Budget supermarket? We discount shop is DEARER

THE NEW CHAIN IS TAKING ON ALDI AND LIDL IN THE CHEAP STORE WARS – BUT IS JACK’S ALL IT IS CRACKED UP TO BE?

TESCO unveiled its first budget Jack’s store this week - and people have been having fun comparing the prices on show with the cost of the same goods at Aldi and Lidl. But we’ve discovered a problem. We popped in to the big Tesco in Burnage - one of the biggest supermarkets in Greater Manchester - to compare its prices with Jack’s.

When the M.E.N. shared the story about the first Jack’s on Facebook on Wednesday, a lot of people commented along the lines of ‘why don’t they just sell things this cheap at Tesco?’

But it turns out they do. So what’s going on? How does Jack’s compare to rival Aldi and Lidl? And is the new discount store any cheaper than Tesco itself?

The new Jack’s stores, named after Tesco founder Jack Cohen, have been opened to appeal to customers who would usually shop at rival bargain shops Aldi and Lidl.

The new budget chain has vowed to be ‘the cheapest in town.’

Eight out of 10 Jack’s food and drink products will be ‘grown, reared or made’ in Britain.

The new grocery chain has opened stores in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, and Immingham, Lincolnshire.

A total of 15 are planned in the next six months with Tesco investing £25million in the scheme.

There will be a range of just 2,600 products - compared with 90,000 in a Tesco Extra, the Mirror reports.

Of these, 1,800 will have Jack’s branding and include fresh fruit, veg, meat, dairy, ready meals, baby products, household cleaners, snacks, sweets and soft drinks.

Shelves will also have 700 branded items in areas where big names like Coca-Cola, Heinz and Cadbury are market leaders.

The remaining 100 will be nonfood items, from newspapers and flowers to special buys such as irons and vacuum cleaners. Unlike at Tesco, staff don’t have a uniform. They wear their own clothes with a brown Jack’s apron.

Though Jack’s products may come from the same supplier, they are not the same as Tesco’s own label or any in-house brands it has launched such as Hearty Food Co ready meals, Creamfields dairy and Nevill’s bakery items, which are - ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ labels.

We went to the Tesco store in Burnage to pick up some shopping, while our colleagues at The Mirror nipped to the new Jack’s store in Cambridgeshire to have a look at its prices.

This is what we found... Jack’s British milk (4 pints) £1.09/Tesco fresh milk (4 pints) £1.09 Jack’s cornflakes cereal (500g) 55p/Tesco cornflakes (500g) - 55p Jack’s spaghetti (500g) - 45p/ Hearty Food Co ‘exclusively for Tesco’ spaghetti (500g) - 20p Jack’s 80 teabags - 85p/T E Stockwell ‘exclusively at Tesco’ 80 teabags - 58p Jack’s baked beans in tomato sauce (4x420g) - 94p/Tesco baked beans in tomato sauce (4x420g) - £1 Jack’s thick white toastie bread (800g) - 49p/HW Nevill’s ‘exclusively at Tesco’ white bread (800g) - 36p Jack’s mushrooms (300g) - 59p/ Tesco baby button mushrooms (200g) - 90p TOTAL: Jack’s - £4.96/Tesco £4.68

So we’re getting the same basket for less money at the ‘proper’ Tesco.

A Tesco spokesperson says the prices taken from the launch, which are being widely used to compare against other changes, aren’t necessarily accurate.

And our shopping basket contained products from the ‘exclusively at Tesco’ range of brands, which quite often undercuts Tesco’s own prices. A spokesperson said: “By beating the lowest national price on products with similar quality, we believe Jack’s will be the cheapest for shoppers in its towns.”

Up to 15 stores will open over the next year, with five existing Tesco properties being repurposed and the remainder being new outlets.

Tesco would not confirm when asked by the M.E.N. if any of these stores will be in Greater Manchester.

Retail experts have been speculating whether Tesco could rebrand some of its existing Tesco Metro stores - bringing budget branding into city and town centres, where there is usually less competition from Aldi and Lidl.

It comes after the UK’s so-called Big Four supermarkets - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons - have taken a hammering at the hands of Lidl and Aldi. The German duo have eaten up their market share by offering products at knock down prices.

Dr Gordon Fletcher, from the University of Salford, believes Tesco has taken on a tough challenge.

“With its emphasis on a UK product base, Tesco has finally launched a response to the high street threat of European retailers Aldi and Lidl,” he said.

“The challenge for Tesco will be to continuously compete at an unfamiliar price point on common household products.

“Aldi and Lidl both successfully compete in the retail sector by using a consistent layout in custom-built stores with a supply chain that sources items from suppliers across Europe.

“Jack’s will need to work hard to dent the success of Aldi and Lidl, and will also need to prove its value against the wider Tesco offering including its existing chain of One Stop convenience stores.” The store in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, was unveiled on Wednesday and opened its doors to Dr Gordon Fletcher the public on Thursday alongside a second store in Immingham, northeast Lincolnshire.

Shopper Delia Fernandez, 41, arrived at 3am to be first in line at the Chatteris store, which opened at 10am with a ribbon cutting and a shower of confetti.

“I wanted to see the different bargains that they’ve got and to have a good look,” she said.

She said she usually shops at Aldi but said she could be persuaded to change, adding: “Prices, it all depends on the price and quality of the product.”

Jeevan Gunaratnam, 48, who emerged with a trolley full of shopping, lives in London but decided to visit Jack’s as he was in the area.

The medical sales worker said: “I occasionally shop in some of the other German stores like Lidl and Aldi so I was curious as I was nearby and thought I would just have a look, and I was really impressed.

“I think prices are good, I think the whole package Tesco has put together for Jack’s is really good and I think it will be a really good addition to the high street.”

He said he usually shops at Tesco, Lidl and occasionally Waitrose, but added if he had a local Jack’s store “I think it would influence me to go and buy some things”.

“Obviously, there’s not the full range, but I think for the stuff you need day-to-day it’s got some really good lines,” he said.

Retired mechanic Mark Burton, 48, of Chatteris, said: “It’s more competition, bringing in better prices for the town.”

Most products will be Jack’s own brand and the chain will have 2,600 lines.

Retired builder William McPherson, 72, of Chatteris, said: “There’s a good selection of goods there.”

He added prices were “comparable with Aldi” and he liked the layout - “there’s plenty of room so you’re not crammed up”.

The launch of Jack’s is part of Tesco’s centenary celebrations which will see the business mark 100 years in 2019.

Jack Cohen founded Tesco 99 years ago in 1919.