Hands up; I love Jaffa Cakes. And I’m betting there’s a very good chance that you love Jaffa Cakes too.
In fact, instead of making me have second thoughts about this McVities Product, the recent BBC ‘Inside the Factory’ Episode from Series 7, that took us through the whole production process only made me feel like I’d grown to enjoy these must eat the whole packet now they are open treats even more.
And yes. Jaffa Cakes are very much a treat and to be fair, they do fall well outside of the Basic and Essential foods that The Growing UK Food Problem and this Blog are all about. However, they can illustrate one of the big issues about pre-packaged foods and related products that we buy from supermarkets and what food inflation – and dare I say it, manipulation looks like, without many of us even noticing that there are some very questionable practices within the food/retail industry at work.
Whilst I’ve mentioned Tesco in Cheltenham a couple of times already, I’m not anti-Tesco. I shop there at least once a week and I have made a conscious and considered decision to do so, based on accessibility to all the items that I will need in the smallest number of shops necessary, and at a price that is (hopefully) the best it can then be.
Yes, I like Tesco – because it makes sense for me to shop there. But in terms of the retailers’ ethics, morality – and most importantly to me, their pricing policy, it certainly doesn’t mean that I agree with everything that they do!
Right. Let’s get back to Jaffa Cakes.
Earlier this week, I bought a small (single) pack of Jaffa Cakes from the Tesco Express, which is located right next to the new John Lewis flagship store on Cheltenham High Street.
This morning, I picked up another small (single) pack of Jaffa Cakes from a Coop Partnership store on Cheltenham’s Hewlett Road – which is about a 5-minute walk between the two.
Although these are both ‘convenience’ stores, rather than ‘proper’ supermarkets, and its generally accepted that these types of stores have a premium attached, the reality is that Tesco and the stores that come under their umbrella such as One Stop, tend to be at least a little cheaper than the smaller retailers and independents – because of the economics of scale – if nothing more.
From this point of view alone, there’s not really a lot of juice that can be squeezed out of an argument about pack price – even when there isn’t a Clubcard Offer or the equivalent, on.
However, what does raise a red flag, and perhaps not in the way that you might think, is the question of how many ‘Cakes’ come from these different stores, when you go in and buy a ‘single’ pack?
What I learned this week, is there isn’t just one size of ‘single’ box of Jaffa Cakes. There are in fact at least two!
From the Tesco Store, I purchased a ‘Single’ box that contained ten (10) Jaffa Cakes, whereas my trip earlier today yielded me a ‘Single’ Box that contained twelve (12) Jaffa Cakes – albeit with every other aspect about the product contained within the boxes being exactly the same.
Put in this context, the price we pay for what we believe to be the same thing with the BIG retailer suddenly doesn’t feel quite as keen in comparison to buying from the smaller company, and it has certainly made me wonder just how many other items on supermarkets should be falling into the category of ‘buyer beware’ – because even when we believe we are paying the same, there is actually less in terms of content, and so we are actually paying a lot more?
Adam Tugwell 