In a sample basket of 39 staple items, which feature among the supermarket’s 5,000 advertised cuts, one third had been raised in price in the lead-up to the reductions.
The goods included common household purchases such as bread, marmalade, eggs, orange juice and corn flakes.
In some cases, Tesco shoppers are now paying the same, or even more, for the items than they were at the beginning of this year. Brennan’s wholegrain sliced bread, which was reduced from €1.48 to €1.45 last week, was only €1.39 up until February — the price was increased in the spring . This casts doubts over whether the other advertised cuts represent as much of a bargain for customers as claimed.
Eddie Hobbs, who last week urged shoppers to switch to Tesco to put pressure on Dunnes Stores to follow with its own price reductions, said yesterday: “It’s disappointing if that is the case, but it’s not surprising. The bottom line is for consumers to vote with their feet if we are going to get results from the taking down of the Groceries Order.”
Hobbs said it may have been a mistake to give supermarkets five months’ notice that the order would be abolished. Last November Micheal Martin, the enterprise minister, announced his intention to lift the order, which happened in March.
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“Businesses are driven by profit and in hindsight . . . taking down the order had to be done for good reason, but it took months for it to come down.
“If I was running Tesco or Dunnes and I was of the mind you could take the view what we’ll do now is we will artificially push up the prices, which will give some manoeuvrability when the order comes down and a bit of pressure comes on. If you are asking me is that a strong possibility, the answer is yes, very strong. That’s how businesses behave.”
Tesco said: “No supermarket has cut prices on such a scale before and only Tesco is doing so now.”
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Tesco raised prices before ‘cutting’ them, page 5