For the Supermarket Sweep activity that we had to do for this week, I have been to Tesco and decided to compare the Tesco Value range ham and the Tesco Finest range ham. The first and most noticeable difference between the two is the packages. The Tesco Value ham has the simple package that has no attractive qualities, just a simple drawing of a sandwich. Not even a photo of a sandwich. The only thing that could be attractive is the price. 50 pence for 125 grams (10 slices) of cooked ham. Some people could see this as a bargain, but some people could look at it as being cheap ham that is not very tasty. These are the people that would go for the Finest range ham. With its lovely picture of a cooked breaded ham on the front it attracts the eye. Not only does it have the picture but it is not described as just “cooked ham” like the Value range, but its description is “Finest Hrumbed Wiltshire Cured Ham”. This ham looks and also sounds much better than the plain Value ham, but it is £2.65 for 120 grams (4 slices), over £2 more than the Value ham. The Finest ham is not for everybody, the people with low income would not want to spend £2.65 on ham that they see as the same as the Value ham. With this wide price difference it is easy to see how this could cause social divides. Even the simplest of products like the ham they sell in Tesco can create visible social differences. To look at this using semiotics, the Value packages signify how simple the social background is of the people that are buying the product. I imagine that the people that buy this product do not have much money and they don’t care much about how the product tastes, but how much value for money they can get from the product. At the other end of the spectrum there is the Finest ham. The price of this ham is very off-putting to the lower social classes that get the Value ham. People who can’t afford the Finest products may feel excluded from other social groups because they don’t buy the more expensive things. This causes a hierarchy that can afford Finest ham. The hierarchy would feel like they shouldn’t buy the Value products because it would bring their social status down. There are many ways in which food can be seen as a status symbol. The price you are willing to pay for foods basically puts you into a social group without being too noticable. If a person is walking around with all Value products they are looked at as being lower in society as the people with Finest products. It causes inclusion and exclusion between the social groups.
