THE UNITED KINGDOM LOVES SPECIAL OFFERS SO MUCH THAT 60% OF THE WINE ON SHELVES IN SUPERMARKET CHAINS IS ON SALE, EVEN IF ONE BOTTLE MIGHT CHANGE PRICES 4 TIMES IN JUST A FEW MONTHS AND THE OFFER IS OFTEN A SCAM…

There is one thing that the British just cannot resist, and that is special offers, which make up most of the sales and 60% of wine sales. Discounts, it could be argued, are everywhere, in Italy as much as in the U.S. In the U.K., however prices of products including, of course, wine, follow a roller coaster dynamic, which the site "mySupermarket,” monitored over a one-year period. The site compared prices of different bottles, in different periods of the year, in the three largest chains, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.

The result is that, in the end, the consumer always loses out, even though the law is clear, a discounted product should be kept on the shelves at the same price for 28 consecutive days.

So, it is not strange that a bottle of Ogio Pinot Grigio, from Tesco, was sold at 5.49 pounds at the weekend with a 50% discount, while it cost 9.99 pounds in October 2012 and 4.99 pounds last July. Another Pinot Grigio, Torretta di Mondelli, in Sainsbury's, cost 4.99 pounds in September, 9.99 pounds in April and 5.32 pounds in the last few days, discounted 33% from 7.99 in the last few weeks.

Many people in England turn up their noses and feel at the very least deceived, but the big sellers from Tesco to Sainsbury’s defend their actions, hiding behind the fluctuation of prices dictated by the market itself and by the harvest as well as warehouse inventories, claiming the effectiveness of their strategies that the consumers themselves approve.