Stores hoodwink
customers with
false `sale' tags |
|
| by Paul Nuki |
| and Edin Hamzic |
|
| LEADING high-street stores |
| are duping shoppers into pay- |
| ing inflated prices for refrig- |
| erators, cookers, washing |
| machines and. other big-ticket |
| items by falsely indicating that |
| they have been reduced by up to |
| 30% in pre-Christmas "sales". |
| The ploy, which trading |
| standards officers say is un- |
| ethical and probably illegal, |
| was uncovered by a Sunday |
| Times survey of electrical |
| retailers including Currys, the |
| white goods arm of the Dixons |
| Group, and Comet, which |
| runs a similar chain of ware- |
| house-style superstores. |
| It follows the publication in |
| May of a Monopolies and |
| Mergers Commission report |
| which found electrical manu- |
| facturers were fixing prices in |
| high-street stores. An earlier |
| Sunday Times investigation, |
| published in March, produced |
| video evidence showing senior |
| industry executives admitting |
| price-fixing. |
| In the latest inquiry, Sun- |
| day Times reporters logged the |
| current "sale" prices of |
| nearly 50 products, ranging |
| from microwaves to fridge- |
| freezers stocked by stores |
| including Currys and Comet. |
| In most cases the "sale" |
| prices were found to be the |
| same or higher than prices at |
| which the products had pre- |
| viously been sold. |
