Shoppers stocking up in smaller supermarkets such Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local could be paying handsomely for the convenience, a study has found.
Tesco Express customers could spend as much as 10 per cent more for their groceries compared to the larger Tesco stores, while Sainsbury’s Local shoppers could be forking out over eight per cent extra. But the supermarket chains insist that the higher prices at the smaller stores are due to increased running costs, , particularly the ones in high-demand areas.
The figures were revealed by retail experts ESA Retail after they monitored 1,900 Tesco items and 2,100 at Sainsbury’s. Tesco had the highest price gap at 10.4 per cent, while Sainsbury’s was 8.4 per cent, according to The Mirror.
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A spokesperson for Tesco, which opened its first Tesco Metro store in 1992, said: “With household budgets under increasing pressure, we’re more committed than ever to giving our customers great value at Tesco, whether they shop with us online, in a large store, or in an Express store. Our Express stores offer a range of extremely competitive own brand products and we have rolled out Clubcard Prices to all our Express stores."
Morrisons, which also has smaller Morrisons Daily convenience stores, was not part of the study, nor was Asda, which has today revealed plans to open 300 Asda Express stores by 2026.
Tesco came under fire last year when it rebranded its Tesco Metro stores as Tesco Express, including branches in Newcastle and Jesmond, Durham and Sunderland city centres. The rebrand meant higher prices, as the pricing model for the convenience format is higher than Metro customers were used to paying. Many Durham students used Tesco Metro in the Market Place for their main weekly shop and hit out at the changes.
MP Matt Western said shoppers faced paying higher prices simply because of a name change. Western, MP for Warwick and Leamington, accused the grocer's bosses of ‘price gouging’ as they basked in post-pandemic profits. The rebrand also resulted in opposition and campaigns across the UK in places like the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Richmond – with some customers in Nottingham arranging a boycott, amid accusations of corporate greed.
Tesco was named the third-cheapest supermarket by consumer champions at Which? last month as it compared the prices of a shop consisting of 48 popular groceries at eight of the UK’s biggest supermarkets.
The cheapest supermarket was Aldi, where the basket of goods was £77.21 on average. The same shop at Waitrose was £104.11 on average, making it £26.90 more expensive. Lidl was the second-cheapest, where a basket of goods was £78.57. In third place was Tesco, at £87.60, then Asda at £87.66 and Sainsbury’s with £89.85. Morrisons came in at £93.49 and Ocado £96.09.
Which? also compared the cost of a larger trolley of 149 items – the original 48, plus 101 more. This shop included branded items, such as Andrex toilet paper and Cathedral City cheese, and did not include discounter supermarkets Aldi and Lidl, which do not always stock some of these products. Asda cost the least for this larger trolley of groceries, continuing its winning streak, which started in January 2020, as the cheapest traditional supermarket. It cost £355.34.
This beat the next cheapest, Sainsbury’s (£366.83), by £11.49. In third place for a trolley of goods was Tesco, at £375.90, then Morrisons (£377.83), Ocado (£380.44) and Waitrose (£393.37).
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