The cost of living crisis has sent shelf prices spiralling, with many people cutting back on essentials to save money to pay skyrocketing energy bills.
In response, many supermarkets and other retailers have put special measures in place to help customers.
Here, Which? rounds up the kinds of offers you can find, and where you’ll find them, to help you save as much as you can at this difficult time.
Free and cheap kids' meals
‘Kids eat free’ wasn’t invented as a directed response to the current crisis, but some shops have expanded, tweaked or highlighted their children’s meal offers in light of it. Some of these offers have been launched specifically for the school holidays, so they may not be available in a few weeks.
Currently, you can find kids’ meal discounts at the following places:
- Asda: it’s £1 for any kids’ meal at Asda cafés and there’s no requirement to buy an adult meal at the same time.
- Ikea: the flat-pack furniture specialist is offering kids’ meals for between 95p and £1.50 at its restaurants until 3 September.
- Morrisons: Morrisons has a permanent kids eat free offer for every adult meal purchased over £4.99.
- Sainsbury’s: the chain is giving away free kids’ meals with any £5.25 adult meal for the summer holidays.
- Tesco: the supermarket’s in-store cafés are offering free kids’ meals worth up to £3.25 when an adult spends 60p. The promotion runs until 26 August.
Listen: the Which? Money Podcast talks about how to save on food shopping.
Targeted discounts
You might start to see targeted discounts from supermarkets, to provide help to certain groups of customers that need it more than others.
In Iceland, over 60s can get 10% off their shop on Tuesdays. Iceland is also offering £30 vouchers to people receiving Pension Credit. To get them, you need to apply via Iceland's free 'Cheer hotline' on 0800 098 7877. If you're successful, you'll receive a paper voucher in the post.
These are the only targeted discounts we know about so far, but we’ll update this story if we hear of any others.
- Find out more: which was the cheapest supermarket in July?
Expanded value ranges
In the wake of food writer and activist Jack Monroe’s campaigning, many supermarkets announced they’d expand (or in some cases re-expand) their value ranges to give low-income customers more options.
Monroe pointed out the hardship many households were facing due to rising inflation, and argued that, among other measures, greater access to budget-priced food could help with the problem.
Several retailers have pledged to stock more cheap products, so you should be seeing these on the shelves already.
The question is, how do you find them? Different supermarkets have different names for the budget ranges. They might be called 'Everyday Essentials', 'Greengrocer' or 'Simply'.
There's also the issue of shortages. Due to increased demand, budget own-label groceries might be more likely to sell out at the moment. We found that value products were out of stock on three times as many days from December 2021 to February 2022, compared to two years previously.
The bright side is own-brand essential ranges have so far been affected less by inflation than standard and premium-priced goods in supermarkets, according to our research.
- Find out more: 8 things you should know about budget ranges
Price locks on essential items
With inflation getting out of hand, customers will be relieved to hear some retailers are locking down prices on certain products for the foreseeable future.
- Boots: says it will keep over 1,500 products ‘affordable’
- Currys: locked down prices for several electrical items, promising RRPs lower than in 2021
- Iceland: has promised to keep over 60 essential items at £1 until the end of the year
- Superdrug: has frozen prices on more than 130 own-brand essential items
What else are shops doing to help with the cost of living?
There’s more going on behind the scenes, with supermarkets investing hundreds of millions to battle price inflation. They’re also donating money and food to charities to help the worst-off through the crisis.
But with inflation at a record high and energy bills expected to rise even further, you may still be struggling to buy the essentials you need.
If you need help with food and essentials, you can search for your local food bank on the Trussel Trust website. You can contact food banks directly, or you can be referred to one by Citizens Advice, Jobcentre Plus, a social worker, a medical professional or your local authority.
Your local council might be able to help in other ways, through small loans or food vouchers.
You can read all our cost of living tips and advice for more help and guidance from our experts.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/what-supermarkets-and-shops-are-doing-to-help-with-the-cost-of-living-aNpUU5E5AbYr