Rank: Member Joined: 5/8/2009 Posts: 263 Location: Gigiri, Nairobi
|
The Uchumi deception
 Got this from a friend.
Let us dispel the rumous by counterchecking what she wanted me to believe.
She said.
Let me share this with you. It's been bothering me for a while but today I've decided to vent out.
For quite sometime, I've been a regular shopper at Uchumi Supermarkets (Ngong Hyper, Nairobi West, Adams) and for over two years I have watched as Uchumi rip off Kenyans.
I consider myself part of this rip off because I did not talk about it all that time. Inside me, I believed that it was one of the strategies Uchumi were using to recover. Perhaps it was fine to just let them steal, so as to recover, because otherwise the other Supermarkets would monopolize the market and prices would not be favorable.
I am the type that love using a written budget for shopping, and I always do track changes in items' prices. For a long time I've watched price variances between what you see at Uchumi shelves and what comes out at the payment till. For many goods at Uchumi, the prices you end up paying at the till are always much higher than what you see on the shelf. Their is also a deliberate practice NOT to have items placed in such a way that the price tags you see on the shelf match the items against which they are displayed. I did raise the issue a few times with their Customer Care person (the ones who are always on reach in the shops) and all they could tell me was that they will look into it. Of course they believed me to be stupid, because I never told them I'd been tracking this weird practice for a long time. And I'd thought it would stop once they recovered, but I was wrong.
One day (abt two weeks ago) me and my friend went shopping (Ngong Hyper). She picked some small packet of popcorn which was labelled to cost about KES 40. At the till, it ended up costing about KES 85. I don't remember the actual figure, but I do remember this incident because I had to use money I had reserved for other purposes to pay for the popcorn, and we ended up disagreeing with my friend.
Having gone past that incident, there is this time (10th March 2010) that I again went shopping at Uchumi Ngong Rd Hyper. I decided to buy some "Fresha" Yoghurt and I took my time to find the actual price for the 250ml container. It was labelled (on the shelf) as costing KES 35. I believed this was okay for 250ml, because next to it, there were Ohlalah Yoghurt, 500ml, whose cost I believe most of you know. Come to the payment till and the damn thing was priced at KES 85! My shock!!
I took one of the attendants to the shelf and asked them to show me the price for that item and for sure it was labelled at KES 35. He could not explain why at the till it was KES 85. I asked them to void the item from my purchase list. Receipt attached.
Again come 17th March 2010, I passed by Uchumi Nairobi West to buy a few things. One of those was Jik Colors, 2.5litre container. This item was marked on the shelf as costing KES 390. When I got to the till, the machine showed the price at KES 435, and this made me pick a war with the supervisor. I brought him the price tag from the shelf and asked him why there was a variance of KES 45 between what's on the shelf and what's at the till. The guy could not find an explanation. On this date, I ranted so much and told them that I had only one choice: I was either paying 390 and taking the Jik, or I was not paying anything but still take the Jik and the price tag from the shelf and go find an avenue for complaint/redress - with evidence. Now on this occasion, I paid the actual amount for the goods I'd bought, but to cover for the variance, the supervisor and the guy at the till agreed to pretend that I paid KES 45 above what I had paid, and so I went with my shopping without being ripped off. See the attached receipt.
As a warning to those who like Uchumi (I still shop at Uchumi anyway, but my eyes are more open), please be checking the prices produced at the till against what is on the shelf. Uchumi is minting millions by stealing from Kenyans this way. We are way too trusting, that it doesn't occur to you that you could be paying more than you get from Uchumi (or other Supermakets). The trick is that the computers are fed with prices higher than you see on the shelf. Without checking (and very few pple have the time to do this at the till), Uchumi will continue to rip you off, and the figures are that high. With Uchumi, you are safer if you always carry your shopping list to the supermarket. Always indicate the prices of the items and counter-check with those the next time you go shopping.
However, you can disregard this advise if losing KES 40 is not such an issue to you.
>>>>>>
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases;
It will never pass into nothingness;
But still will keep a bower quiet for us,
and a sleep full of sweet dreams,
and health, and quiet breathing. - Keats
>>>>>>>In life,there are three classes of people,
1. Those who make things happen,
2. Those who watch things happen
3. And those who ask what happened.
Where do you fall?
|