The supermarket pricing tricks they hope you won't notice

UK supermarket pricing has grown noticeably sneakier in the last three years. Most of the techniques are technically legal and disclosed — but they rely on shoppers not pausing to do the maths. Here are the patterns worth recognising.

1. Shrinkflation

The pack stays the same size on the shelf; the contents shrink. Recent UK examples logged by Which? in 2025:

• Walkers crisps multipack: 24 packs → 22 packs
• Hellmann's mayonnaise: 800g → 750g
• Toblerone: triangles spaced further apart
• Cathedral City: 350g block → 320g

The price stays the same or rises slightly. The unit price (per 100g) tells the truth — always check it.

2. The unit-price illusion

The small print on shelf-edge labels states the unit price (per 100g, per litre, per kg). The catch: it isn't always consistent. The same shelf can mix per-100g and per-100ml between competing products, or per-piece for some and per-kg for others. Always convert mentally to the same unit before comparing.

3. Fake multibuys

'2 for £4' on a product that's £1.95 each. '3 for £10' on something £3.30 each. The 'deal' is sometimes worse than the single price, or unchanged. This is now banned in the strictest form but persists in softer variants — 'Was £2.50, now 2 for £4.50' (i.e. £2.25 each) is technically truthful but engineered to look like a saving.

4. Eye-level mark-ups

Branded goods sit at adult eye level. Cheaper own-label equivalents sit higher or lower. Cereal aisles are the most egregious example — own-label cornflakes at floor level are typically 40–60% cheaper per 100g than the branded versions at eye level.

Children's eye level is its own category — sugary cereals, character-licensed snacks, premium-priced 'kids' yoghurts.

5. The end-of-aisle premium

End-cap displays imply a deal. Often they are simply full-price, premium-margin lines positioned where impulse purchases happen. Always check the shelf-edge unit price — if the same product is on the regular aisle shelf, the price is usually identical there.

6. The 'fresh' bakery and butcher counters

Loose bread and counter-cut meat are typically priced 20–40% higher per kg than the equivalent packaged product two aisles over. The packaged version is often baked or cut in the same building on the same day.

7. Loyalty-only prices

Clubcard, Nectar, More — the dual-pricing model means non-loyalty members pay an effective premium. If you shop a chain regularly, sign up. If you don't, the headline 'sale' price is fiction for you.

A two-minute habit that defeats most of it

Before putting an item in the basket, glance at the unit price on the shelf edge and the next product along. Five seconds. It catches most of the tricks above.

Pricing tricks rely on the shopper being busy, hungry or in a rush. The single biggest saving in supermarkets is simply slowing down at the shelf-edge label.