Episode 10 Rip Off Britain

There's a lot we don't know about the food on our plates

and the shops and the labels don't always tell you the whole story.

Sometimes, there's just too many offers

and when you actually look at them, you're not really saving that much.

Whether you're staying in or going out, you've told us

you can feel ripped off by the promises made for what you eat

and what you pay for it.

If you buy six, it's cheaper.

But I don't want to buy six, I want to buy one.

From claims that don't stack up

to the secrets behind the packaging,

we'll uncover the truth about Britain's food,

so you can be sure you're getting what you expect at the right price.

Your food, your money. This is Rip-Off Britain.

Hello and welcome to Rip-Off Britain

and our special series on food and drink.

Today, we're looking, in particular,

at how to get the best value for money,

and if you fancy you've got a keen eye for a bargain,

well, get ready to meet a true master of the art,

a woman who has slashed the cost of her weekly shop

and she's going to be letting us into the secret

of exactly how she does it.

Believe me, you certainly do not want to miss that, nor do I.

And if you follow her example,

it really is extraordinary how much you could actually save.

As ever, we'll also be getting answers on some of the topics

you've asked us to investigate on your behalf

and we'll be identifying plenty of other ways

to make sure you're getting the best deal

instead of paying over the odds.

Because we know, from all of the

letters and e-mails that you send us,

just how important it is for you to come away from any purchase

or shopping trip feeling that you paid a fair price

and that you're getting your money's worth.

So, we've got plenty of tips on the way to help you decide

when it really IS worth splashing out on something

and when, perhaps, it might not be.

Coming up...

..at which of the four big supermarkets will

our bargain-hunting shopper Ilona find the best reductions?

When you shop like I do,

you never know what you're going to find, and it is a bit of a gamble.

And hampers chock full of delicious goodies

may seem the perfect gift, but how much could you save

if you bought the treats inside on their own

without the fancy packaging?

The individual items are very rarely worth the amount

you're being asked to pay as part of a hamper.

Now, who wouldn't want to reduce the cost of their weekly shop?

But forget the special offers and promotions.

According to the woman we're about to meet,

there's a much better way to make some serious savings.

This mobile phone footage is graphic proof

of just how far some people will go to grab a bargain.

You're unlikely to see shoppers scrabbling and scrapping

over cut-price meat like this every day,

but wherever you shop, you will spot eager bargain-hunters

descending on the cheapest part of the supermarket, the reduced aisle,

to see which foods are being marked down in price,

sometimes from pounds to pennies, including this lot.

Yes, I do. I look for some reduced, if possible, to save money.

Some branded pizzas should be about £5.

Sometimes they go down to half-price.

Probably on the meat counters, when they reduce the...

And fish, usually on a Saturday after the Friday.

Asda's good. They sell, like, five packs of doughnuts

for about 5p, don't they?

Whether the items have been reduced

because they're approaching their use-by date, are seasonal,

or are in damaged packaging, the bargains can be massive.

While it used to be the case that the best reductions could be grabbed

just before the stores closed, with so many supermarkets now open late

or even round-the-clock, that's all changed.

And that's a development which former lorry driver Ilona Richards

from Lincolnshire is happy to exploit.

She likes to keep every aspect of her life in tiptop condition,

so when it comes to her food shopping,

it's not just the calories she's counting, it's the pennies too.

It's very important for me to keep track of how much money

I spend on food, so I'm constantly looking for reductions,

I'm looking for bargains, special offers,

in every single shop I go in.

And she's become so successful at finding discounts

that Ilona, who dubs herself the Mean Queen,

says she rarely spends more than £15 a week on food,

without compromising on quality.

That doesn't mean that you eat rubbish.

I like to play around with the food that I've bought which is cheap.

I don't go with a shopping list and I will buy whatever is cheap

and then make something from that.

So, Ilona has perfected the art of maximising those markdowns

and, as a result, every week, she brings home some big bargains.

It's not very often you get bargains like this, is it?

But I know where to look for them.

There's 1.75kg of potatoes

reduced from £1.50 to 15p.

Now, that's a fantastic bargain!

Ilona reckons that, over the years,

she's saved herself thousands of pounds.

To demonstrate how she does it, we've set her a challenge.

We've given her a total of £20 and asked her to see

how many marked-down prices she can find for under a fiver

in the local branch of each of the biggest four supermarkets -

Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons.

I would expect to get 90% off if I go shopping after 7.30.

But it really depends how much there is.

You can never guarantee that there is going to be a lot of bargains

because earlier shoppers might have taken it all.

So, that's the gamble with it really.

But it's a gamble that, once again, appears to have paid off.

Later in the programme, we'll see

how Ilona got on with challenge we set,

and get ready to be seriously impressed

when you see just how many bargains she was able to bag this time.

It's amazing! I'm very happy with this result.

Let's be absolutely honest, it's an age-old dilemma -

what do you buy the person who's got everything

or, indeed, wants nothing?

I think it's a nightmare, but books or vouchers might not be

the treat you want to give this year.

Instead, when it comes to birthdays or all those celebrations,

many of us will opt for the perfect foodie gift -

in other words, a hamper, chock-full of luxurious-looking goodies.

You might be prepared to splash out a bit more for the convenience

and all that carefully-arranged packaging.

But get ready for a bit of a shock

because when you hear just how much extra you might be paying

for your hamper than if you were buying its contents separately,

you might start to wonder if it really IS such a perfect gift.

There was a time when hampers were reserved

for that great British summer institution - the picnic.

But now they're just as likely to be a year-round gift,

packed full of luxuriously indulgent food items.

Fortnum & Mason, the Queen's food supplier,

has reported their hamper sales are at a 300-year high,

so it appears to be a business that's booming.

It's lovely. You never know what's going to be in them.

They're attractive to the eye and you think, "Ooh, that looks nice."

Quite a pleasant present to receive.

It's exciting to dip into it and take all the straw out

and think, "Ooh, lovely!"

But take away the basket, the luxury trappings

and the convenience of it all,

how much of a mark-up are you left paying for the goods inside?

I've come to Bromley, near London,

to a market where I'm opening my very own gift stall.

That's quite a nice shape. It's good, very good.

I'm going to put the hamper factor to the test.

This is it - Gloria's Gifts.

As you know, every entrepreneur has to start somewhere,

so I think all I need is a bit of stock.

We've bought a handful of hampers from big-name retailers

and taken out all the individual products.

So, without the packaging they came in,

what do passing shoppers think that the goods are worth?

I would like you to look at each section of food and tell me

what you think, basically, they're worth.

So, we have some toffees and cake and biscuits

and different little bits and pieces. How much do you think?

-£8.

-£8 or £9.

-OK.

Over here, you've got two bottles of wine,

you've got sweet basil olives, a cake, crisps, things like that.

So how much do you think this is worth?

-I would say £25.

-£25.

And in the middle, I don't know how well you know your beer...

-I'm an expert.

-So, you said £10 for that one? OK.

Last one here. You have some manuka honey fudge, some chocolates.

-So how much for that one?

-£8.

-£8, OK.

Overall, once the nice presentation

and gift wrap had been stripped away,

the people we asked all underestimated the retail price

of those luxury goods.

So, it's time to bring back all those fancy extras and packaging

to see what a difference that makes

to people's perceptions of the price.

What do they think the goods are worth now?

Let's have a look at this one, for example,

-in the nice little wicker basket. What do you think?

-£15?

-£15, you thought? Right. What do you think, Lucy?

-I'm going £20.

-£20. Are you agreeing with that?

-I agree with that, yeah.

-OK.

It seems that the packaging really has bumped up

how much people think the goods are now worth.

On average, those we asked thought that this John Lewis hamper

would cost about £31, only slightly less than its actual price of £35.

But what's inside, if bought separately,

would have had a total cost of just £21.07,

so once our shoppers know that,

do they think the difference is a price worth paying?

-Oh. I think it's dear.

-Expensive?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Now, we couldn't find an individual price for everything in each hamper.

Some products can only be found in multipacks, for example.

So, in some cases,

we compared the cost of the closest product we could find.

Whilst it makes sense that the cost of the packaging itself

will obviously bump up the overall price,

it's interesting to see how much shoppers instinctively thought

the ingredients were worth

once they were nicely presented in a hamper.

This rather neat little basket, which has got wine, sweets,

jelly babies, tea, chocolate,

biscuits, including the basket, of course?

-About £35.

-About £35.

The average guess for the cost of this Debenhams hamper was £31,

but it actually retails at £40.99.

That's despite the contents selling for just £22.39 on their own.

Big difference, eh? OK, what about the middle?

Michael, this is where you come into your own.

-You've got a lot of beer and nuts and things.

-£20?

-£20?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

On average, our shoppers thought this lagers of the world package

would cost around £26

but it actually retails for more than double that, at almost £60,

even though you can buy the contents inside separately for just £11.02.

-Goodness!

-What do you think of that?

-That's outrageous.

-Outrageous?

-It is.

So, now we come to the slightly bigger hamper.

You've got, obviously, a very nice basket, apart from anything else.

Cake, you've got olives, crisps, tea, biscuits, wine...

-£65.

-£55.

-£55 for the basket.

-£75.

-£75?!

-What do you want to settle on?

-£60.

£60 it is, OK.

The average guess for this Waitrose Weekend Feast Hamper was £62.50,

which was about half the actual retail price of £100.

But buying pretty much the same products separately

would total just around £57.73.

-No!

-No?

-No.

-You're still not buying any of them?

-Still not buying, no.

No takers. So, all our shoppers totally underestimated

just how much extra that hamper factor adds

to the price of all those goodies.

But what is the hamper factor?

Why are we all so dazzled by a few ribbons and some straw

and, of course, that wicker basket?

I've invited financial expert Sarah Pennells to help shed some light

onto what makes hampers just so attractive.

Why do you think we like hampers so much?

I think it's partly because, when we buy hampers,

it is often as a present for a special occasion,

for something like Christmas or Mother's Day,

and I think we often have a different mentality then

than when we're buying food normally.

It's partly because of the way they're presented.

It feels like a treat, like it's luxury and, frankly,

who has the time to add up what the individual items cost

and to work out that they're actually a really bad deal?

But of course, the cost of the products

is only part of the picture.

The baskets in which they come have become very desirable

in their own right,

with people more than willing to pay extra for the packaging

which, let's face it, will last longer than the actual goods inside.

With these hampers,

a lot of the costs sometimes goes on the packaging

or on selling the idea,

not on the ingredients that make up the hamper.

I think the idea of them is great.

I'm a real foodie, so I would love it if somebody gave me

a collection of things I probably wouldn't buy on an everyday basis,

but I wouldn't like it if I'd known they'd paid double

just for getting a nice box.

We spoke to the companies behind the hampers we used on our stall.

Debenhams didn't want to comment,

but John Lewis and Waitrose both told us

theirs offer real quality and value

and that the price reflects the effort

that's gone into carefully selecting,

packing and presenting the products to make a "perfect ready-made gift",

as well the cost of the basket or box and, of course, free delivery.

They also stress how much time and effort hampers save the consumer.

Diverse Hampers, which sells its lagers of the world product

through Not On The High Street, said its price is based on the...

..the high-quality wooden packaging

and UK-wide couriered delivery included in the cost.

Meanwhile, some of those retailers pointed out

that they also sell unfilled hampers, so that you can buy

and put together your own selection of treats, which is an idea

that Sarah Pennells enthusiastically recommends.

There's nothing inherently unfair

about shops charging a lot for hampers,

as long as they're upfront with the cost,

because they never really market them as being a budget-buy

or a way of saving money.

They're always marketed as being a luxury treat.

But I would say, don't assume you're going to get

anything like good value if you buy a hamper.

Whether you're nipping somewhere just for a coffee and a cake

or sitting down for a full three-course meal,

eating out can be an expensive outing,

so we asked personal finance expert Sarah Pennells

to see if she could serve up some ways of cutting the cost.

Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch?

There are a few out there if you know where to look

and don't mind the fact that some of them come with strings attached.

Many of us spend a small fortune on coffee

and it's thought that we buy over two billion cups of it every year.

But at several big-name stores,

there's a way you can usually get a coffee

without it costing you a bean.

Now, personally, I like to soak up the atmosphere

of an independent coffee shop like this one,

but did you know that, if you're on the move,

a couple of companies, including Waitrose and IKEA,

have loyalty card schemes where you can claim a free tea or coffee

while you're in the store?

These offers do come with terms and conditions.

You can only claim one free drink a day

and the IKEA offer is only available Monday to Friday.

Waitrose recently tightened up the rules,

after what they said was abuse of the scheme.

In some stores, to qualify, you'll need to buy something,

but if you were going to do that anyway,

a free coffee could give you a very welcome boost.

And if drinking for free sounds good, eating free is even better.

You'll often find online vouchers and loyalty schemes

that offer the occasional freebie,

but there are some restaurants that regularly let kids eat for free,

if you choose your moment.

Oh, thank you very much.

If you eat out with the whole family, the bill can soon mount up,

but there are ways you can cut the costs without ditching the kids.

For example, if you want breakfast, both Beefeater and Brewers Fayre

will let up to two kids eat for free,

as long as an adult pays for breakfast at the same time.

Several chain restaurants and big pub companies may also offer

free kids' meals, sometimes even for Sunday lunch.

But if you fancy getting an entire adult meal for nothing,

you could try becoming a mystery shopper for a free supper.

Companies pay you to check out a restaurant or a cafe.

You will have to make notes and complete a report after the meal

and you'll usually have to claim back the cost of the meal

after you've dined there,

but it can be a great way of eating out

in places to which you'd never normally go.

So, if going undercover takes your fancy,

then GFK and ABA are two of the biggest names in the business

and worth checking out.

But, as always, watch out for the scam companies.

You shouldn't be asked for an upfront fee

to take part in these schemes.

If you are, then it's likely to be one to avoid.

All you have to do is sign up online.

Make sure you do some research to check out the company first.

You'll then be sent your assignment and a budget.

It's normally a meal for two

and you have to claim the money back afterwards,

but who's complaining if it's all for free?

Anything that saves you from spending the pounds...is fine by me.

Earlier in the programme, we met Ilona,

whose sheer skill at supermarket bargain-hunting

meant the cost of her weekly shop

is likely to be a fraction of yours and mine.

She takes absolutely full advantage of those little yellow stickers

that show you when food is being reduced in price.

You probably look out for them already.

But wait till you see exactly how much money she's been able to save.

I'm constantly looking for reductions,

I'm looking for bargains, special offers,

in every single shop I go in.

It's like a game and it's a game that I want to win.

Well, let's find out if she can do just that.

We've armed Ilona with £20

and asked her to visit her local branch

of each of the top four supermarkets

to see how many marked-down prices she can find

for under a fiver in each.

She's plotted a route around the stores,

based on her previous experience

of when the lowest prices are likely to be found.

Knowing the reductions don't typically start in earnest

until late afternoon, her first stop, Sainsbury's, isn't until 6pm.

That's swiftly followed by Asda at 6.30,

then Morrisons and, finally, the supermarket she knows best, Tesco,

which she hits at around 8.30.

She's left each store with some encouragingly full-looking bags.

So, once back home, it's time to unpack her haul

and see what bargains she's managed to pick up.

First on her journey and, perhaps because of that, the place

where she found the smallest savings overall was sainsbury's.

When you shop like I do, you never know what you're going to find

and it is a bit of a gamble.

Ilona spent our £5 on a total of seven items, including diced turkey,

grapes, yoghurts and fruit.

The original price would have been £11.05,

but thanks to the markdowns -

best of which were some wraps slashed from £2.50 to just 45p -

the total cost of her shopping went down by more than half to £4.92.

And she saved even more than that in the store she visited last, Tesco.

Now, it's a bigger shop there, so there was a lot more to choose from.

I've got lots of stickers with 90% off.

These 22 items should have cost just over £20,

but Ilona got them for £4.94, saving £15.10.

Her best bargains were with those 90% reductions,

one of which took these organic limes from £1.75 to just 18p.

I'm really pleased with that.

Second best for savings on this particular trip was Morrisons.

I've got quite a big pile there as well

and, again, really good savings,

down to 10p, 20p, 30p for some items.

And in some cases, even less.

Ilona bagged this pot of hummus for just 5p.

The full-price cost of the 19 items she bought would have been £21.38,

but after the markdowns, she paid just £4.89,

a saving of more than £16.

However, it was at the second store she visited, Asda,

where, on this occasion,

Ilona's fiver went further than anywhere else.

In fact, she reckons she got enough shopping

to feed a family for a week.

These 21 products would have originally cost more than £25,

but Ilona picked them up for a mere £4.96.

Her biggest bargain here was some carrots

which were reduced from 56p to 4p, saving practically 93%.

Asda has the biggest pile of all.

There was plenty to choose from at Asda and I was really pleased.

I managed to get a real full trolley-load for my £5.

So, you can see by each pile, the biggest one is Asda,

so I got a lot more there.

So, in total, Ilona saved...

And she ended up with more than £77-worth of shopping

for just £19.71.

It's amazing. I have saved a massive £58.12,

so you can see that it was worth

all the effort of visiting these stores.

I'm very happy with this result.

It's lucky she's got the space to freeze all that stuff

with dates about to expire

but, of course, what markdowns you'll find depends on

what an individual store has in stock and wants to shift quickly.

Ilona's results could have been completely different on another day

or if she'd shopped in a different town

but she doesn't believe it's all down to luck

and reckons you can do some proper planning.

So, to identify what time your local store

is likely to have the best reductions,

she recommends simply ringing them up and asking,

as she's doing now.

Yes, good evening. I wanted to come and do some shopping at your store.

Could you tell me the best times to come to get some reduced prices?

Asda start marking down in the morning

and they do it continually throughout the day.

The later you leave it, the better the savings will be.

PHONE RINGS

And what is the latest time? I don't want to get there too late.

Tesco start marking down about lunchtime

and they continue to mark down throughout the afternoon.

The better the bargains, the later it is.

PHONE RINGS

Right, thank you very much then. Yeah, thank you. Bye.

Sainsbury's, the lady said it all depends how much stock they've got.

If they've got a lot of stock, they will start early,

but if they haven't got very much stock at all,

it will just appear in dribs and drabs and there is no set time.

PHONE RINGS

Well, Morrisons are not picking up the phone

so the only thing you can do in that situation

is actually go there and have a look.

Ilona was simply calling her local branch of the main chains.

So, to see if they have a national policy on markdowns,

we contacted each store's head office

and asked if they had any set rules

on when staff should discount products and by how much.

Sainsbury's told us that its markdowns depend entirely

on factors such as the type of product and the amount left to sell.

Staff may even take into account surprising factors,

such as the weather, for example.

If it's snowing, they might reduce

the price of salads earlier in the day,

so keep your eyes on the skies.

At Asda, markdown fresh products can be picked up

on the morning of their last day of sale,

while each day's goods from the bakery are reduced later on,

with all markdowns decided by head office.

Morrisons said that fresh food is marked down

the night before it goes out of date,

while bakery products are reduced on the same day.

Either way, evening is the time to grab the best bargains,

with products sometimes marked down by as much as 99%.

And finally, at Tesco, items are reduced in price

on the day they go out of date or the day before,

with the size of the reduction dependent

on how much of the product is left.

Tesco also told us that in some stores, it's piloting a scheme

whereby any such products still left on the shelves at the end of the day

are distributed to charities in the local area.

But if Ilona's success has made you want to dash off

to do your own supermarket sweep,

then remember these savings are obviously only available

if you shop in the old-fashioned way - in person and not online.

And remember, nothing's a bargain if you don't really need it

or you don't think you'll be able to make use of it.

But, provided you have the time to do it

and don't mind the uncertainty of what you might find,

Ilona is convinced that shopping the way she does

really is the key to bringing your costs right down.

It's a mind-set, actually.

I don't go shopping, thinking, "Well, I want this and I want that."

I go in search of this cheap food, which anybody can do.

I'm nothing special, it's just that I'm determined,

so if you want to be determined, then you can do the same thing.

I don't know about you two, but I have to say

that after seeing the fantastic results that Ilona had

with her shopping earlier in the programme,

I imagine that quite a lot of us now are going to be keeping

an even keener eye out for those tiny little yellow stickers

telling us that something is being reduced.

We've probably all picked up the odd bargain every now and then,

but I would never have imagined

that you could do ALL of your food shopping that way,

provided, of course, that you've got enough big stores

-right on your doorstep.

-And enough shoe leather to keep you going.

But she was absolutely fantastic.

And I must admit, I really enjoy seeing all the different ideas

that people come up with to save money.

But it may well be you're sitting at home thinking,

"Ilona's got nothing on me and the way I do it",

so if you fancy yourself as a super-consumer,

not just when it comes to food, but in any area,

whether that means that you're especially good

at getting your money back

or you've won a real victory against all the odds,

then we'd genuinely love to hear from you, so do please let us know.

Yes, because sharing your secrets could help others benefit too.

I really hope you've already picked up

some money-saving tips on the programme today

cos, in the end, all the stories you ask us to look into

come down to whether or not you've had the best value for money.

So keep telling us when you don't think that's happened

and we'll keep doing our best to find out if you're right.

But that's all we've got time for for today.

We'll be back very soon but, for now, thank you very much

-for joining us and from all of us, goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.