Saturday, November 28

Today’s topic: consumer choice and faulty logic. We have come to Lidl for a Saturday afternoon outing, and as we walk in we discover that the company has decided that Black Friday needs expanding to Black Week. The store has a lot of signs pointing to special Black Week offers.

Ten metres into the store I see this. What do I think?

Initially I point and exclaim at the popularity of zero sugar Coca Cola in Söderkulla. Imagine, I say: two pallets of Coke and the zero sugar one has almost emptied, while the full sugar Coke just sits there almost untouched.

As I wander around, looking in vain for the Black Week cheddar, apparently already grabbed by the people of Söderkulla, I think again. How did I reach this conclusion? For all I know they have replaced the full-sugar pallet five or six times, and the sugar-free not at all. For all I know someone replaced the sugary Coke ten minutes before I arrived while wondering if the sugar-free pallet would ever empty.

So it goes.