Supermarkets are an essential part of most people's day-to-day lives. From what we wear to what we eat, everything can be found, and sourced from a supermarket. However, how we buy and consume the latter is set to change when new Welsh Government rules come into effect next year.
Among other things, the new rules will state that retailers will not be able to offer deals like "buy-one-get-one free" or "three for two" on high-fat, salt, or sugar items from 2026.
These deals have almost become a staple of supermarket shopping in Wales. They promise more for less, often, becoming the default choice of purchase -- even if one does not need the extra goods.
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As soon as you enter a supermarket, you are blasted with vibrant colours of different products and packaging. As you push your trolley through the different aisles, there's only one thing in your mind: you want to get the best possible deal for your money.
This is where multi buy schemes like "buy-one-get-one free" or "three for two" come into play. Offering more goods for lesser money, these often prove hard to ignore. But how prevalent are they really?
I decided to visit the Tesco Superstore in Swansea to see just how prevalent these offers are in a supermarket. Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter here
The first thing that stood out to me was that multi-buy deals do not necessarily need to be marked as such. It can be an assortment of crisps, for example, where you would have smaller packs of crisps separately packed within a larger pack of crisps.
So what happens when you indeed just want a smaller pack of crisps? Firstly, you might not be able to find it alongside the bigger packs. If you are persistent enough to prowl the store looking for that smaller pack, you might eventually find it -- but it would turn out to be more expensive as single pack than when bought as a bigger assortment pack.
The same goes for drinks, where even though you might be able to see a smaller can of a fizzy drink, that too will be more expensive than when bought as a pack of drinks.
But what about when these offers are overtly specified to be so? These are almost always available products that have a higher than healthy sugar or fat content. You can refer to the example given above about fizzy drinks or crisps. Such offers can also be widely found over alcoholic drinks, primarily beer and pre-packed cocktails.
We have not even addressed the temptation that is a meal deal! Imagine you've just had a long first-half of the day at your work, all you need now is just a sandwich, so you can get on with your day and the complete all your work.
Remember, all you really need is a sandwich, so that's what I decided to look for. Soon, I found myself in a conundrum. A sandwich on its own cost about £3, no matter which sandwich, it was roughly the same. What proved the most tempting however, was that if I decided to add drink, and a snack, it would merely cost me £4 in a meal deal.
The drink could be anything, for instance, a fizzy drink, which would have cost me £1.70 on its own -- while the snack could be anything as well, including a chocolate or a small pack of crisps, would cost me £1 or over, and £1.10 or over respectfully if bought alone. Essentially, if someone just came for a £3 sandwich, buying a meal deal worth £4 would be prove to be a better choice as it would give you goods worth more than £6.5.
Please don't get me wrong, I understand how important meal deals are as a cheap way to eat food when you just need something in your belly, they have fed me several times as a broke university student. What bothers me is the seemingly underhanded way we are told we have a choice , while in fact, we don't.
Don't believe me? A 500ml of Coca cola cost £1.95, translating to a 39 per 100ml. How much does a 2 litre bottle cost? It costs £2.49, at £0.14 per 100ml. That's means it would cost you more than twice as much to buy the same product if you want to buy it less. This not labelled as a multi-buy deal; it doesn't need to be. A prospective buyer will know which is a better deal for their money, making them spend more money even if they do not realise it.
The same is the case with chocolates. A Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel chocolate bar will cost you £1 for 45gram bar; this means you're paying £2.22 per 100 gram. However, if your buy a bigger 120 gram bar for £1.65, you are charged 1.38 per 100 grams, which is more than 1.5 times the previous price.
Without preaching too much about the health hazards of consuming such products, I think it can be safely said that these high-fat, high-sugar products aren't exactly too healthy when consumed in excess. However, when coupled with these more for less offers, a prospective buyer may be more inclined to purchase larger quantities even if they don't need them
The new laws set to be introduced by the Welsh Government aim to tackle exactly this. They say that the idea behind the regulations relating to The Food (Promotion and Presentation) (Wales) Regulations 2025, is to decrease the overconsumption of high-fat, salt or sugar products that can play a role in children being overweight or living with obesity.
They aim to do so by ensuring that healthier food is more widely available, easily accessible, and more visible in shops. There will be a vote in the Senedd in March after which, there will be a 12-month implementation period prior to the rules coming into force in March 2026. You can read more about it here.
However, it wouldn't be entirely fair to say that these offers exclusively apply to what is considered 'unhealthy' foods. They are often used in the vegetable or grocery aisles of supermarkets as well, which almost universally boast of several health benefits. They can also be found on some of the more 'healthy' foods like prepackaged oats or porridge.
While banning multibuys can discourage consumers from overconsumption of these products, the onus also falls on people to start making healthy, budget friendly choices each time they are out shopping for their bellies.
However, it should be noted that buying healthy might not always be an option for families. As Scurvy made a shock comeback in Wales, Rocio Cifuentes, the children's commissioner for Wales, reminded of a Food Foundation report which showed that 1,000 calories of healthy food costs £8.80 compared with £4.30 for unhealthy food. She had said: "Healthy food currently is more expensive and that is a reality that parents who are struggling will have to grapple with and will have to make unhealthier choices. They will be forced to - their financial circumstances will dictate that."
Regardless, as it stands, the ban of "buy-one-get-one free" or "three for two" schemes is set to come in force in 2026. How much it will actually impact people's health is something only time can tell.