What's up with Tesco prices?

[TheVampiresWife]

Just come back from my local one. Quite substantial price hikes on loads of stuff since I was in on Sunday. Examples:

Quorn lasagne was £3 on Sunday, £3.50 today
Green beans, 69p/£1.40
Can Diet Coke, 59p/89p
Cauliflower cheese, £1.25/£1.60
Veggie sausages, £2/£2.75

...and on and on. Loads of stuff, and not stuff that was previously on offer either. A few pence, fair enough, I probably wouldn't even notice, but my shopping was over a fiver more than usual for the same stuff I buy every week. I don't think I've ever seen such steep sudden price hikes.

Lots of empty shelves too - don't know if the two are connected. Perhaps because distribution staff are isolating?

Anyone else's Tesco the same? Is it the same in other supermarkets?

Ugh, just went today and haven’t been since January and I forgot about their “club card prices” thing so didn’t bring my club card, very annoying that I ended up paying much more for things. These are normal reductions that they use to do now they made it so only people with a club card but it’s just their usual money off that they’ve had all the time

The clubcard annoys me so much. My elderly dad walks to his local tesco. However, he had no idea how to order himself a clubcard so did it online for him. Feels like if you don't know how to or physically can't order a card then you are paying the ridiculous hyped prices.

@Vickim03

Shortage of drivers is definately not a myth. All the hauliers I know are struggling to fill positions. To the point directors are now out all hours trying to fill the gaps. It’s across the board too to recycling and waste collections. There’s also a hold up at the docks having to clear stuff through customs. It was inevitable prices were gonna rise. Drivers want paying more but those costs need to be passed on. It’s even hard to find agency staff too at the mo. My family own a haulage firm and it’s been a real struggle. People are still expecting stuff to magically appear on shelves, forgetting that it’s gotta get there somehow.

I know a few companies locally have increased wages in order to keep drivers (this isn’t in general haulage but I would assume the same is happening there) which is great for the driver but inevitably has a massive knock on to the cost of the final product. The whole haulage system is a mess and unless they overhaul things to make it easier to get into and improve conditions then things will only get worse as the older drivers retire and many younger ones will look elsewhere especially if they want a work/life balance

The shelves in our local Morrisons were strangely bare of all sorts of random things yesterday. Loads of completely empty spaces. While I was queuing to pay, a member of staff walked past so I asked her, and she said it was distribution and delivery issues.

Quite a few price hikes in there too although oddly enough, (apart from some blanks) the fruit and veg was piled high and cheaper than usual.

It’s the conditions too. Long distance drivers are literally running out of places to stop over at night, have decent facilities to wash and even eat. Doesn’t help sell the work does it? We have increased wages but that doesn’t change what’s out on the road.

Where are all the kalamata olives?!

Our local Asda but then I do suspect sometimes that it's only me that buys them...

Two words, pandemic and Brexit. Lack of lorry drivers from Europe, customs paperwork and costs raising prices, lack of staff from Europe to process food in factories and abattoirs.

@Vickim03

It’s the conditions too. Long distance drivers are literally running out of places to stop over at night, have decent facilities to wash and even eat. Doesn’t help sell the work does it? We have increased wages but that doesn’t change what’s out on the road.

Agreed. My partner is a tramper and the main reason he has his national gym membership is so if he can park near one he can have a proper shower.

Everyone complains and hgv drivers and their parking/driving/existence but when the shelves are empty they realise they do matter

Before lockdown I used to struggle to get to the required £40 for delivery, not I easily exceed £50 for the same stuff. I assumed it was Brexit

Totally with you! People moan about the lorries but they are the back bone of this countries network in moving goods around. It’s not an easy job and often lonely and then you get everyone on the road hating you. Hgv drivers are actually very skilled! When you see them manouvering around tight places. Day drivers are short too tbh.

@rishisboater

Before lockdown I used to struggle to get to the required £40 for delivery, not I easily exceed £50 for the same stuff. I assumed it was Brexit

It could part be brexit, part covid it all links up somehow and no one cause. It’s also getting stuff from the warehouses to the stores and the stuff from the docks/farms and factories to the distribution places.

@Gilmoregale

Lots of reasons....

COVID-19; Brexit (one of the many reasons the result bewildered me was it seemed no one had ever actually looked at where our fresh food came from); shortage of lorry drivers and crop pickers (many were from Europe and have decided to go home rather than face racism and the complete basket case England has become recently); plus the spring this year was awful. Oh, and school holidays and everyone on staycation this year. Plus the amazingly succesful track and trace pingy lottery that tells people to self isolate due to contact when they may not even have left the house. We use a couple of local box schemes and even there shortages of things like salad, tomatoes and potatoes are apparent. Plus due to aforesaid lousy soring we've not managed to grow as much of our own this year. Reminds me a lot of growing up in the 1970s and early 80s at the minute....

All of the above.

And it's not going to get much better this year because none of these problems will be fixed in a couple of months. By my reckoning the average trolley has gone up by at least 15% since the end of last year.

Went to Tesco yesterday and it was very clear that there were issues with both stock availability and staff availability. None of the normal shelf-fettling was being done to pull stock forward and make the shelf look full. Lots of choice narrowed to fewer product choices, gaps on shelves, and the quality of fresh produce has taken a nose-dive. Part of the trolley price increase has come from switching up to the Finest range just to get fruit that will ripen. Lots of standard/value range fruit already rotten/mouldy in the packet.

Brexit/Covid and climate change affecting crop harvests. Best get used to it!

There are various inflationary pressures, but mainly covid and brexit. If your mortgage is up for renewal I'd be locking in to a long fixed rate!

I haven't been able to find gluten free bread rolls for 2 weeks. Today I've been to asda, M&S, coop and sainsburys. Tried tesco a few days ago. Nothing. Did manage to get a loaf of bread today for the first time in a week.

If lorry drivers are to be paid a living wage this will be reflected in the final product. We need to accept this, an absolute shocking amount of food is wasted in this country!

Tesco is undoubtedly more expensive than aldi/Lidl, I just hate having my shopping chucked at me during the check outs! Much prefer a friendly chat and help with getting my bags packed which I get at Tesco. Sigh!

Nothing to do with brexit or Covid. It's promo change over tomorrow morning and all the prices go up Tuesday to make you think you're getting a better deal tomorrow. I used to work in Tesco when I was at uni and it's surprising more people don't notice this.

@TheBrynGhost

I've got a clubcard but the 'clubcard price' thing has pissed me off to the point I won't go back to Tesco. I was never a huge fan anyway but it's so cynical it makes me angry.

I actually like it and I wish they’d done it right from the beginning. It makes it feel as if there’s actually some point in having a Clubcard now.

@mog27

Nothing to do with brexit or Covid. It's promo change over tomorrow morning and all the prices go up Tuesday to make you think you're getting a better deal tomorrow. I used to work in Tesco when I was at uni and it's surprising more people don't notice this.

It's not that - it's that it's (secretly!) been rebranded as a Tesco Express from a Metro and they've hiked the prices to be inline with TE prices. Some of the stuff I buy was only on promo a couple of weeks ago, too.

I've heard about Tesco pre-promo price increases before and it's just more proof of how sneaky Tesco are!

They’ve ‘retired’ the Extra branding so all the old Extra stores are now either Express or Superstore and will have pricing commensurate with whichever brand it falls into.

“In May 2021, Tesco announced the brand would be retired as only 31% of customers were using the stores for larger shops. 89 locations will convert to the Tesco Express format while the remining 58 will adopt the standard superstore format.”

Looks like they weren’t making enough money from people shopping at some of the Extra stores so they’ve just rebranded them an Express so they can charge people more for exactly the same items.

And it goes without saying that many of the locations with these smaller stores will have a captive audience of people who shop locally because they can’t access the larger stores with lower pricing.

*Sorry, they have of course retired the ‘Metro’ brand, not ‘Extra’.

I always thought that extra stores were “extra big” supermarkets and that express Tesco’s were small ones, like a big corner shop. Then normal Tesco supermarkets in the middle. Am I totally wrong?

@MuttsNutts

*Sorry, they have of course retired the ‘Metro’ brand, not ‘Extra’.

Cross post.

So metro and express were both small but express ones were more expensive?