A furious shopper claims Tesco are taking advantage of people who are too worried to buy their groceries in large supermarkets.
Chris Marks has slammed the chain for the price of Lurpak butter in its Express shops – and it sparked her into a cost-comparison investigation.
She and husband Roger were unhappy after paying nearly £5 for a 500g tub of the popular product.
They were visiting their disabled son in Huddersfield on Saturday when he popped in for some essentials.
But when Roger returned, his wife was appalled at the "wicked" price that he had shelled out for the staple fridge item.
Chris told YorkshireLive : "He returned with a 500g tub of Lurpak which was well-received until he told me that it had cost £4.20.
"The same item can be purchased in a larger Tesco for £3.75.
"So I started to check as to why the much higher price and Tesco claims that this is because smaller Tesco's Local and Express cost more to run, so some items carry an increased cost but ‘remain competitive’.
"I think this particular increased cost is far from ‘competitive’.
"In fact, a quick check of other stores shows £4.20 to be exorbitant. The same product in Asda is £2.50 and at £4.20 Tesco are charging £1.45 more than the price one would pay in Waitrose."
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We have a wide selection of different butters and spreads in our Express stores, providing customers with great options at all price ranges.”
Chris believes the hike is unfair to those who have concerns about shopping in big supermarkets during the pandemic.
She wants locals to be aware of the price they are paying – and is concerned that this "smacks of inequality".
"Anyone who's constrained to use these [Express stores] or think it's a good idea, they're really being penalised by not being able to go to a larger store and during the pandemic – it's disgraceful", Chris said.
She added: "To me it smacks of inequality, what really annoyed me was that about a week ago I drove to Morrisons and bought two of these items for £5 so, for an extra 80p, I got double the quantity.
"At the moment people are scared to go into big stores or into town or they're on a fixed budget because of the pandemic, it's wicked."
Chris wasn't done there, and investigated the matter further.
Consumer site Which? found that people who shop predominantly in smaller 'local' or 'express' stores instead of the larger stores are paying nearly £300 more on their groceries annually.
