how do they do that ?

[venta]

I've just been to Savers, a discount chemist. I bought myself some hair dye and some face cream and, because I'm anal like that, wandered into Boots to compare prices.

Boots doesn't stock the hairdye I bought, but their own-brand is £2.69, and I paid £2.49 for Schwarzkopf stuff.

The face cream I bought is £2.99 in Savers. In Boots it's under a large red poster saying "Lower prices you'll love", and costs £4.69.

Yes, I know this is a really dull post. But how the hell does Boots get away with it ? I know some people don't care much about saving a few pence here and there, but... 50% ?

Comments

[cuthbertcross.livejournal.com]

Boots isn't the cheapest place, but it's one of many pharmacists that it's important to support. The most important is your little corner shop chemist, who the government is happy to screw over by letting the supermarkets cut-price painkillers etc. Yes they're cheaper *now*, but when all the pharmacies go bust do you really think they'll stay cheap??
More to the point, a good pharmacy will order things for you if they don't stock them, whereas Boots won't (unless you want to buy, for example, 500 paskets of alum). In their defence they do sell homebrewing stuff still.
I thought the main thing about Savers was that it only does toiletries and unrestricted medicined; ie no prescription only. Superdrug is a fine shop, and does the job without being flashy.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

"Yes they're cheaper *now*, but when all the pharmacies go bust do you really think they'll stay cheap??"

Yep, because all the supermarkets compete against each other.

I could point to the example of supermarkets that now sell petrol and supermakets that sell home'n'wear clothing.

In neither case has the sky fallen or prices risen.

The current situation is a cosy little monopoly that has kept prices high is especially unfortunate for the older generation who are more likely to need the products and more likely to be on a restricted income.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Furthermore, short of a monopoly of Post Office proportions there is no way anyone could sell generic painkillers that aren't cheap. If you're physically capable of swallowing a chalk tablet, it's a buyer's market.