Tesco’s new hypermarket in Streatham is plastered with signs shouting “lots of brands now cheaper at Tesco” but local shoppers seemed underwhelmed by the bargains on offer.
On a very rainy Thursday morning, just hours after the Dave Lewis’s fired his latest salvo in the supermarket price war, Howard Ricketts, a regular Tesco customer said he hadn’t noticed big savings at the till. While signs were hanging from the ceiling, prominently by the door, at the ends of aisles and dotted around shelves, shoppers were sceptical about the message.
“The prices haven’t dropped really, there are two-for-ones, but when you check them out it’s like you are paying the same price really. I don’t believe it.” He said the new campaign wouldn’t tempt him to abandon his other regular haunt, Iceland. “It won’t make me shop here more. I think Iceland is cheaper,” he said.
While some of the cuts are quite eye-catching – with the price of favourites such as Heinz baked beans and Birds Eye fish fingers down by half to 50p and £1.50 respectively – others look underwhelming. Despite the big signs beside it, Shredded Wheat is down by just 11p to £2.18, for example and a 12-can box of Diet Coke down by 20p, to £3.55. Meanwhile, Jammie Dodgers have a big label flagging their price at 45p, without mentioning if this is a price cut or just their regular cost.
Victoria, another regular customer, said she liked Tesco because its own-label food was cheap but said she still did about half of her grocery shopping in Lidl. She said she hadn’t had enough time to really analyse the latest price cuts but said: “They do need to cut prices here. I’ll be tempted to buy more in Lidl if they don’t.”
Another shopper with an insider’s perspective was stocking up after completing his night shift stacking shelves at a rival chain. He insisted he only shopped in Tesco because it was close to his home so he could walk home with his groceries. “We’ve dropped our prices and are matching them. Whether I save 50p or £1 I don’t worry about it; it’s conveneince that matters to me.” Asked why he thought Tesco was cutting prices he said: “They’re desperate aren’t they? All the supermarkets are desperate. Christmas wasn’t easy.”
