Ripped off by your mini-supermarket

Food giants hiking prices in sister ‘metro’ stores

SUPERMARKETS are charging shoppers almost three times as much for some groceries in their ‘metro’ convenience stores, it has been revealed.

An investigation into the price difference in supermarkets and their innercity sister stores shows a huge disparity in the cost of everyday items.

One trolley of groceries cost almost £10 more in a smaller shop than the same company’s superstore. The analysis by BBC’s Inside Out looked at a mix of branded and own-brand wares from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose. They compared the price of the same items in the larger megastores with smaller local shops in Birmingham.

Inside Out employees visited the shops in September and October this year. At Marks and Spencer the exact same shopping list cost £103.26 at the Birmingham High Street store but £112.44 at Simply Food in Birmingham New Street Station.

In the large Tesco on Camden Street, Birmingham, a banana cost 9p. However, it was priced at 25p at the Tesco Express in Frederick Street – a mark-up of 177 per cent.

The supermarkets said the price difference was due to the higher running costs of the smaller branches whose town centre location means higher rents. Also, convenience stores are open longer as they are not subject to Sunday trading laws which restrict shops of more than 3,000 sq ft to just six hours trading.

Tesco said it worked hard to offer customers ‘great value’, while Marks and Spencer said it tried to ‘keep prices competitive’ but said it was ‘in line with other retailers’ by charging more in convenience stores.

Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer stores in Birmingham, and Waitrose shops in Shropshire, had 45 of 50 items more expensive in the convenience stores. Tesco Express saw 39 of 50 items cost more.

Shopper Maggie Henning told the BBC: ‘It’s people like me, who need a convenience store because they can’t get to a large supermarket, that are actually paying the price for that.’