Booths has started matching the prices of commonly bought grocery items with Waitrose, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

The upmarket northern supermarket chain is matching against the most frequently occurring non-promotional price at its four rivals.

Called ‘Price Promise’, the scheme covers products customers would expect to see in most of its competitors, including branded items and own-label lines in fruit & vegetable, meat and eggs.

There are currently 350 products covered by the Price Promise and Booths is intending to increase this to 500 by Easter. Buyers will check and update prices every other week.

The retailer is promoting the Price Promise in store and online with a list of products covered by the scheme.

On shelf, customers are alerted to price-matched products by yellow shelf barkers that state: “We promise to match the market price”.

Booths said the Price Promise initiative would help to reinforce its value credentials. “The aim is for the customer to get the best value out of their shop at Booths rather than point them to a promotion,” said Booths buying manager John Gill. He added that Booths would be funding the initiative itself.

The price matching is part of a broader campaign Booths is calling True Value. This includes hints and tips on shelf barkers to help customers make more informed shopping decisions, such as when to use a specialist olive oil and when ordinary oil will do.

Booths said initial feedback from customers and staff to True Value had been “exceptionally positive”.

Musgrave’s Budgens is the only other independent retailer to operate a price matching scheme, which it launched in 2011 after stating it was “no longer possible for independents to be pricing as they did before”.

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