New figures from the BRC today had food inflation falling – down from 4.5% in February to a still considerable 4% last month.
With salaries rising at nothing like that rate, no wonder there’s been a squeeze on consumer spending – as reflected in recent results from the likes of The Co-op.
On the other hand, today’s numbers don’t tell the whole story. In last weekend’s issue of The Grocer, we showed how the price war between the UK’s two largest grocers has very effectively kept a lid on inflation for their shoppers.
Taking promotions into account prices at Tesco are up just 1% over last year. And over at Asda, shoppers are paying the same for their weekly basket of groceries as they would have a year ago.
“It’s a clear demonstration of competition in the retail sector keeping costs down for shoppers,” noted BRC director general Stephen Robertson today, pointing to the record 40% of all sales generated by promotions.
Don’t forgot, all paying subscribers to thegrocer.co.uk have access to a vast trove of pricing information via the interactive Grocer 33 online, powered by BrandView.co.uk.
Just click on any one of the products in the latest weekly basket and you can get a full run-down of its promotional history.
While the mults continue to get criticism for the dizzying complexity of their promotional activities, they can at least point to those efforts as conclusive evidence against the accusations of profiteering that are also so common.
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