You’ve met your match

Joseph O’Reilly from Booterstown has another issue with the same store. He was recently walking around Superquinn in Blackrock for the first time in a while and noticed a large number of promotional signs on a number of different products which were emblazoned with the phrase “Price Match”. “The sign caught my attention as a potential promotional item which I should investigate further. It went on to list the price of the item in Tesco, Dunnes and Superquinn as exactly the same.” He thought it was odd that Superquinn was trying to sell him the product by claiming their price was exactly the same as at Tesco or Dunnes.

“It occurred to me that such evidence in any other business would be seen as ‘cartel-like activity’ and anti-competitive. An alternative view on this ‘Price Match’ approach is that Superquinn is really trying to tell its customers that all products without this sign are in fact over-priced in comparison to Tesco or Dunnes. Which is it?”

We contacted Superquinn again and on this occasion recieved the following short statement: “It is important that we offer our customers value across our ranges. The price match communication in store is to reassure our customers that we do offer them value.”