Latest news with #PepsiMax
Rhyl Journal
5 hours ago
- Business
- Rhyl Journal
WHSmith prices 'should be illegal' after selling £4.19 Pepsi
Welsh snooker legend Mark Williams recently posted a picture of a checkout screen in WHSmith, where it showed a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max costing £4.19. Williams was at Heathrow Airport at the time. Airports across the country are slightly notorious for charging inflated prices. At the time of writing, a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max from Tesco costs £1.59. Customers subsequently blasted the store. WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it One said: "WHSmith literally sold off their entire High Street business but kept travel hub shops for this very reason. It's like printing money and they don't care about the customers." Another commented: "Smiths are proper cosy cosy with all the airports, word is they mark up their prices by 50% and go halters with the airport the shops located in". Someone else replied: "I paid that in Liverpool airport a couple of weeks ago, couldn't believe my eyes". Another said: "WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it". Some, however, defended the pricing. Recommended reading: Replying to the previous post, a user commented: "It's in an airport mate". To which he responded: "Expensive in other WHSmith stores too hence why I said general". Airports tend to be expensive due to a combination of factors, including high operational costs, the captive audience they serve, and the unique challenges of operating within a confined space. These costs are then reflected in higher prices for food, beverages, retail goods, and services within the airport, as well as in airline ticket prices, which often include airport fees.
Leader Live
5 hours ago
- Business
- Leader Live
WHSmith prices 'should be illegal' after selling £4.19 Pepsi
Welsh snooker legend Mark Williams recently posted a picture of a checkout screen in WHSmith, where it showed a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max costing £4.19. Williams was at Heathrow Airport at the time. Airports across the country are slightly notorious for charging inflated prices. At the time of writing, a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max from Tesco costs £1.59. Customers subsequently blasted the store. WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it One said: "WHSmith literally sold off their entire High Street business but kept travel hub shops for this very reason. It's like printing money and they don't care about the customers." Another commented: "Smiths are proper cosy cosy with all the airports, word is they mark up their prices by 50% and go halters with the airport the shops located in". Someone else replied: "I paid that in Liverpool airport a couple of weeks ago, couldn't believe my eyes". Another said: "WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it". Some, however, defended the pricing. Recommended reading: Replying to the previous post, a user commented: "It's in an airport mate". To which he responded: "Expensive in other WHSmith stores too hence why I said general". Airports tend to be expensive due to a combination of factors, including high operational costs, the captive audience they serve, and the unique challenges of operating within a confined space. These costs are then reflected in higher prices for food, beverages, retail goods, and services within the airport, as well as in airline ticket prices, which often include airport fees.
South Wales Guardian
5 hours ago
- Business
- South Wales Guardian
WHSmith prices 'should be illegal' after selling £4.19 Pepsi
Welsh snooker legend Mark Williams recently posted a picture of a checkout screen in WHSmith, where it showed a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max costing £4.19. Williams was at Heathrow Airport at the time. Airports across the country are slightly notorious for charging inflated prices. At the time of writing, a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max from Tesco costs £1.59. Customers subsequently blasted the store. WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it One said: "WHSmith literally sold off their entire High Street business but kept travel hub shops for this very reason. It's like printing money and they don't care about the customers." Another commented: "Smiths are proper cosy cosy with all the airports, word is they mark up their prices by 50% and go halters with the airport the shops located in". Someone else replied: "I paid that in Liverpool airport a couple of weeks ago, couldn't believe my eyes". Another said: "WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it". Some, however, defended the pricing. Recommended reading: Replying to the previous post, a user commented: "It's in an airport mate". To which he responded: "Expensive in other WHSmith stores too hence why I said general". Airports tend to be expensive due to a combination of factors, including high operational costs, the captive audience they serve, and the unique challenges of operating within a confined space. These costs are then reflected in higher prices for food, beverages, retail goods, and services within the airport, as well as in airline ticket prices, which often include airport fees.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
WHSmith pricing 'should be illegal' after customer charged £4.19 for a Pepsi
WHSmith pricing "should be illegal", according to shocked customers. Welsh snooker legend Mark Williams recently posted a picture of a checkout screen in WHSmith, where it showed a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max costing £4.19. Williams was at Heathrow Airport at the time. Airports across the country are slightly notorious for charging inflated prices. At the time of writing, a 500ml bottle of Pepsi Max from Tesco costs £1.59. Customers subsequently blasted the store. WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it — Sel (@SA1903_) June 4, 2025 One said: "WHSmith literally sold off their entire High Street business but kept travel hub shops for this very reason. It's like printing money and they don't care about the customers." Another commented: "Smiths are proper cosy cosy with all the airports, word is they mark up their prices by 50% and go halters with the airport the shops located in". Someone else replied: "I paid that in Liverpool airport a couple of weeks ago, couldn't believe my eyes". Another said: "WHSmith pricing should be illegal in general, no clue how they get away with it". Some, however, defended the pricing. Recommended reading: Jeremy Clarkson bans fan from The Farmer's Dog pub after heated argument UK government makes major driveway law change set to affect millions of homes Pest control expert issues 'incredibly sneaky' bed bug warning to all UK homes Replying to the previous post, a user commented: "It's in an airport mate". To which he responded: "Expensive in other WHSmith stores too hence why I said general". Airports tend to be expensive due to a combination of factors, including high operational costs, the captive audience they serve, and the unique challenges of operating within a confined space. These costs are then reflected in higher prices for food, beverages, retail goods, and services within the airport, as well as in airline ticket prices, which often include airport fees.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Aisles Abroad: How an Icelandic grocer won shopper loyalty through gamification
This story was originally published on Grocery Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Grocery Dive newsletter. Aisles Abroad is a regular feature that examines notable grocery initiatives outside the U.S. Groceries and games can be a winning combo for boosting customer loyalty, Samkaup, an Icelandic grocer, has found. Samkaup scored a big win with its recent addition of in-app games, like spin-to-win, that give loyalty members the chance to win free products as prizes when that week's game becomes available, said Gunnur Líf Gunnarsdóttir, executive director of retail operations at Samkaup. Samkaup recorded 78,204 game attempts from December 2024 to January 2025, with 3,581 users winning prizes. In January, the grocer added more games to its roster. The gamification has created a new retail media revenue stream for Samkaup, which operates numerous grocery banners such as Krambúðin and Nettó. Participating brands can choose which type of game matches their product offerings and then provide free goods as prizes. After people win a product, they tend to keep buying it, Gunnarsdóttir said. For shoppers, the interactive games, which rotate weekly, tap into desires for free products and 'to play a little bit,' Gunnarsdóttir said. 'If you play for four weeks, you always win something,' she said. While weekends are typically the strongest days for in-store business, Gunnarsdóttir attributes a recent bump in foot traffic on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays to the games due to customers coming in those days to pick up their prizes. When Samkaup rolled out its loyalty program a few years ago, Iceland didn't really have a culture of loyalty systems outside of airlines, and no other grocer in the country had a loyalty offering, according to Gunnarsdóttir. Now, the program has about 100,000 people signed up — roughly one-fourth the population of Iceland, she said. The recent addition of the games stems from Samkaup's partnership with loyalty tech company Lobyco, which began in early 2021 when the Icelandic grocer launched its loyalty app for customers. On the launch day of the first game, 4,500 users played the spin-to-win game 5,300 times, with rewards such as a dozen cans of Pepsi Max and a 50,000 Icelandic Krona credit in the grocer's loyalty app, according to data provided by Samkaup. The number of gameplays has since skyrocketed. From January to February of this year, users played 34,316 times — roughly six times more than the launch day — and saw a win rate of 17.7%, according to data from the grocer. Currently, most of Samkaup's loyalty members play the games, and those players spend roughly 90% more in-store than those who don't play the games, Gunnarsdóttir said. 'People are playing the game again and again, and they're seeing the brand again and again,' she noted. To get the word out, Samkaup has in-store marketing and social media posts along with app pop-ups to alert people to the games, Gunnarsdóttir said, adding that there seems to be some word-of-mouth happening as well, given that loyalty program signups tend to increase when a new game drops. While grocery loyalty programs have a longer history in the U.S. than in Iceland, gamification is still an emerging area for retailers stateside. In 2023, Albertsons offered an online game during the summer to provide savings and prizes to users. In 2024, Instacart launched games such as a virtual wheel on its smart carts and Earth Fare gamified shopping through the rewards app Merryfield, letting customers earn points by interacting with fast facts, pop quizzes, quick polls and videos. More than half (55%) of U.S. respondents said they would describe gamification as 'very' or 'extremely' important when engaging with grocers, and 59% said they will visit a store to redeem rewards when they win, Lobyco reported last summer based on a survey of 2,168 people. However, only 6% of consumers have played a scratch-to-win or spin-to-win game, which Lobyco attributed to the underutilization of gamification by grocers. Going forward, Samkaup is looking to diversify the types of participating suppliers as well as better match games with in-store themes, Gunnarsdóttir said. On days when the grocer is promoting healthier food choices, 'we don't want to have chocolate in the game… [but instead] have something health-related' as the prize, she said. Gunnarsdóttir sees opportunities to personalize the experience in a way that is more closely tailored to shoppers as well as to add more seasonal games. 'Overall, the games have been extremely successful,' Gunnarsdóttir said. Recommended Reading Instacart adds games, personalized coupons to its smart carts Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
