Shoppers are paying a high price for convenience with smaller stores charging far more for products at mini supermarkets.
A Sainsbury’s Local or Tesco Express can seem like a godsend when you need a pint of milk or you want to grab something for dinner on your way home from work but new research has revealed you could be paying through the nose for that convenience.
In fact, you could be paying as much as 23% more for the same product depending on whether you buy it at one of the high street versions of a supermarket or the same company’s large out-of-town supermarket.
This price inflation could be gradually pushing up the price of all our food shopping as some big supermarket increasingly open mini supermarkets and close their out-of-town stores, leaving us with little choice but to pay more for our shopping.
For example, Sainsbury’s has doubled the number of Sainsbury’s Local stores in just five years to 800, while Little Waitrose has grown from zero to 64 outlets in 10 years.
Earn cashback on your next grocery shop with these credit cards
How prices vary
The supermarkets defend the move by saying the way we shop is changing with more of us preferring to shop little and often rather than heading to a big store for a weekly shop.
But how is it affecting the price of your shopping basket?
Hit your local Tesco Express rather than a big Tesco supermarket and you should expect to pay around 10% more for your shopping, according to research carried out by the Daily Mail.
If you regularly pop into an M&S Simply Food on your way to work, you may want to do your wallet a favour and stop.
The chain charges a whopping 23.3% more for a small carton of fresh orange at an M&S Simply Food than at one of its Food Halls.
Below this poll, we look at a selection of price differences across the big supermarket brands, as highlighted by the Mail.
Sainsbury’s
|
Product |
Price at Sainsbury’s Local |
Price at Sainsbury’s supermarket |
Price difference |
|
Butcher’s Choice 8 British Pork Sausages |
£1.75 |
£1.50 |
16.7% |
|
Hovis Granary 800g loaf of bread |
£1.65 |
£1.45 |
13.8% |
|
Heinz Baked Beanz 415g |
85p |
75p |
13.3% |
|
Red Leicester cheese 250g |
£2.00 |
£1.70 |
17.6% |
|
Sweet and crisp apple juice 1 litre |
£1.35 |
£1.15 |
17.4% |
|
Green Giant Original sweetcorn 198g |
75p |
65p |
15.4% |
|
Caesar dressing 180ml |
£1.45 |
£1.25 |
16% |
M&S
|
Product |
Price at M&S Simply Food |
Price at M&S Food Hall |
Price difference |
|
Freshly squeezed orange juice 300ml |
£1.85 |
£1.50 |
23.3% |
|
Strawberry jelly trifle 450g |
£2.90 |
£2.50 |
16% |
|
Baracca & Fassoldi Chianti 75cl |
£14 |
£12 |
16.7% |
|
Sauvignon Blanc Gold Label 75cl |
£9.55 |
£8.50 |
12.3% |
|
Large free range eggs 6 |
£2.20 |
£2.00 |
10% |
|
Jelly Babies 225g |
£1.30 |
£1.15 |
13% |
|
Wasabi peas 50g |
£1.45 |
£1.20 |
20.8% |
|
Gin & Tonic single can 25cl |
£2.25 |
£2.00 |
12.5% |
Tesco
|
Product |
Price at Tesco Express |
Price at Tesco supermarket |
Price difference |
|
Calpol 6+ suspension 80ml |
£3.30 |
£3.00 |
10% |
|
Tesco fusilli pasta 500g |
65p |
59p |
10.2% |
|
Weetos 500g |
£2.95 |
£2.65 |
11.3% |
|
St Agur Blue cheese 150g |
£2.20 |
£2.00 |
10% |
|
Pilgrim’s Choice Extra Mature Cheddar 350g |
£3.30 |
£3.00 |
10% |
|
Coke Zero 8x330ml |
£3.85 |
£3.50 |
10% |
|
Red Bull energy drink, 4x250ml |
£4.39 |
£3.99 |
10% |
Waitrose
|
Product |
Price at Little Waitrose |
Price at Waitrose supermarket |
Price difference |
|
Waitrose Babyleaf herb salad 100g |
£2.20 |
£2.00 |
10% |
|
Tabasco sauce 57ml |
£2.09 |
£1.89 |
10.6% |
|
Tinned chopped tomatoes with garlic and olive oil 400g |
72p |
65p |
10.8% |
|
Heinz Baked Beanz 150g |
61p |
55p |
10.9% |
|
Love Life green lentils 500g |
£1.32 |
£1.20 |
10% |
|
Waitrose Essential vegetable oil 1 litre |
£1.42 |
£1.29 |
10.1% |
|
Groundnut oil 500ml |
£2.19 |
£1.99 |
10.1% |
Earn cashback on your next grocery shop with these credit cards
Top shopping tips from loveMONEY:
Cheap food & drink: top supermarket deals this week
Online shopping tricks to save you hundreds
Save at Waitrose with these brilliant hacks