Don’t have a loyalty card? You’ll be paying 40pc more for Christmas dinner
Christmas dinners could cost shoppers up to 40pc more if they do not have a supermarket loyalty card, new analysis has shown.
Prices for a typical festive meal could be as much as £15 more expensive for those without a loyalty card, according to analysis by Bloomberg.
Sainsbury’s shoppers who do not have a Nectar card, for example, would pay £15.77 more on average compared to those who do. The Tesco Clubcard similarly knocks £13 off common ingredients.
It comes as the competition watchdog prepares to launch a review of loyalty scheme pricing to consider whether it is fair that cheap prices are available only to members.
Such schemes have proved hugely successful in Britain. The vast majority of shoppers own at least one loyalty card and an increasing number of products are covered by them.
Loyalty cards allow supermarkets to gather valuable data on their customers, which can be sold to consumer goods companies for large profits. Tesco Plc and J Sainsburys Plc make an estimated £300m a year from selling customer data.
Bloomberg analysed price data for festive staples such as turkey, pigs-in-blankets, stuffing, Yorkshire puddings, and other vegetables and condiments. The research also included Christmas pudding, double cream and mince pies.
Its analysis found large price disparities for big-name brands Aunt Bessie’s duck fat roast potatoes cost £2.50 with a Tesco Clubcard, and £4 without one, while at Sainsbury the same product is £2.20 using Nectar Prices and £4.40 without.
Tesco’s Clubcard first launched in the 1990s, but it was not until 2019 that the supermarket introduced cut prices exclusive to members. Now, more than 20 million households have a Tesco Clubcard and 80pc of the supermarket’s sales involve them.
Sainsbury’s Nectar Prices began offering loyalty discounts in April. The supermarket said the vast majority of its customers were now using Nectar Prices – adding that customers had saved £450 million since its introduction in April.
Sarah Cardell, chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), said the popularity of loyalty schemes meant discounts were often only available to members.
An investigation by consumer group Which? Similarly found that some supermarkets had raised the standard price of goods shortly before offering a discount to loyalty card-holders.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “We are committed to offering the best possible value and we have never been more competitive on price.
“We have invested millions into keeping prices low for the products we know our customers buy most often and we have kept these prices well below the headline rate of inflation.”
A Tesco spokesperson said: “We know that having low prices on the products we sell is really important to our customers this Christmas, which is why we have more than 8,000 weekly deals on Clubcard Prices, offering some exceptional deals for Clubcard customers to reward them for their loyalty as we approach Christmas – all while collecting Clubcard points that can be put towards groceries and fuel, or doubled in value with our Reward Partners.”
