Shoppers have been warned that they could be paying extra by opting for convenience branches over supermarkets. Research carried out by ESA Retail found that it may be adding as much as 10 per cent to grocery costs.
The smaller convenience options, such as Tesco Express, are typically located in busier city locations. Tesco was found to have the highest price gap between their larger supermarkets and their convenience stores, with a staggering 10.4 per cent difference in prices.
The retail experts compared prices on 1,900 Tesco items to work out the difference, reports the Mirror. However, Tesco have said that they are committing to more competitive rates across stores and online.
A Tesco spokesperson said: "With household budgets under increasing pressure, we’re more committed than ever to giving our customers great value at Tesco, whether they shop with us online, in a large store, or in an Express store. Our Express stores offer a range of extremely competitive own brand products and we have rolled out Clubcard Prices to all our Express stores.
"This helps millions of customers spend less through their Tesco Clubcard, with Clubcard Prices giving up to 50 per cent off a wide range of products and helping customers collect points for money off their shopping."
As for Sainsbury's - which offers a Sainsbury's Local convenience option - it was found that there was an 8.4 percent price gap between supermarkets and convenience outlets. To work this out the prices of 2,100 items were compared.
Morrisons, which also has smaller Morrisons Daily convenience stores, was not part of the study. Nor was Asda, which has Asda Express mini-stores.
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