Nectar Prices: save money on food shopping at Sainsbury’s

Nectar Prices launched by Sainsbury’s, promising chance to save on your groceries.

Sainsbury’s has launched a new initiative for members of the Nectar loyalty scheme, Nectar Prices.

With Nectar Prices, members will be able to get discounts on around 300 items at the till when they scan their Nectar card or app.

The products included in the promotion cover household products, pet food and confectionary, though Sainsbury’s said it plans to expand this over the year to cover other categories.

The table below details some of the products included in Nectar Prices, and the potential savings:

If you are shopping online, and have linked your Sainsbury’s and Nectar accounts, then the discounts will be applied automatically.

Nectar Prices runs alongside a separate programme called Your Nectar Prices which offers shoppers personalised discounts on products they regularly buy, though this is limited to those who use the SmartShop service.

Dropping prices for members

It’s difficult to avoid the fact that Nectar Prices sounds awfully familiar.

And that’s because rival supermarket Tesco has its own scheme, where members of its loyalty programme enjoy lower prices on a host of products, named Clubcard Prices.

While the names of the schemes are amusingly similar, I don’t think you can criticise too much.

Obviously, the name is pretty spot on when it comes to describing how it works ‒ if you’re a member of the loyalty scheme, you pay a different price from ordinary shoppers.

Besides, any initiative that will help households spend a little less on their grocery shopping has to be welcome at the moment, particularly given that these membership schemes are free to join.

While it can be a bit of a faff having a wallet filled with membership cards for a handful of loyalty schemes ‒ or perhaps a phone filled with apps related to these schemes ‒ that is a relatively small price to pay for the potential to make tangible savings on your food shopping.

The rocketing price of food

And there can be no doubting how crucial it is to find those savings where possible.

It’s no secret that food prices have increased substantially over the last year or so, but the scale of those hikes are little short of jaw-dropping.

The latest data from Kantar World Panel shows that food price inflation is currently at 17.5%, the highest level ever recorded.

This rate is adding around £837 to the cost of your food shopping over a year, should you not make any changes to your shopping habits.

However, many of us are making sizeable changes to the way that we buy food.

A recent study by Barclays for example suggested that while the amount we are spending on groceries has increased, it’s going up well below the rate of food price inflation.

In other words, people are either buying less or moving to cheaper stores for their food needs.

And that’s why Sainsbury’s has launched Nectar Prices, and why there will be further money-saving schemes unveiled by all of the big names.

They know that shoppers are increasingly looking to switch to cheaper outlets ‒ places like Aldi and Lidl ‒ in order to get more bang for their buck.

But a money-saving initative, like Nectar Prices, might save you just enough that you scrap that planned move to Aldi and Lidl and instead carry on shopping at Sainsbury’s.

Ultimately however, the proof is in the pudding.

Unless Nectar Prices, or rival programmes, deliver real savings then shoppers will end up moving elsewhere.