- In the video: Fake price tags: what you can do if you get an unpleasant surprise at the checkout
A Lidl employee from North Rhine-Westphalia posted a TikTok video on the video platform. “At Lidl the prices are not down, but up. “That's how it should be,” he says in the one-minute video, pointing to a chocolate shelf where the price of Zetti's crunchies (2.99 euros at Lidl) is written directly above the product. The video has already been viewed 147,000 times and has sparked a real debate.
But is there a right or wrong way to put up price tags in the supermarket? The short answer: no.
Discount sellers like to hang price tags above the product on the shelf. Supermarkets, on the other hand, usually do it under the product. “If the price is low, attention is more likely to focus on the product on the shelf. If the price goes up, the consumer perceives it more strongly,” explains Martin Fassnacht, retail trade expert and economist at the WHU business school in Düsseldorf, to a question from FOCUS online.
At Lidl the price is the focus, at Rewe the product is the focus
The retail expert's conclusion: “You can say that discounters tend to focus on price and supermarkets focus more on product.”
The fact is that cheap products, such as private label products, are usually on the bottom shelves of the supermarket. “We call them “Bückware” because the customer has to bend down to reach them. “It is clear that prices are not up, but down,” a manager at a Rewe branch answers a FOCUS online question. It's also easier for customers to find the price of a product. If the price is up, you first have to work to find the right price.
“Our organic brands are then on a top shelf. Then customers can decide whether they want the clearly visible brand, the organic product or the cheap one,” says the Rewe employee. The more options customers have, the better it is for everyone. “This is how it should be,” he mocks the video of his Lidl colleague.
“Lidl, Aldi Süd and all other retailers where the price is high remain faithful to their discount line,” says expert Fassnacht.
Pharmacies often only have prices below
At dm, Rossmann and Müller, customers have it easier. The same applies to organic retailers and hardware stores. The prices there are usually found uniformly on the respective products. Because stores pay more attention to the products and the well-being of their customers.
“Basically, price information is processed in the pain center of the brain. “The presentation of the product and the price should therefore reduce the price pain,” explains sales psychologist Matthias Niggehoff in an interview for the newspaper “Bild”.
What should I pay attention to on price tags?
Price tags are usually white with black letters. Aldi Süd also has yellow price tags, as long as there are no digital price tags yet.
If you want to save, do not compare the main price, but the Basic price On the shelf. Always indicate the full price per kilo or liter. This is practical because individual products are often offered in packages of different sizes.
If you Red either orange If you find price tags, you can get a bargain here! Additions like “From our advertising” or “Offer of the week” can also help.
There have been occasional incidents over the past few years. green Price tags. These represent special organic and fair trade characteristics of a product.
Blue, multicolor and colorful price tags may suggest they can make additional discounts using coupons or apps. This is usually the case with Lidl or Netto Marken-Discount.