Store charging more for five minutes of air

A MAJOR supermarket is hiking the price of one of its petrol station services in line with other main competitors.

Air for pumping up vehicle tyres at Sainsbury’s will now cost 50p for five minutes.

The supermarket has followed the likes of Tesco, Asda and Morrisons to implement the higher charge, despite previously having been the cheapest retailer for the service. The service beforehand from Sainsbury’s used to cost 30p for three minutes.

Motorists have complained about the small extra cost saying everything is going up. One wrote on Twitter: “The tyre pressure machine at Sainsbury’s went up from 30p to 50p.

“It has always been 30p but it’s now been hiked up by 66 per cent. Same machine, just a sticker over the price.

“OK, it’s a small thing. But there are so many opportunistic price rises happening now.”

A spokesperson from Sainsbury’s said: “Back in July, we started offering customers five minutes rather than the previous offer of three minutes, with each minute remaining at 10p per minute.”