The Sun is set to see sales in Waitrose double after striking a deal to be the first popular tabloid to join its hugely popular scheme where customers get a free paper when they spend a minimum amount on shopping.
The MyWaitrose scheme allows loyalty card members to take home a paper from a media partner effectively for free if they spend £5 on shopping during the week, and £10 on weekends.
The promotion has been hugely popular with customers and by extension for existing partners, which include the Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times and Guardian.
Partners involved in the scheme are thought to have seen sales in Waitrose’s almost 350 stores nationwide at least double.
The Sun, which is the first title in the popular market to strike a deal with Waitrose, can expect to see sales climb potentially by in excess of 10,000 per week.
The News UK title becomes part of the MyWaitrose scheme from 1 June.
For official sales auditing purposes consumers do not technically get the newspaper for free.
Instead, they get a discount on their shop to the value of the partner newspaper they choose.
This means the newspaper publisher can record it as a sale each time, whereas if it was given away for free it would not be admissible as a paid-for sale under Audit Bureau of Circulations rules.
