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Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

bbc.com

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Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#21

Post by Reason077 »

sevensor wrote: post #16

Is nutella better in France? I find it too sweet and not very nutty. Not worth rioting over.

It's exactly the same product in France. Nutella once was primarily a hazelnut paste, flavoured with cocoa and a bit of sugar. Over many years it became primarily a sugar and palm oil base, flavoured with a little (13%) hazelnut.

In Italy, however, you can buy many other locally-made brands of hazelnut spread which still contain 50% or more hazelnut. Much tastier, probably healthier, and in Italy they're not all that much more expensive than Nutella!

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#22

Post by shafyy »

vog wrote: post #6
shafyy wrote: post #4

" Intermarché supermarkets offered a 70% discount on Nutella, bringing the price down from €4.50 (£3.90) to €1.40. " I think this tells us so much about the financial literacy of today's society. And also quite something about the human psychology.

Do you care to elaborate? What exactly does this tell us about our financial literacy?

Sure. I see several points:

- It seems to me that people buy stuff they don't really need just because it's discounted

- When the relative discount is large but the absolute discount tiny, people tend to overestimate the value they're getting

- Lower income folks tend to spend more on materialist things that they don't really need, but when it comes to essential items like food, they try to save money

I just can't believe that people go this crazy over a couple of euros in savings. Maybe someone with a psychology background can help me out? :-)

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#23

Post by tnzn »

livatlantis wrote: post #19

I really don't see why this is international news. One supermarket chain in France gives a substantial discount on a product that kids love, some people in a few of these stores go nuts, this is then filmed and uploaded to the internet. What are we to make it of? Depends. My guess is that lot of these people are presumably low-income and aren't always able to buy Nutella for their kids. Or they are, but it's a signif…

And the worst part is, a lot of the pseudosociological analyses I've seen of this event were uninteresting. Since I'm french, my fb feed was flooded by that. And people acted surprised and looked down on that. Some left politicians decided to play the "this is proof of misery, these people have no money to buy that". And even the few posts I adhered to (that it was mostly just an instance of the power of marketting and consumerism) were just too obvious and shallow to be interesting.

This is interesting for left politicians who want to intrumentalize that. For smartasses who like to look down on others because they are soo free of consumerism (they are not). But to be interesting for sociologists, it'd require a more in depth study implying those concerned. Or maybe... A study of the media coverage and reception of the "phenomenon", which would imo be way more interesting when it comes to analysing today's society than yet another show of black-friday-like craze.

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#24

Post by tnzn »

skellera wrote: post #13
awakeasleep wrote: post #5

Is there any chance Nutella would stop using palm oil as the base of their spread? People love nutella so much, it's a real shame it has such a terrible impact on the planet.

Ferrero apparently only sources “sustainable” palm oil. Don’t know how reliable that is but if it’s true then it’s not a big issue.

Probably as reliable as cigarette propaganda of mid XXth century. At least that's my wild guess

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#25

Post by tnzn »

scentoni wrote: post #15

Now France will understand Black Friday

Not really since it's an epilhenomenon made bigger than it is by media coverage though. But it shows that, were we to have "soldes" as huge as those of black friday, we'd see the same phenomenon as in the US. Still, a lot of frenchmen will still consider our country to be smarter than yours.

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#26

Post by tnzn »

shafyy wrote: post #22
vog wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you care to elaborate? What exactly does this tell us about our financial literacy?

Sure. I see several points: - It seems to me that people buy stuff they don't really need just because it's discounted - When the relative discount is large but the absolute discount tiny, people tend to overestimate the value they're getting - Lower income folks tend to spend more on materialist things that they don't really need, but when it comes to essential items like food, they try to save money I just can't be…

You mean marketing tricks people into buying stuff they don't need ? Now that's news

As for your question, it's mostly marketing plays with knowed biases and affects. And low-income people are all the more pressured to buy stuff on discount because they feel like they can only get it now. When you earn 5k a month, you don't really care about a discount, you can buy that Nutella whenever you want.

As for their saving on important stuff while spending on consumerist stuff, they just follow the norms we push down their throats. Nobody knows you eat pasta and shower with cold water. Everybody can see your 5 years old smartphone and dirty cloths.

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#28

Post by shafyy »

tnzn wrote: post #26
shafyy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. I see several points: - It seems to me that people buy stuff they don't really need just because it's discounted - When the relative discount is large but the absolute discount tiny, people tend to overestimate the value they're getting - Lower income folks tend to spend more on materialist things that they don't really need, but when it comes to essential items like food, they try to save money I just can't be…

You mean marketing tricks people into buying stuff they don't need ? Now that's news As for your question, it's mostly marketing plays with knowed biases and affects. And low-income people are all the more pressured to buy stuff on discount because they feel like they can only get it now. When you earn 5k a month, you don't really care about a discount, you can buy that Nutella whenever you want. As for their saving…

Yes, that makes sense, thanks for expanding. Do you think better financial literacy education could decrease this problem?

Re: Nutella 'riots' spread across French supermarkets

#29

Post by tnzn »

shafyy wrote: post #28
tnzn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean marketing tricks people into buying stuff they don't need ? Now that's news As for your question, it's mostly marketing plays with knowed biases and affects. And low-income people are all the more pressured to buy stuff on discount because they feel like they can only get it now. When you earn 5k a month, you don't really care about a discount, you can buy that Nutella whenever you want. As for their saving…

Yes, that makes sense, thanks for expanding. Do you think better financial literacy education could decrease this problem?

I guess it would, but teaching financial litteracy, like any kind of litteracy, goes beyond just teaching facts. It's a whole culture, a whole set of behaviors that needto be taught. And I don't see it happening in a society which "needs" docile consumers.
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