Sainsbury’s promises to match Aldi’s prices on as many as 200 products in its convenience stores. The move comes following growing pressure on grocers to offer more competitive deals in their local shops.
The UK’s second-largest supermarket chain has announced that it’s the first in the nation to make such a pledge.
Now, shoppers at approximately 1,400 Sainsbury’s Local stores will find prices that are the same or even lower than Aldi on staples like milk, bread, butter, pasta, chicken, steak, and veggies. This initiative expands on Sainsbury’s existing policy of price-matching over 500 own-brand and branded items in its larger stores and online.
Aldi, known for its discount prices, was recently crowned the cheapest supermarket of 2023 by the consumer watchdog Which?.
The new scheme is set to replace last year’s “pocket-friendly prices” campaign, which highlighted reduced prices across Sainsbury’s convenience outlets.
Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “In our Sainsbury’s Locals, we’ve worked hard to offer market-leading prices on essential items and popular breakfast, lunch and dinner staples.
“We have also refreshed our local store layouts and rebalanced space, increasing the number of products in store by 7% and adding more food-on-the-move products – the primary mission of most convenience shoppers.”
A recent study by Which? found that consumers who buy their food at convenience stores could be paying up to a fifth more than at larger branches of the same supermarket.
Loyalty card members of Sainsbury’s could be paying an average of 14% more at Sainsbury’s Local than at larger stores, the survey conducted last month showed.
Which? said price disparities were likely to have a bigger impact on people without easy access to transport or online deliveries, making them more reliant on smaller nearby stores.
Mr Roberts said Sainsbury’s had invested nearly £1 billion “in value” since shifting its focus back to food four years ago.
It did not disclose how much it was costing to extend the Aldi price-match scheme.
