A shopping mystery - how can a tube of Pringles cost from £1.50 to £3.30?

Is there any other humble product on the shelves which changes by the day? Well, apart from fuel…

Maybe it’s time we changed the Retail Price Index (RPI), which measures the change in the cost of living, and simply based it on the cost of a stack of chips.

Consider it the Retail Pringle Index…

If the cost of Pringles plummets to, say, £1.5,0 then we’re tickety-boo.

If they suddenly sky rocket to £3:30 then it’s time for Martin Lewis to issue emergency advice on how to get through this emergency, and why it may be a good time to switch your provider to the cheaper, but in no way inferior - in fact they’re actually better - Aldi’s own make of stacking chips.

Pringles’ bewildering pricing policy seems to operate regardless of the market.

I sometimes wonder if they ship them out to retailers with a note saying “look, just charge what you think, okay? We’re too busy drawing the moustaches on that wee fella on the front of the boxes…”

It makes no sense that a trip to Asda will find them at £1.65, while Sainsbury has them nudging £2.25 and then Morrison’s is at £2.50. Or vice versa.

Same product, same number of crisps, same number of tubes dropped on the shopfloor and smashed to crumbs which you only realise when you sit down and rip open the top.. Been there, had the debris all over the lounge carpet within minutes.

The first time I saw a tube retail at £3 was in the Co-Op in Dunbar, and that was three or four years ago. I was so dumbfounded, I took a pic. Another sign of becoming an old bufftie …

The mystery of Pringles’ pricing came to light again recently when a customer was so scunnered they stuck a “yer having a laugh” post-it note on the shelves at a branch of Sainsbury after seeing the product on sale at £3.00.

I’m with him all the way - and, let’s be honest, it was almost certainly a bloke.

I’m struggling to think of another product that has the same bewildering elasticity when it comes to pricing. You don’t see sliding scales next to Mars Bars or tins of beans.

And it makes no sense either.

Pringles nudging £3? Move along, there’s nothing to see here.

In a box at £1.50? That’ll do nicely, and purchase made.

Imagine if the FFP went from £1.40 to 75p and then up to £2.25 in successive weeks - there’d be chaos at the tills, I tell you, chaos!Pringles’ pricing has become the talking point of every shopping trip.

You can see people going to grab a tube only to reel back when their other half points to the price tag and shoves the trolley up the next aisle.

Tell me, I’m not the only one …

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