Food
Students say higher prices at city centre supermarkets hit them hard
Students in South London say shopping in city centre supermarkets is costing them far too much. It follows a recent BBC investigation which found that customers are being charged more from
shopping at the smaller big chain convenience stores across the UK.
It has been shown that customers spend almost £10 more in a smaller branch compared to
larger ones.
A banana in a larger Tesco store costs 9p compared to a smaller branch which charges 25p.
The branches including: Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco and Marks and Spencer have said
that this price difference is to compensate for the higher running costs of smaller convenience
stores.
For students in London this can create a problem. There is a lack of larger stores in central
London, meaning that many students have no other option but to shop in the smaller
branches. This makes living costs more expensive than they already are being a student,
taking a big chunk out of living allowances.
One student said, “I have to take a 45-minute train to go to one of the bigger stores like
Asda” and another said, “it’s bad because students don’t have a lot of money as it is”.
For many South Bank University students, the local shop is Tesco Express with the
investigation showing that 39 out of 50 items cost more than in the superstore alternative.
For most students a food share is one of the best options, sharing the cost of food and bulk
buying in larger supermarkets in order to find the best value for money.
