Most British consumers do not believe the UK has the cheapest groceries in western Europe, new YouGov polling has found.
That’s despite the protestations of the supermarket sector who in their case against floated government plans to urge retailer to put a price cap on essentials, protested that local competition was fierce and food far cheaper in the UK than elsewhere on the continent.
Some 43% of the 5,492 Brits surveyed by YouGov agreed with the statement that “prices are generally more expensive in UK supermarkets than in other European countries”. Just under a fifth (19%) thought prices were about the same as elsewhere, and only 7% believed the cost of a grocery shop in the UK was cheaper.
According to latest Defra figures, an average household in the UK spends 11.3% of their expenditure on household food and non-alcoholic drink. Other data sources suggest western European peer countries typically spend around 2 to 6 percentage points more of their household budgets on food at home, with the highest seen in Spain and Italy.
Late last month, British Retail Consortium CEO Helen Dickinson made the case against a shock plan floated by government to persuade supermarkets to agree to cap food prices to ward off inflation caused by the war in the Middle East.
“The UK has the most affordable grocery prices in western Europe thanks to the fierce competition between supermarkets,” she said.
Dickinson urged that the government’s request to retailers to consider capping prices for a raft of staple products such as bread, eggs and milk would not work, and “the consequences would be almost negligible to the UK consumer”.
The poll findings indicate a growing disparity between consumer perceptions of the grocery sector and the reality.
Last month, a report by free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs found Brits “significantly overestimate” the profits of supermarkets. Brits believe supermarkets are making profit margins of 50%, a survey by the IEA found, despite the true figure falling around 2% to 4%.
Separate YouGov polling in May found more than a third of British consumers believe the price of basic groceries includes “a lot of profit for supermarkets” and “are far higher than they need to be”, new polling by YouGov has found.
Some 35% of the 6,142 adults surveyed agreed with the viewpoint that the price of products like eggs, bread and milk include a hefty cut for retailers.
A further 36% agreed with the view that essentials prices included a “moderate” profit for supermarkets and were still higher than they needed to be.
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