Tesco price cuts not what they seem?

Tesco recently announced 1,000 price cuts in Ireland but what they didn’t say was that they had increased thousands of prices in the two months before the price reduction campaign was announced.
The price of almost 8,000 lines had actually gone up in January and February according to independent price analysis data, which tracks the online price of thousands of products sold by Tesco Ireland.

According to the Irish Times, for example, “Flahavan’s Progress Oatlets cost €1.95 at the end of last year. The price increased to €2.05 in the middle of January and then fell to €1.99 as part of the promotion.” This product now costs 2% more than it did the beginning of the year despite being included in the price cut campaign.
There are several other similar examples listed in today’s Irish Times.

Consumers Association of Ireland chief executive Dermott Jewell accused the large supermarkets of using “smoke and mirrors” to confuse consumers.

Irish Retailers to stop offering Laser cashback?

AIB, Ireland‘s largest bank, have issued notice to retailers that they are to impose an additional 20 cent charge for every “Cashback” transaction using a Laser card in store from October 1st.

The move has angered retailers as they already pay 20cent every time a Laser card is used in store.

According to