers/pnp/woolies, but the quality of woolworths and checkers is way above pnp.

Woolworths chicken is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Much much lower saline content than the others, which means almost no shrinkage when you cook it. The free range chicken at woolworths also tastes a damn side better than others, and whether it's on brand strength alone, I trust the rBST and growth hormone free sticker on the woolies chicken, because it tastes so much more “natural”. Same can be said about the eggs. The woolworths free range eggs are a much deeper yellow, and a lot closer to that of my own free range eggs from my garden variety chickens at home.

 

Bread/milk/cheese/rusks/coffee/tea/eggs/cereal etc there is almost nothing between the stores on price. Granted you compare the same products. Milk might be a exception, but the woolworths milk is a step above, with faircape from pnp or checkers being the closest comparison, but then the price is close again.

 

But to get back to the point, love them or hate them, specialised delivers a good product at a market related price, in every sector of the market. Yes, s-works is insanely expensive, but at the comp, elite and pro levels, their bikes often provide better value compared to similar offerings from competitors. If you want to hate on a brand for “overpricing” I think Santa Cruz and Yeti are better targets - granted they do not offer any entry level options, you still pay a hefty sticker price for the badge there, specifically on their “entry level” stuff.

So how do you avoid shrinkage?

Asking for a friend.

Edited August 11, 2022 by M L