Beat the Squeeze: shoppers seek out supermarket price deals

Analysis of shopping trends in the last three months has shown that shoppers are buying more own brand goods and discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl are gaining more customers compared to the big four.

Overall supermarket sales dropped by 6.3% at a time when price inflation in the supermarkets has increased to 5.2%.

Research, by market analysts Kantar, showed the changes.

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It included Aldi and Lidl bucking the trend and increasing sales by 6.3% combined.

Fraser McKevitt. Head of Retail and Consumer Insight, said: “Grocery price inflation has hit its highest level since April 2012 this period at 5.2% over the latest four weeks.

“More and more we’re going to see consumers and retailers take action to manage the growing cost of grocery baskets.

“Consumers are increasingly turning to own label products, which are usually cheaper than branded alternatives.

“Own label sales are down in line with the wider market but the proportion of spending on them versus brands has grown to 50.6%, up from 49.9% this time last year.”

Rising global costs of key ingredients like food oils and wheat has led to the cost of many products increasing on the shelves.

And rising petrol and diesel costs is adding to the transportation costs at every stage in the process of getting goods from farm to shelves. Animal feed is also more expensive pushing up meat prices.

The Food Foundation charity found the price of meat increased by 5.2%, milk, cheese and eggs by 6.1% and fruit also up by 6.2%

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It said: “supermarkets have warned that price increases should be expected in 2022 due to supply chain problems and rising commodity prices and transport costs.”

As well as global issues many experts have pointed to Brexit resulting in labour shortages also affecting production, distribution and prices.

The Glasgow Times as part of our Beat the Squeeze series asked the six biggest supermarkets what they are doing to help people in the city with the cost of their shopping as they feel the pressure on their income.

Asda said its budget range was being extended to include more products.

A spokesperson for Asda said: “We know that many customers are worried about rising living costs and we are doing all we can to help keep their grocery bills in check.

“To help support customers we recently announced that we would be ensuring that our entire Smart Price range would be available across all of our stores and online.”

Asda is also discontinuing the Smart Price brand and rolling out a new Just Essentials range, which it said will see a wider range of products available at entry level prices.

Morrisons pointed to its customer loyalty scheme My Morrisons for targeting savings towards regular customers.

A spokesperson said: “My Morrisons customers receive personalised money-off offers tailored to the products they buy the most and the categories they shop in most frequently.

“New offers are loaded weekly, to redeem customers need to activate on the app and scan their My Morrisons card in the app or their physical My Morrisons card.

“Instead of saving points to earn rewards, My Morrisons customers can save money on their shopping there and then, for example 20% off fresh fruit and vegetables or £5 off when you spend £50 in store.”

Tesco, which has the biggest market share responded by pointing to its value ranges and promotions.

It said: “We know that now, more than ever, customers want great value when they do their food shop. That’s why we are committed to providing great value for our customers through initiatives like Aldi Price Match, Low Everyday Prices and Clubcard Prices.”

It said it has increased the number of products in the Low Everyday Prices, Aldi Price Match initiative and its Exclusively at Tesco range from around 400 in 2019 to more than 2,000 lines today.

Tesco added: “The number of products available on Clubcard Prices changes from week to week, but we usually see at least 3,000 items on offer at any one time.”

Sainsbury’s, Aldi and Lidl did not respond to our request.