If you haven't yet planned your Christmas meal, don't panic, you have two days left. Doing your shopping at the last minute can allow you to score a bargain, as long as you avoid Christmas marketing scams…
Christmas, D-2. Haven't gone shopping for your holiday meal yet? This is no reason to rush to buy anything on the shelf. You risk being fooled by Christmas marketing, which floods supermarket aisles this December.
Many products sold all year round actually wear their Christmas clothes during this period: packaging decorated with snowflakes, fir trees, Santa Clauses, etc.
And they are not there just to look pretty: these products, marketed by brands only during these few weeks, are often more expensive, and not always of better quality than their “classic” equivalents, sold all year round.
RMC Conso investigated supermarkets and gives you some examples of this festive marketing, so you don't get fooled again. The golden rule in this matter is always the same: read the labels.
A “special foie gras” jam that is nothing special
First example, a “special foie gras” fig jam, sold by a famous brand of party products. Packaged in a tiny pot, the 110 grams of this marmalade are sold at the price of 4.99 euros on the Monoprix website, or… 45 euros per kilo.
An exorbitant price for a product very similar to what you find in the jam aisle: it is made up of 50% figs, sugar, and a little lemon. In the dedicated section, RMC Conso spots a fig jam from another brand, organic, richer in fruit, and above all much cheaper: 3.75 euros for 375 grams, or 10 euros per kilo.
No need, therefore, to add to the expensive Christmas meal list a completely classic jam but sold much more expensive because it is labeled “special foie gras”…
Toasts twice as expensive as sandwich bread
They are, every year, at the head of the gondola: Christmas toasts. Round or square, the only thing special about them is their shape, which is perfect for making mini-canapes for an aperitif. And their packaging, with illustrations of salmon, foie gras, and flake designs.
At first glance, they also seem less expensive than slices of classic sandwich bread: RMC Conso raises the price of a pack of 60 toasts from an industrial brand of bread, sold for 1.67 euros at Intermarché.
Right next door, the 14 large slices of sandwich bread from the same brand are priced at 1.99 euros.
The deal looks good. However, this is not the case: when we look at the price per kilo, the special Christmas toasts are almost twice as expensive as their equivalents in large slices…
For a less good composition: where the brand highlights, on its sandwich bread, the efforts made to achieve a recipe without added sugars and without additives, the Christmas version has on the contrary reinstated these unhealthy ingredients.
We actually find, in the list, sugar as the fourth ingredient, mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids, emulsifiers suspected of promoting the appearance of chronic intestinal diseases and the development of diabetes, as well as the additive E481, associated with the same ailments.
Those who want to avoid the consumption of these harmful additives will therefore undoubtedly prefer to spend a few extra minutes transforming large slices into mini-toasts… With a knife and a little elbow grease, you should get there.
Watch out for gondola heads
It is often at the head of the gondola that you will find these products labeled “Christmas special” and sold more expensively for this reason alone. These privileged locations in supermarkets are in fact designed to catch your eye and encourage you to choose your shopping there.
Don't give in to this pressure, and take a look at the dedicated section of the product you are considering purchasing. The consumer defense association Foodwatch notably spotted, in its investigation published two weeks ago, a special foie gras balsamic vinegar cream judiciously placed next to foie gras in supermarkets.
It was sold at 4.50 euros for 60 ml, or 75 euros per liter, while in the oils and vinegars section, Foodwatch found a balsamic vinegar cream with a similar composition, organic, almost twice as expensive at liter.
