I buy cress several times a week, and must personally have accounted for a good few acres of West Sussex, UK over the past few years. But despite these brassicophile tendencies, I couldn't have told you how much it costs. Grab it. Zap it. Bag it. (Fast-track, you see.) Until - that is - this week, when my attention was caught by a shelf barker: "Price check. Sainsbury's salad cress 24p. Tesco price 24p." Interesting... so it's only 24p... maybe I should eat more of the stuff? I moved on to the avocados, mechanically squeezing one after the next to find the store's only ripe fruit... my thoughts returned to the cress. Why are they telling me it's the same price as in Tesco? Is that good? Surely LESS would be good? This feels a bit like organic: they highlight organic (equals good), then you wonder if that means most of the rest of the stuff (ergo chemically enhanced) is not so good. From cress at the same price as Tesco can I induce that tomatoes, cucumber, celery, radish, peppers, onions, leaves and the like (all grabbed, zapped and bagged) cost MORE? Surely they'd be shouting about it if it were less? Then, am I bovvered? Well, no actually - Sainsbury's is a better offering for me - but I do wonder if lots of people might be. If price is your thing, would you find this particular communication strategy ('parity') reassuring or disconcerting? If it were applied to staples, then maybe the former... but cress? I'm not so sure.
