A beef steak for $16.99 per pound or $37.46 per kilogram: Despite the introduction of the metric system in Canada, retailers continue to price most of their products in pounds first, rather than kilos. A practice that allows them to make their prices appear lower than they actually are.
“I don’t have the slightest doubt that prices per pound appear lower,” says Mrugank Thakor, one of the authors of a study on consumers’ perceptions of prices based on what they offer in the market. Grocery store.
Even if the amount to be paid at checkout is the same, consumers perceive the per kilogram display to be more expensive than the per pound display.
The work carried out by the Concordia University team showed that they actually place more importance on the numbers than on the unit of measurement to which the prices are tied. Therefore, the prices per pound seem cheaper to them than per kilo, but only because the number in front of the unit of measurement is lower.
Especially since it is often difficult for the consumer to estimate the actual price of a food item by weight before they get to the checkout and are sometimes faced with an unpleasant surprise.
The impression that groceries are cheaper per pound than they are persists until the checkout. Then you pay and the price per kilo appears on the invoice.
“But I think most people don’t pay attention to the actual prices of their purchases based on the weight on the receipt,” agrees the researcher.
Metric system… or imperial?
The metric system has been used in Canada for 50 years. In reality, however, its use varies depending on the unit of measurement.
Length, temperature and mass are sometimes measured by the metric system – in meters, Celsius and grams – and sometimes by the imperial system – in feet, Fahrenheit and pounds.
This is especially the case in the grocery store and in circulars offering discounts on fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables, meat and fish.
The law requires that net amounts of foodstuffs must be stated by weight or volume. Although the metric system is used, the weight of food that is not packaged can also be displayed in pounds as long as the two units of measurement are used in combination.
In most cases, however, the price per pound is highlighted, for example by being displayed in larger characters, rather than, as one would expect, the price per kilo (often written smaller or even smaller).
Photo album: Is the price per pound more attractive than per kilo?
They have the right to do so, says Mrugank Thakor, and that is what allows retailers to make their fresh food appear cheaper. If this weren’t the case, he believes the pound display would have disappeared from grocery stores long ago.
Concordia University researchers also showed that the gap in price perception narrowed when the number and measurement were written in the same size, as opposed to the common practice of displaying the price in a larger size.
Consumers also seemed to better understand that per pound and per kilo prices are equivalent when they have the same meaning when displayed.
Mrugank Thakor speculates that such a change in display could ultimately lead to the metric system taking over the imperial system in Canada.
A question of perception
Quebec Food Retailers Association CEO Pierre-Alexandre Blouin believes it all has to do with consumers’ price perception.
According to him, their habits can also explain why retailers make this choice. This reflex is still present among consumers when it comes to purchasing by the pound. However, he suggests that the display could eventually adapt to the generational change.
The study authors also found that companies that priced per kilo were perceived by consumers as more expensive than companies that favored the imperial system. They therefore have every advantage in continuing to display their prices per pound.
Can these tactics, although legal, come close to deception? You might think so, admits Mrugank Thakor. In reality, it is also a practice that encourages people to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables than processed foods, displayed individually and according to the metric system.
The expert is therefore of the opinion that, unlike his wallet, this is not so harmful to the health of the population.
Everyone has their own measuring cup
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How many milliliters is in your cup? It depends where you cook!
Photo: iStock
It’s not just weight that can cause confusion among consumers.
In Canada, volumes are now measured in liters, unlike other Commonwealth countries and the United States, where liquids are measured in ounces instead. But they don’t have the same value.
The imperial ounce is equal to 28.4 ml, while the US ounce is equal to 29.6 ml.
The United States considered standardizing measurements by adopting a universal system in the late 1960s. This international system of units should be based on the metric system with its meters and kilograms.
In converting from ounces to liters, Canada rounded the imperial cup from 227 ml to 250 ml in 1972, the volume of the metric cup, which is more common worldwide and more practical in the kitchen.
For its part, the United States ultimately did not adopt the system it proposed.
Although a cup around the world is 8 ounces, in the United States that is 236 ml, in Canada it is 250 ml, and in other countries that have retained the imperial system it is 227 ml.
When reduflation is added to the equation
In this context, it is not easy to follow a Canadian, American or British recipe that requires the addition of a cup of one of the ingredients.
Especially because reflation (yes, again!) sometimes plays a role, remembers Jordan Lebel.
There are products that are ingredients in recipes that are circulating on the Internet and in books, explains the expert who specializes in food marketing.
A good example is heavy cream, whose recipes sometimes call for a cup or two.
Previously, it was purchased in Canada in 250ml or 500ml cartons. Then its size was reduced to 237 ml and 473 ml – which is not the size of the old Canadian cup, but rather the size of the American cup.
Since then, two containers have to be purchased to equal one or two Canadian cups, at the risk of wasting the rest of the second cup. “There are consequences like this that we don’t necessarily think about,” interjects Jordan Lebel.
Ben & Jerry did the same thing last year, reducing its ice cream container from 500 ml to 473 ml to bring its size in line with the size sold in other countries (473 ml is equivalent to a 16-ounce pint (or two cups) in the United States sold).
Same principle at Saugeen Country: Because the company wanted to replace its yogurt container with one with 40% less plastic, it had to achieve a 9.2% reduction.
For what? Because this container is only manufactured in the United States, which also prefers the imperial system of weight, in the 2 pound format, or 908 g (instead of the 1 kg previously sold).
An effort to memorize
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Excerpt from the Deseret News entitled “CONSPIRACY INVESTIGATION: WAS HAPPENED TO THE 1-POUND CANE,” 1988
Photo: Archive
One of the first documented cases of reflation in 1988 clearly shows how problematic consumers’ perceptions of measurement units are.
The American company Chock Full o’ Nuts had reduced its coffee packaging by one pound to 13 ounces instead of 0.8 pounds. The reduction, combined with the change in the unit of measurement, then had a good chance of remaining unnoticed by consumers.
Identifying reflation cases is a complex task. Reductions are not announced and reduced formats and those before them are rarely found side by side on the shelf.
We rely on consumers’ ability to remember the amounts and quantities shown on the front of the package, as well as their prices.
In general, reflation is assumed to decrease or slightly increase in size while the price remains the same. Sometimes the price goes down, but the amount lost on the product usually remains greater than the savings to the consumer.
When we go shopping, we buy a large number of products, often more than a hundred in our shopping cart, recalls Maryse Côté-Hamel. We won’t necessarily take the time to analyze the price of each one.
The consumer science expert cites, for example, the psychology of price, because consumers are more likely to remember prices that end in 0, 5 and 9 than others.
It’s easier to remember that the product costs $3.99 than $3.86
However, the professor at Laval University points out that, at least in Quebec, consumers have a tool to monitor and compare prices: the display of price per unit of measurement.
If the information is clearly stated per 100g, it is still possible for the consumer to understand how much it costs them, she explains. It becomes a personal decision.
The fact is that grocery shopping has never been a more complex task for the consumer due to the multiplication of formats and units of measurement, leading to format reductions and price increases.