Smaller supermarkets stock less budget items
People tend to spend more money at the smaller convenience versions of large supermarket chains such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.
One of the main reasons for this is because they do not stock as many budget versions of the stock.
These stores are usually in handy locations for people without cars to get to, which means that people who do not have as much disposable income have to shop at these stores.
Eilidh Lynn works at one of these convenience stores and she says:
“A lot of the time it’s convenience because smaller supermarkets are usually in city centers and and it’s mainly people who are at work, who don’t have time to go somewhere further afield or tourists when there’s a Sainsbury’s local or or a Tesco Extra next to their hotel.
“They don’t know like what the price of things are in the Lidl 10 minutes away because they’re not used to the price of the country.”
This is affecting people especially badly in the cost of living crisis as the prices of these items are going up even higher and people are unable to afford what they used to.
Eilidh continues:
“people are shocked at the price changes and they noticed them just for the little things like a pint of milk and so many people comment on it when the price goes up because it is impacting either the amount of food they can buy or like the quality food that they can buy.”
“I think it’s exploitative of the consumer because you’re not giving them a choice and you know that they will still buy the option even if it’s quite a bit more expensive because it is all they have.”
