More than half of us shop at convenience stores at least once a week, according to new Which? research*. And while you probably know that convenience stores are pricier than supermarkets, our investigation has revealed that the difference can run to hundreds of pounds over the course of a year.
We compared the cost of popular grocery items at the largest supermarket-branded convenience chains – Morrisons Daily, Sainsbury’s Local and Tesco Express – against prices at their full-sized supermarket counterparts.
Morrisons Daily had the biggest price differences, with our research finding you’ll pay 21% more on average for the same groceries at a Morrisons Daily than a large Morrisons supermarket.
Read on to find out how much extra you'll pay at Sainsbury's Local and Tesco Express, plus the steepest mark-ups we came across.
The price of convenience
We checked the cost of 42 branded and own-label products - from cheese and pasta to blueberries and ice cream - on three occasions in June and July.
The total cost of our basket of groceries averaged £16 more at Morrisons Daily than Morrisons supermarkets, meaning you could shell out a massive £832 more over the course of a year if you bought that selection of products once a week.
In total, our 42 groceries would have averaged around £11 (14%) more at Sainsbury’s Local than Sainsbury's supermarkets, and £10 (11%) more at Tesco Express than Tesco supermarkets for loyalty members, which adds up to more than £500 extra over a year.
Overall, Tesco Express was the cheapest of the convenience stores – but only if you have a Clubcard. The total cost of our shop averaged £108.28 for members and £117.30 for non-members.
As Sainsbury’s and Morrisons don’t currently offer member-only discounts in their convenience stores, the total average cost of the convenience basket was the same regardless of membership: £111.83 at Sainsbury’s and £119.29 at Morrisons.
Find out more:Which products have the biggest markups?
Of all the products we looked at, a tin of own-label chickpeas had the steepest markup, costing £1 at Morrisons Daily compared to 49p in the supermarket’s bigger branches – more than twice the price.
A tub of Philadelphia soft cheese cost 63% more at Morrisons Daily, 26% more at Tesco Express and 20% more at Sainsbury’s Local than at the supermarkets' bigger stores.
This table reveals the 12 biggest average price differences we found between supermarkets’ convenience stores and their full-sized branches for the exact same items:
Essentials such as milk, bread and butter also had a markup: you’d pay 8% more for two pints of own-label semi-skimmed milk at all three retailers’ convenience stores.
A medium white Hovis loaf cost 12% more at both Sainsbury’s Local and Tesco Express, and 14% more at Morrisons Daily. Loyalty members would have forked out 20% more at Tesco for a 400g tub of Lurpak Spreadable butter, while all shoppers would have paid 33% more at Morrisons Daily.
However, a handful of the products on our list were cheaper on average at the convenience stores than their supermarket counterparts.
A 180g bag of Doritos Cool Original tortilla chips was 15% less, a one-litre bottle of Robinsons orange squash 25% less, and Kenco Millicano instant coffee 32% less at Morrisons Daily.
Meanwhile, Clubcard holders paid 14% less for a five-pack of Nature Valley cereal bars at Tesco Express and 6% less for a 460g bottle of Heinz tomato ketchup.
Find out more:The loyalty card effect
Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Tesco all offer two-tier pricing, where loyalty scheme members pay less for some items than non-members, so we also looked into how this affected convenience store premiums.
The table below shows the average price differences between Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco convenience stores and larger supermarkets for both loyalty members and non-members.
Three products were discounted for loyalty scheme members in Morrisons’ bigger stores but not at its convenience stores, so the average price difference for More cardholders would have been slightly higher at 22% than for non-members (21%).
The average price difference without a Tesco Clubcard was 10%, but much less - 5% - for Sainsbury’s customers without a Nectar card. This is because some offers that were branded as member-only Nectar prices in larger stores were available to everyone in Local stores, due to Sainsbury’s Locals not currently running loyalty discounts.
For example, a 100g tub of Kenco Millicano Americano instant coffee cost £3.50 for Nectar members and £6 for non-members at Sainsbury’s supermarkets at the beginning of July, but was discounted to £3.50 for everyone at Sainsbury’s Local.
So if you’re not keen on joining supermarket loyalty schemes, or are unable to do so, Sainsbury’s Local might be a cheaper option than Tesco Express.
Find out more:Disadvantaged households rely more on convenience stores
While many of us choose to use convenience stores for top-up shops and food on the go, others have no choice but to use them. Just under a fifth of convenience store shoppers say their nearest large supermarket is too far away, and nearly one in eight don’t own a car. Others say online shopping isn't an option for them.
Many of these communities are characterised by poor proximity to large supermarkets, relatively poor online-delivery access and socio-economic barriers such as fuel poverty, all of which can lead to a greater reliance on convenience stores. Indeed, 66% of households earning less than £21,000 per year shop in a convenience store at least once a week.
In 2023, the Competition and Markets Authority concluded: ‘Not everyone is able to benefit fully from strong competition [in the grocery sector], particularly those who cannot travel to large stores or shop online, and therefore may rely on higher-priced convenience stores.'
Why are convenience stores pricier?
Together with Co-op and M&S, big supermarket brands increasingly dominate the convenience store sector.
Steve Burt, professor of retail marketing at the University of Stirling’s Institute for Retail Studies, told Which? that grocers are rushing to open convenience stores due to changing consumer behaviour. ‘We all started to shop more locally during the pandemic and more people now work from home, so they’re popping out to their local store rather than doing a big weekly shop,' he says.
'In all aspects of life, we now expect things to come to us – whether that’s online shopping or a compromise where a retailer is on the high street or at the petrol station.’
Burt points out that it costs more to run smaller, urban stores. ‘Space costs tend to be higher due to rent and business rates, and it’s less economically efficient to replenish smaller stores in town centres. Instead of sending one large articulated lorry to one huge store, they must deliver the same quantity of products to 10 or 20 stores.’
Restocking smaller stores is also more complicated: ‘They might have to deliver in the day so they don’t disturb residents, use smaller cages, and take things out of packs instead of putting a shelf-ready pack straight on the shelf. All of this is quite marginal, but it adds up.’
When we put our findings to Tesco, it said its Express stores are mainly in built-up areas where rents, rates and operating costs are higher, and the difference in prices of some products reflect these increased costs. It also said customers make different ‘shopper journeys’ at Express stores, so it tailors Clubcard offers to suit customer shopping habits.
Morrisons and Sainsbury’s declined to comment.
Find out more:*Results are based on a November 2023 online survey of 1,565 members of the public and are representative of the GB population (aged 18+).
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/supermarket-convenience-stores-charge-up-to-twice-the-price-for-the-same-items-as3CA8W9C5L3