Can Multipack Items Be Separated?

Anyone who’s gone food shopping in the supermarket will undoubtedly have noticed that some items come in multipacks, with several of it item in a single, wrapped package. The outlay might be higher on, say a four-pack of baked beans than a single tin, but the price per tin will be lower.

Certainly, if you’re feeding a family, they can be a good value, since that multipack of crisps, for instance, will vanish quickly enough, or of soft drinks. In food terms they can represent excellent value. They’re in all manner of things – even those tomatoes packed together, or the pack of two lettuces in the produce department is really a multipack.

What Makes a Multipack?

The idea of putting several of the same item together in a pack and charging a little less per item isn’t a new one, it’s been around for decades. But it’s only in more recent years that it’s become more popular in supermarkets, and manufacturers have widened their scope to make them an important part of marketing, and the popularity has increased, too. Now it’s common to find a certain amount of supermarket shelf space given up to multipacks, be it of tins or cans of beer.

When Might You Want To Separate a Multipack?

If you’re shopping for food but just want a single item – it might be something you don’t use often, or something that would go off before you could go through an entire multipack – and there are none of the item singly, but multipacks on the supermarket shelf, you might be tempted to break one open and just take what you need. It’s certainly been done many times before. With produce, for instance, the supermarket employee might even help you.

The question is, perhaps, should you do it? In most instances, the answer is yes, as long as you’ve asked and there’s no more of the item available singly in the stockroom (don’t just rip open the multipack and take what you need). Then it’s fine, and the supermarket would probably be perfectly happy, as they’ll make a sale they might not otherwise have made, although they wouldn’t want it to be a common occurrence, since it would interfere with stock, and also with profits.

When Not To Separate a Multipack

These days, some items are made specifically for multipacks and can’t be sold separately. If you take a pack home and open it up, it will be on the tin or the packet. In those instances, it’s impossible to sell the items of food or drink individually, and the cashier won’t be able to put them through the checkout (you also see it with cigarettes sold in packs on 100 or 200 in the supermarket or elsewhere).

Why is it that way? The manufacturers set it, because although the unit cost might be a little lower in the supermarket, they’re selling more of the item in one shot, which is much better for them.

Of course, with produce it’s not a problem, nor with many items. But the next time you’re shopping for food and about to open up that multipack, just think – will you even be able to buy it singly? It’s best to ask a supermarket employee first.