We need food every day: we are all consumers and most of us regularly make purchases in retail chains.
Unfortunately, unscrupulous sellers often resort to various tricks that force us to spend more and buy lower quality products.
What are the most common trading tricks everyone needs to know?
1. Body kit
The most ancient way of deception, it originated from the moment the process of buying and selling appeared. Despite any penalties, trade continues to weigh on buyers:
- Cheat when weighing bulk goods. There are a lot of tricks here: to tweak the scales, including electronic pair of trifles; the use of weights and magnets; weighing in packaging; incorrect installation of weighing equipment and much more.
- Reduces the weight of the product when packing in the store. Before packing, the goods are cheaper, the costs of packing are few, and not supplying 50-100 g for each portion is already income.
- The initial mass of the product is increased. Live fish are placed in a cage without air access, where they swallow water and their weight can increase by 1.5-2 times. The meat is chipped with water with water-retaining agents - and the mass increases significantly.
Dried fruits are soaked in sweet water - the result is the same, plus a more attractive presentation, but such dried fruits will be poorly stored: microbiological spoilage will come very quickly. Hygroscopic foods (sugar, biscuits, cereals) are placed in a humid environment, where they themselves absorb moisture from the air, which increases weight.
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2. Misleading
Set a higher price for goods: both at the counter and at the checkout. For example, you did not notice that the price tag indicated a lower price per unit of packaged goods (instead of 0.5 l, 0.33 l was indicated or not 1 kg, but 0.5 kg), and now you have already paid more than expected.
3. Re-grading
Many food products are classified according to their quality. In trade, they can sell low-quality goods under the guise of high-quality goods.
For example, selling the first or second grade under the guise of premium apples. Or selling the first or even the second grade under the guise of extra rice. The seller can mix standard and low-quality products.
If food products are not subdivided into varieties by quality, then consumer deception may take place: under the guise of standard products, non-standard products are sold, and the price is set as for quality products.
4. Natural loss of food is not taken into account
An unscrupulous salesperson may not consider shrinkage, leakage, spraying, crumbling, etc.
The sausages are sold with the preservation of industrial packaging. For example, the ends of the shell are not cut: the product can be stored this way longer. And we again overpay for waste, for which the seller receives discounts from manufacturers
When packing bulk butter or margarine, the top layer, the so-called staff, is not cut off. The yellow color of the surface of the oil indicates that oxidative processes have taken place in it and should not be eaten
5. Re-labeling of goods
- Most often, the date of production and the shelf life of products are changed. They wash away the original dates and set new ones with which you can sell packaged goods.
- They put on new labels without even removing the old ones. At the same time, the price, weight and date of packing can be changed.
- They can combine re-labeling with re-packaging of products. This method is used even for goods packaged in production. The packaging with expired products is opened, packed in a new one and sold at an increased cost.
What tricks from salespeople have you come across? Let us know in the comments!
6. Using certain marketing ploys
- They use special methods for placing goods on the trading floor. Essential products are placed at the end of the sales area, and the buyer has to walk through the rows with expensive products, buying them.
- At eye level, products with an expiring date, with hidden defects, and with a higher price are displayed.
- Place price tags with a lower price under the item of higher value.
- Appetite-inducing and purchasing flavors are used, for example, the aroma of freshly baked bread, prepared coffee, chocolate. It can be difficult for a consumer to refrain from purchasing these products.
7. Pre-sale preparation, dangerous for buyers
- They mask product defects: the mold is removed from the sausage with vegetable oil; mucus from meat products and fish is washed off with cleaning agents; the smell of rot is removed with potassium permanganate and vinegar.
- Expired products are packaged together with fresh ones.
- Various dried fruits are soaked in sugar syrup.
- When packing, scraps are placed on a substrate under a quality product.
- Spread the staff on butter and margarine.
- Coffee beans are rubbed with vegetable oil to add shine.
- They give out dull or dormant products under the guise of live fish of high-value varieties, laying them on ice.
8. Violation of storage conditions
An unscrupulous seller may allow such violations of storage conditions and commodity proximity, which reduce the quality of the products sold and contribute to the appearance of defects hazardous to human health:
- Vegetable oil is stored in the light around the clock, while oxidation occurs in it and substances are released that may have a carcinogenic effect.
- Nearby there may be products that require heat treatment and are ready to eat. Infection with dangerous microorganisms of the latter is guaranteed.
- Melted chocolate and candies are placed in the refrigerator, as a result of which a defect appears - a white coating on the surface, called graying.
- Re-freezing of food is often done in stores and markets. At the same time, they can also add water, and as a result, we pay for it as for a commodity.
9. Own food production
- Large trading enterprises have their own shops for the production of semi-finished products, salads, fried and boiled products, for the production of which they can use low-quality, defective products with an expired shelf life.
- Provide space on favorable terms to pizzerias, coffee houses, tea houses, which are subsequently forced to buy low-quality raw materials in trade.
- Waste from cutting meat and offal are used to prepare minced meat, the cost of which is comparable to the meat itself.
These are not all the ways customers are deceived. The ingenuity of unscrupulous sellers can only be envied … It is quite difficult to withstand this "undeclared war" between trade and the consumer. The consumer has to become an expert. In addition to the tricks of the trade, the buyer needs to know the signs of quality products, be able to determine their freshness, read the labeling, and be careful when paying for the purchase.
Of course, the state is trying to put things in order with deceiving consumers, but it is still far from ideal. More often they punish "scapegoats" - sellers, cashiers, and the real culprits remain in the shadows.
The state control and supervision bodies have their hands tied, at present they only carry out routine inspections, notifying the person being inspected six months in advance. You yourself understand that it is very easy to put things in order by the time of checking.
The mechanisms of public control and self-education of consumers remain. If you and I learn to choose only high-quality food products, if we stop falling for deception, then trade will have to sell only them.
Marchenko Olga Borisovna