Asda shoppers have been setting themselves a strict spending limit for when they are picking up their weekly groceries at the supermarket.
Shoppers who have been feeling the pinch due to the cost of living crisis have been switching up their shopping habits lately in a bid to save some extra pennies. From shopping in discounted supermarkets to purchasing value branded products, families have been doing everything they can to stretch their budgets.
And now they are asking till cashiers to stop scanning once the bill reaches £30 and to "put the rest back", reports Hull Live. The UK supermarket chain's boss has said he has spotted a change in shoppers behaviour in stores recently.
It comes as supermarket sales dropped by 1.5% in May, according to The Office for National Statistics (ONS), as shoppers continue to feel the effects of rising food inflation prices, which reached a 13-year high recently.
Supermarket giant Asda said earlier this week that some shoppers were asking cashiers to stop scanning items when the till total hits £30 to cut costs. Leader of the Asda Group Board and chairman, Lord Stuart Rose, told the BBC : "People are trading back, they are worried about spending. They've got a limit that they've set out, too. They say £30 is one limit and if they get to more than £30 then that's it, stop. It's the same with petrol."
He added that many people won't remember the inflation of the 1970s and the current rise in prices has come as a shock to many. He added: "I'm of the generation that remembers what it was like last time. And once [inflation] gets hold, it's quite pernicious."
Official figures on Wednesday showed inflation has reached a fresh 40-year high of 9.1% and there are fears a large drop in spending by consumers may tip the UK into a recession.
Heather Bovill, deputy director for surveys and economic indicators at the ONS, said: “Feedback from supermarkets suggested customers were spending less on their food shop because of the rising cost of living. More workers returning to the office may have contributed to increased fuel sales this month while shoppers buying outfits for summer holidays helped boost clothing sales.”
“These rises were offset by falls for household goods and department stores, with retailers in these areas reporting consumer reluctance to spend due to affordability worries and higher prices.”
Industry figures from Kantar this week revealed shoppers are set to see their annual grocery bill jump by £380 to £4,960 in 2022 as inflation sends prices rising across the board. The ONS said non-food stores sales were unchanged in May, with a 2.2% increase in clothing sales offset by a fall in household goods.
The data revealed that fuel sales jumped by 1.1% in May, driven by an increase of workers returning to offices. The proportion of online sales slipped back to 26.6% from 27.1% in April as shoppers increasingly returned to stores, but the ONS said this remained “substantially higher than before the pandemic”.
Ralph Robinson, Head of Retail at technology consultancy BJSS, said: “May’s retail results are down to such an extent that some analysts are comparing figures to three years ago to find a source of good news. Despite a return to typical holiday routines, and the build up to the Royal Jubilee, retail sales volumes declined by 4.7% YoY in May, in the second consecutive monthly decline, as shoppers tightened their belts and focused on buying only the essentials, even in their weekly shop. Sadly the early positive signs for the household goods and department store sectors have failed to continue into the summer, declining 2.3% and 1.1% respectively in the latest results.
“It’s unsurprising that consumer confidence is so low; amidst a further rise in inflation, poor performance of the FTSE, supply chain uncertainty and a looming recession, it seems retailers are struggling to elicit anything other than unavoidable spending, such as on food, with holiday fashion the only notable exception. For me, ASDA’s chairman Stuart Rose sums up current consumer sentiment best - sharing how shoppers are now setting £30 spending limits at the tills, down further still from the £40 limits cited by Tesco’s chairman John Allan just a month ago.
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond. Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
READ NEXT:
