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Why are multipacks not to be sold separately?


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Old 01-05-2012, 19:20
The Wizard
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When you buy a multipack of cans or crisps why does it say 'Not to be sold separately?'

I mean, what difference does it make to the manufacturer whether the retailer decides to split the packs up and sell them separately so long as someone buys them? I don't get it. What business is it of the manufacturer what someone decides to do with the can or pack of crisps after they're bought. Surely all that matters is that someone is buying their product. End of!

I can't see it being illegal for a retailer like a pub for example to go down to Tescos, split a multipack of Walkers crisps and sell them over the bar individually even if it does say not to on the packet.

Is this just a way for manufacturers to get away with charging shop keepers more for buying non multipack items?

As far as i'm aware certain multipacks cut corners by only printing sell by dates and ingredient info on the outer packaging which is why some multipacks are not to be split but often this is not the case.

I've just bought a 6 pack of Tizer with get 2 cans free and on the can it says 'MULTIPACK Not for resale as a single unit.' Yet each individual can has a full list of ingredients, health/allergy warnings, nutritional information and a sell by date on the base of each can. Therefore WHY can't I sell them separately?

Is the manufacturer at fault for lying to the consumer? Is this just a way to con the retailer into paying more for non multipack packs when in fact he doesn't have to? Is this practice of misleading the retailer not illegal?
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Old 01-05-2012, 21:26
sarahj1986
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Probably something to do with price. A 6pk of coke is cheaper than 6 individual cans. Maybe coke/walkers etc want to keep control over how much people can buy/sell the different denominations so for example 70p RRP for a single can, multipack is say £3.50 rtc
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Old 01-05-2012, 21:39
The Wizard
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I see what you're saying but that's got nothing to do with the manufacturer how much profit the shopkeeper makes off their products and coca cola for example have no right to set an rrp for the consumer. It's up to the retailer how much he chooses to sell it for based on his personal profit margins surely. All seems rather bully boy tactics if you ask me.

The manufacturer can make as much profit as they like but they try to put a cap on how much the retailer can make? Isn't that rather hypocritical?
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Old 01-05-2012, 21:49
fast left
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used to see single cokes etc for sale at corner shops .does anything happen if coke finds out i wonder? when they used to have the cheap price printed on that's what i would give them
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Old 01-05-2012, 21:51
grps3
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the individual items do not have the nutritional info and ingredient list therefore cannot be sold individually

just a guess...not sure if fact
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Old 01-05-2012, 21:52
pastanutty
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maybe because most multipack items don't have a barcode on them and when you take it to the till the operator wouldn't have a clue what to do...
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Old 01-05-2012, 22:29
PhoenixRises
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Back in the day corner shops and newsagents type shops would buy multi-pack of crisps and fizzy drinks and the such and then sell them separately making a nice extra profit in the deal. These companies didn't like this and therefore started putting the messages on the packaging so it is easier to spot. This is before the beep beep scanning of today's shopping experience
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Old 01-05-2012, 23:46
timmoncaster
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could it be the dates on the packs? Do multi packs only have dates on the outer packaging?
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Old 02-05-2012, 00:20
The Wizard
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the individual items do not have the nutritional info and ingredient list therefore cannot be sold individually

just a guess...not sure if fact
Some do and some don't. Same with nutritional and ingredient info.

I've just read the consumer direct website and it states that to legally sell a multipack item the individual item (if food) must contain a list of ingredients, any allergy advice, nutrition info and a sell by date. In the case of cleaning products, soap or bath products etc. it must display any health advice or allergy warnings and list of contents or ingredients and if applicable, a use by date.

My can of Tizer had all of the legal required info on the can apart from the fact it said that I couldn't sell it separately.

According to consumer direct, I am in fact well within my rights to sell it as an individual item perfectly legally so the claim on the can is in fact a total lie and just scare tactics to make retailers think they should purchase the more expensive, individual cans instead of the cheaper multipacks. And they don't have to have a barcode to sell them. I also think it's wrong for them to print rrp prices on packets and cans etc forcing a profit cap on the retailer. Sorry but what business is it of the manufacturer if the retailer wishes to sell that £1 bottle of 7up for £1.30? It's wrong! Printing rrp prices on packets forces the retailer to set his prices and caps the maximum amount of profit he can make yet it's ok for the manufacturer to charge what they like? That sucks!

According to consumer direct, so long as the retailer covers the rrp on let's say a packet of cigarettes, with a sticker advertising the revised price, then he can legally charge what he likes but in reality how much stick is he gonna get off customers for doing that? In fact as a retailer i'd deliberately avoid buying products that displayed rrp's on the product. What business is it of theirs how much I wish to charge for something?
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Old 02-05-2012, 01:29
whoever,hey
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I dont know.

But all the reasons so far post date the "not to be sold separately" labels.

I dont think its enforcable personally, the only thing is they do tend to be smaller in multipacks.
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Old 02-05-2012, 09:45
The Wizard
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I dont know.

But all the reasons so far post date the "not to be sold separately" labels.

I dont think its enforcable personally, the only thing is they do tend to be smaller in multipacks.
I think, AFAIK that only ever happens with bags of crisps but so long as you're not misleading the customer as to the size they are purchasing then there's still no reason why you can't sell them for whatever you like. So long as the customer is aware they are buying a smaller pack and the weight is written on the packet then I think you're perfectly legal to do so.

The problem comes when the consumer thinks you're either breaking the law of trying to rip them off.

For example my dad runs a small pub that doesn't exactly do a roaring trade in crisps. If he buys 3 trade packs of crisps (plain, c&o, s&v) they've usually gone out of date before he gets to sell them all. So he decided one day to go to Tescos and buy a couple of multipack bags and seeing as they were smaller he knocked them out at 20p less than a standard packet. He was legally entitled to do this as all the required info was on the packets but as a result of them having the word, 'Multipack' written on them, he had no end of grief off his customers claiming he was breaking the law and trying to rip people off even though he wasn't. In the end he didn't bother and just stuck to selling plain or nothing.

Same with fruit shoots. There's this couple who gets in with a toddler and as my dad's pub is an older people's local he doesn't get enough kids in to warrant buying the bulk 24 or 48 packs of fruit shoot as he can't shift them fast enough. So instead he went to the supermarket and bought a variety or multipack purely for convenience. One day the area manager came down and told him he had to take them off the shelves as he wasn't allowed to sell them as they were part of a multipack. I'm pretty sure this isn't right.
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Old 02-05-2012, 15:20
Bluemotel
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Pack size, value, profit... different products different rules. They want more money off the public and multi-packs are an easy way to do this. Often people do not realise when they buy less. A certain supermarket has four different options of a product we buy weekly, the price difference can be significant, so we play the numbers and buy more when the size we want is at the best value.
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Old 01-06-2013, 12:42
rkl
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It's very devious of Coke, Pepsi etc. not to put the barcode on the multipack cans - of course, it should have the same barcode as the normal single can product, but they'll argue "no, it can't have that because the non-multipack single can is a completely different product".

The lack of a barcode won't stop a corner shop (they'll just either put a sticker on it or a label on the shelf/fridge front edge with the price), which are surely the most likely places to try to split a multipack up.

I suspect even corner shops have more efficent ways to make profit on cans (and bottles) though. They'll either buy them in bulk from Costco or the like or try "grey importing". I remember a corner shop years ago in Liverpool that would sell Coke bottles imported from eastern European countries (so, yes, the labels had foreign languages on them).

Coca Cola caught wind of this, so to keep their rip-off Britain prices intact, they started putting a yellow "GB" logo on their 500ml (and maybe other) Coke bottles. A somewhat bizarre move considering it's a US company...
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Old 01-06-2013, 13:14
austino6
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Back in the day corner shops and newsagents type shops would buy multi-pack of crisps and fizzy drinks and the such and then sell them separately making a nice extra profit in the deal. These companies didn't like this and therefore started putting the messages on the packaging so it is easier to spot. This is before the beep beep scanning of today's shopping experience
Our ice cream van still does this he buys multipacks of frazzles which on offer are a quid for 6 then sells them at 55p a pop!
& the guy has a cheek to say to my mates I've not seen him in a while will guess what you never will again!

Now i say to all my mates stock up on all the junk at supermarkets & avoid hell on wheels at all costs
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Old 01-06-2013, 15:35
marianna01
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I've just opened a bag of crisps from a multi-pack and all the information for nutrition, ingredients, sell-by date and barcode are all on the bag. The amount of crisps though are a very mean 25g!
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Old 01-06-2013, 17:43
timmoncaster
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Some do and some don't. Same with nutritional and ingredient info.

I've just read the consumer direct website and it states that to legally sell a multipack item the individual item (if food) must contain a list of ingredients, any allergy advice, nutrition info and a sell by date. In the case of cleaning products, soap or bath products etc. it must display any health advice or allergy warnings and list of contents or ingredients and if applicable, a use by date.

My can of Tizer had all of the legal required info on the can apart from the fact it said that I couldn't sell it separately.

According to consumer direct, I am in fact well within my rights to sell it as an individual item perfectly legally so the claim on the can is in fact a total lie and just scare tactics to make retailers think they should purchase the more expensive, individual cans instead of the cheaper multipacks. And they don't have to have a barcode to sell them. I also think it's wrong for them to print rrp prices on packets and cans etc forcing a profit cap on the retailer. Sorry but what business is it of the manufacturer if the retailer wishes to sell that £1 bottle of 7up for £1.30? It's wrong! Printing rrp prices on packets forces the retailer to set his prices and caps the maximum amount of profit he can make yet it's ok for the manufacturer to charge what they like? That sucks!

According to consumer direct, so long as the retailer covers the rrp on let's say a packet of cigarettes, with a sticker advertising the revised price, then he can legally charge what he likes but in reality how much stick is he gonna get off customers for doing that? In fact as a retailer i'd deliberately avoid buying products that displayed rrp's on the product. What business is it of theirs how much I wish to charge for something?
As a retailer priced marked products are brilliant! It helps me compete against the supermarket. Well to a certain point. Most branded goods in the cash and carry have in Un price marked products and price marked ones. An example would be we could get 8 bottles of 2 litre Pepsi £11.35+vat RRP £1.99 profit would be 14.5% however we got 6 bottles 2litre Pepsi £4.99 +vat price marked £1.69 with profit been 41% we always choose the price marked ones as the profit is better.
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Old 01-06-2013, 18:13
fickrick
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Back in the day corner shops and newsagents type shops would buy multi-pack of crisps and fizzy drinks and the such and then sell them separately making a nice extra profit in the deal. These companies didn't like this and therefore started putting the messages on the packaging so it is easier to spot. This is before the beep beep scanning of today's shopping experience
exactly!!
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Old 01-06-2013, 20:05
fast left
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i remember buying single cokes with 'not to be sold separately' on the sides and with a price.a few times the corner shop tried to sell for more than stated on the can !
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Old 01-06-2013, 22:07
Welsh-lad
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The multipack items are always smaller aren't they? e.g crisps.
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Old 02-06-2013, 03:16
PPhilster
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Put simply, the packs do not contain all the information a normal individually sold item would have.
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Old 02-06-2013, 17:10
Rab64
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Because multi pack crisps weigh 25 gms, normal ones 35 gms. So they do not want both being sold at the same price
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Old 02-06-2013, 17:15
The Wizard
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Our ice cream van still does this he buys multipacks of frazzles which on offer are a quid for 6 then sells them at 55p a pop!
& the guy has a cheek to say to my mates I've not seen him in a while will guess what you never will again!

Now i say to all my mates stock up on all the junk at supermarkets & avoid hell on wheels at all costs
To be fair to the guy as long as he's up front with his prices and labels correctly the exact thing that he's selling then he's not doing anything wrong. You may think it's unfair because he's making an extra profit on top of what you can buy them for in the shops but the key word there is profit. You don't expect him to sell them to you at the price he paid for them do you? Nobody is forcing you to buy his crisps.
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Old 02-06-2013, 17:32
The Wizard
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Because multi pack crisps weigh 25 gms, normal ones 35 gms. So they do not want both being sold at the same price
But surely that's up to the person selling them what price they wish to charge. As far as I'm aware there's no law to say a retailer can't split a multipack and resell it separately so long as the product he's selling matches the description and price as advertised. The only stipulation required by law is that each pack must display the following information: Ingredients, allergy/safety advice (if applicable), size in grams and sell by date. As far as I'm aware most multipack crisps and cans of fizzy drinks all have this printed on each individual unit which means he's well within his rights to sell them.

From where I stand it's just a way for manufacturers to stop you from making an extra profit on their multisave items and instead try and force you to buy the more expensive bulk packs. My old pub wasn't busy enough to buy individual boxes of crisps so we used to sell multipacks from Tesco because whenever we bought the big boxes of crisps we'd often have loads left over by the time they went out of date. If anyone complained we simply said, 'its your choice, don't like it them don't buy them.' We only sold them as a matter of courtesy.
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Old 02-06-2013, 17:51
The Wizard
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i remember buying single cokes with 'not to be sold separately' on the sides and with a price.a few times the corner shop tried to sell for more than stated on the can !
That is illegal. However providing the shop covered up the price on the can with a sticker saying the revised price and it was clearly marked and the can contained all the required info (i.e nutrition and sell by date) then they are legally allowed to do that. This is according to the consumer direct website.
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Old 02-06-2013, 18:20
mackara
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Retailers are also being very cute by never placing multi packs of soft drink in the coolers, is this the reason people pay over a pound on a 500 ml bottle of chilled coke when they can buy 2 x 2 litre bottles unchilled coke for under 2 pounds. The price of the small 500 ml bottle of coke is around 800-1000% more on that basis
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