Blackburn shop responds to mum’s fury over price of cold Irn Bru

The bottle of the drink had packaging on it displaying a price of £1.49, but the shop had stuck a label over this with a new price of £2.

Donna Jamieson, from Blackburn, said she visited the Pound Store in Devonport Road and was told the extra charge on the two-litre bottle was because of ‘refrigeration costs’.

The mum paid for the drink, but thinks it is unfairly priced and is "cheating customers".

The shop owner said the chilled bottles usually don't have a pre-marked price on them, and the "refrigeration cost" excuse was a "miscommunication".

Ms Jamieson said: “I go in there regularly. It has been really hot weather so I decided to get the cold bottle out of the fridge. I saw it had £2 on it.

The bottle had a £2 sticker placed over the price mark

“The one on the shelf was £1.49. It is ridiculous to be charged extra for a cold drink.

“Who is going to buy the one off the shelf in this weather?

“When I asked the man behind the counter he said ‘it was due to energy and refrigeration costs’.

“He can’t do that can he? It is the same bottle and we are paying more because it was in the fridge?”

Donna visited the store on Wednesday, August 17, and said she didn’t think it was fair to be charged in this way.

She added: “It just does not make sense. In the present climate where every penny counts they shouldn't be allowed to do this.”

When approached by the Lancashire Telegraph, the shop owner defended the decision to increase the bottle of Irn Bru, saying it’s due to price marked labels and a miscommunication caused by a part-time worker at the shop.

The owner said: “We usually get three cases of drink bottles with no price mark, and the rest come price marked. So technically, we are allowed to decide the price of drinks.

“The bottles on the shelves have the price £1.49 on the label. The ones in the fridge don’t have a label on them so we priced them at £2 a bottle.

“The shop keeper the woman spoke to must have made an error and assumed that the drinks cost more because the drinks are chilled but that’s not the case.

“The drinks cost more because we need to make a living. We can choose how much we charge for the drinks within reason.

“Everything’s going up. We had to get rid of one of our fridges because I can’t afford to pay the bills for three fridges running.”

A retailer has no obligation to sell you the product at the price on the label but it's illegal to display the wrong price.

The label on the bottle that Donna purchased was price marked at £1.49. However, a £2 sticker was placed over it.

Therefore, the Pound Store is allowed to increase the bottle of their drinks by 51p.

The owner continued: “We pay extra for items that are not price marked which is why we increase the price, so we aren’t making a loss.

“We are a very generous shop. Customers come into the shop and purchase things on credit because people are struggling.

"I try to help the people that come in as much as I can but as a business, I’m struggling too. Times are difficult, and I don’t want to have to stop business."

The shop has two drinks fridges, but the owner explained he may have to get rid of another one to save money on bills.

He continued: “I’ve got to think about the next steps to take to continue business which is why I’m thinking about getting rid of another fridge and why we have to increase prices of drinks.”