Sainsbury’s cuts prices as supermarkets battle to provide cheap food in cost of living crisis

Sainsbury’s has become the latest British supermarket to try and reduce the price of their products, after it revealed it will launch discount £2 fruit and vegetable boxes.

Sainsbury’s said that its ‘Taste Me, Don’t Waste Me’ boxes will include a variety of surplus fresh fruit and vegetables with the boxes being sold at a lower price to “ensure customers have access to affordable nutritious food, as the cost of living continues to rise”. 

“We believe that everyone deserves to eat well at an affordable price, and we hope this additional support will ensure that good quality food doesn’t go to waste,”  Richard Crampton, Sainsbury’s director of fresh food, said. 

It follows the brands move to invest £550m by March to ensure Sainsbury’s products are the most affordable on the market. 

Recent ONS figures revealed that prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages in the UK shot up by 16.8 per cent over the year to January 2023. 

Other supermarkets have also sought to minimise the impact of inflation across their produce, with both Waitrose and Morrisons investing £100m and £25m respectively to reduce the price of their own brand items.

Aldi has said it was looking to double its London portfolio from 60 to 120 in order to give more consumers in the capital access to its cheap prices. 

“We strongly believe that access to affordable, high-quality food is a right, not a privilege. But we’re conscious that there are still many areas, particularly in the capital and within the M25, that don’t have access to an Aldi,”  Ben Shotter, regional managing director at Aldi, said. 

“Price hikes, and rising labour costs, have placed supermarkets between a rock and a hard place”, Sachin Jangam, partner for Retail at Infosys Consulting told City A.M. 

“To remain competitive as food sales drop, supermarkets need to focus on their price match schemes to stay competitive,” Jangam.

Speaking to City A.M, Kris Hamer, director of Insight at the British Retail Consortium, said: “While the war in Ukraine drove up the price of food in the UK, fierce competition is helping to bring those prices down wherever those price pressures ease.

“Retailers have been cutting costs and investing in lower prices over the last year, and we are beginning to see signs that it is paying off, with customers seeing the benefits.”