Shoppers are facing a cost-of-living crisis as there is an increase in food bills. It is presumed that shoppers could face a £271 increase in the average annual food bill as the crisis continues throughout this year. According to a research company Kantar, the grocery prices are 5.9% higher than the prices a year ago in April, which is the biggest increase since 2011. Supply chain issues, Ukraine War, and rising raw material cost are all contributing to driving up the food prices and adding on to the crisis. No food category has decreased in price in 2022. And now the USDA has revised the prices further upwards.
As supermarkets are now fighting for customers, Aldi and Lidl being discount retailers, more than one million extra shoppers have visited them as compared to last year around the same time. Customers are now watching their pennies as daily basics cannot be cut out, and are opting for discounted retailers, resulting in increasing Aldis sales by 4.2% over the past 12 weeks to 17th April.
Tesco was the only other retailer to increase its market share, growing by 0.3 percentage points to 27.3% of total grocery sales.
Sainsbury’s now accounts for 15% of the market, followed by Asda at 14.1% and Morrisons at 9.5%. The figure for Aldi stands at 8.8%, while Lidl is at 6.6%.
Now, even Morrisons and Asda have been cutting down prices on hundreds of products as they are losing their customers to Aldi and Lidl.
The public is already finding it difficult to make ends meet and have tightened their purse strings. The labours are calling out to the government to do more to help the low earning citizens in the country. The increase in prices and the difficulties faced are clearly noticeable.