Do shoppers lured by flash-off bargains, get a genuine discount or fall for a sales gimmick?
In Quinnsworth, shoppers scanning the shelves of products are bombarded with products displaying discounts as part of their packaging design.
They're the Loreli of the grocery counter, engagingly enticingly waiting to lure the schillings of the price-conscious housewife to their master's bank account.
In the trade, these offers are known as flash-off bargains. The reductions are found on a wide variety of product lines, but the most competitive of these is the £3.5 million soap powder market.
The discount advertised on the packet is passed on to the retailer and is intended to be passed on to the consumer. But the reduction is unclear, as shoppers are unfamiliar with the normal retail price. Companies cannot clearly print the price on packets, as price maintenance was abolished by law in 1956. They have no control over the retail charge to the customer.
To help make the changeover to decimalisation easier for the trade, detergent companies will no longer add flash-offs to their packaging until at least after Decimalisation Day. But there are plenty of other promotional opportunities which can be used to attract even the savviest consumer.
This episode of 'Newsbeat' was broadcast on 12 January 1971.
'Newsbeat' was a half-hour feature programme presented by Frank Hall and ran for 7 years from September 1964 to June 1971. 'Newsbeat' went out from Monday to Friday on RTÉ television and reported on current affairs and issues of local interest from around Ireland. The final programme was broadcast on 11 June 1971.
