A couple of yeas ago, Tesco decided to do away with as much plastic packaging in their stores as they could. Amongst other things, this meant getting rid of packs of four tins of beans and/or soup, and instead running a permanent "four for..." offer. Which was a good step.
I've noticed that they've now brought back the packs of four, but now wrapped in cardboard, and at a cheaper price point than the "four for..." offer.
Which is a shame on two counts.
Firstly, while cardboard wrapping is better than plastic, it's still an extra bit of wrapping that gets used, and then recycled. That's considerably worse than nothing - it would just be better to leave these things unwrapped.
The other problem concerns the nature of the "four for..." deal in the first place, which ties into issues with poverty, and the Vimes "Boots" Theory of Economic Unfairness - people on the very poorest end of the scale can't afford to pay £2.50 for four tins of soup, and must instead pay 80p for a single tin each week. Over the course of four weeks, then, they pay £3.20 on the same soup - the (slightly) richer person ends up paying less. (And, yes, it's 'only' a matter of 17.5p per week. But multiply that by 52 weeks in the year, and however many different offers the richer person can use but the poorer cannot, not to mention the potential to "stock up" as and when very good deals happen to crop up, and it turns into a not insubstantial chunk of money.)
The upshot: Tesco, could you please get rid of these cardboard packages again? And could you also review whether these "four for..." deals are really appropriate - can you not instead reduce the unit price across the board?
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