Loyalty prices can help - but they make supermarket comparison harder
Clubcard, Nectar and other member prices can change the cheapest option, but only if shoppers can see the standard price, loyalty price and pack size together.
Loyalty pricing is now a normal part of UK grocery shopping. It can produce a real saving on individual items, but it also makes quick comparison harder because the displayed "best" price may depend on whether the shopper uses a particular scheme.
The Competition and Markets Authority reviewed loyalty pricing in UK groceries and said shoppers who are members of a loyalty scheme can almost always make a genuine saving on the usual price. Its consumer blog also said loyalty-priced products at the five supermarkets examined produced average savings of 17% to 25% compared with the usual price.
That is encouraging, but the CMA also found examples where other supermarkets still had cheaper regular or promotional prices. For comparison tools, this creates a simple rule: do not flatten a loyalty price into an ordinary price without saying so. The shopper needs to know whether the saving requires a card, an app, or another eligibility condition.
What a fair comparison should show
- The standard price
- The loyalty or member price, if visible from the retailer source
- The unit price, where available
- Whether the saving changes the basket total or just one item
This is also why broad "cheapest supermarket" claims can be misleading. A retailer can be cheapest for one loyalty-heavy basket and less competitive for a different own-label basket.
Sources
- CMA case page: Loyalty pricing in the groceries sector
- CMA blog: Loyalty pricing - what shoppers and supermarkets need to know
- Which? food price tracker methodology notes loyalty-card exclusions in its inflation tracker
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