Poundland defeated over ‘Everything for £1’ claim

POUNDLAND MUST no longer claim that every item it sells costs £1 after a watchdog upheld complaints that it sold DVDs and other “special” offers for more.

The poundland.co.uk website’s About Us page said its “Everything for £1” claim was “the idea of our founders in 1990 and we’re still true to that great vision today”.

It went on: “We are very proud to offer you a single £1 price. That hasn’t changed since we opened our first store.”

But three complainants argued that Poundland was misleading customers as it promoted products that cost more than £1 and sold DVDs and CDs for £2.

Poundland said it priced all its ordinary products at £1 but had introduced “special promotions” that offered customers who spent over a certain amount the chance to buy items that cost more than £1.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) acknowledged that the company sold the majority of its products for £1 and more expensive items could only be bought from the DVD concession or through the conditional spend promotion.

But it said the website’s claims referring to Poundland’s £1 “idea of our founders” and “great vision” suggested every item it sold cost £ 1, regardless of whether or not they were sold via a concession arrangement or as a promotion.

“Therefore, because that was not the case, we concluded that the ad was misleading,” theASA ruled.