photo: Bára Richterová, PrahaIN.cz/Milk on sale
From January 1, 2024, basic foodstuffs moved to a twelve percent VAT rate. By the end of last year, they fell to fifteen percent. Some chains reported that they had reduced prices by even more percent. But the prices are still high for many buyers. And that’s why they often look at promotional leaflets.
We also wrote several times about goods with an approaching expiration date. Supermarkets usually indicate this with an orange or yellow sign on which the amount of the discount, current and original price is indicated. Penny Market and Lidl are marking meat and selected chilled products at 25 per cent off. We also noticed similar signs in Tesco and Albert.
Our editorial team witnessed several times when employees of the Lidl supermarket brought discounted goods to the refrigerated counter. Customers literally flocked to him. They took yogurts, salamis, cheeses, salads and sweets.
We wrote
Earlier in the year we reported that Penny Market had discounted its items by three per cent a month before the new VAT rate came into effect. Lidl…
Now we just noticed discounts in Lidl, which are really minimal.
Sometimes it’s not even one percent. Customers are still attracted by the discount sign. However, if they do not look at the price in detail, they may be surprised at the checkouts.
“Are you serious?” we overheard a woman in Lidl asking the sales clerk present about the promotional price of milk. He verifies the amount over the phone and confirms it to the customer. “This is a mockery. I’ll save a crown and twenty halers on a carton of milk,” she responded.
Half percent off
Pilos semi-skimmed milk has been really discounted. It didn’t cost 18.90, but 18.80 crowns. Customers thus saved ten pennies on one liter of milk.
A similar case was brought to our attention about a month ago by a reader.
“When I buy meat, I usually buy it at a discount. There is almost always some. I was looking for turkey or chicken cutlets, I see a red discount tag on the turkeys, so I go for them. At the cash register, however, I see that I paid 235.90 crowns per kilogram. So I went back to look. They were discounted, but from 238.90. So by three crowns per kilogram,” she wrote.
Turkey in action. Author: PrahaIN.cz
We went to Lidl. We really found both mentioned products at a minimally reduced price. But there were significantly more of them in a similar event.
A kilogram of beef leg was discounted from 302.90 crowns to 299 crowns. One tub of cottage cheese was discounted from 18.90 crowns to 18.80 crowns. We also noticed a kilogram of long-grain rice, which no longer cost 38.80 crowns, but 37.90 crowns.
PrahaIN.cz asked about the discounts, which amount to a few pennies.
“Lidl always transparently informs customers about the selling price of the product in the store. If the product is sold at a reduced price, the old and new prices are automatically displayed on the price tag. The situations you describe in your question have also occurred in the past. Some time ago, however, measures were taken to ensure that relevant price changes on the price tag are displayed only from the customer’s point of view,” said Eliška Froschová Stehlíková, head of corporate communications, for our editors.
