Shoppers believe supermarkets are more guilty of “profiteering” during the cost-of-living crisis than banks, according to new research.
The consumer survey, which was conducted exclusively for Retail Week, has revealed that 75% of shoppers think grocers have been profiteering during this period of high inflation.
Rising supermarket prices mean more shoppers feel grocers are exploiting high inflation than they do banks (70%) and just 6% less than they do energy companies (81%).
The survey of 2,000 adults in the UK also found 37% believed the biggest supermarkets in the country had raised product prices unfairly during the crisis and only 6% disagreed with the statement that supermarkets had been profiteering.
Supermarket bosses have staunchly refuted accusations of profiteering by pressure groups and unions throughout the first half of the year, with Tesco boss Ken Murphy insisting the group’s inflation was “dramatically below” the headline figure of over 17% reported by Kantar earlier this year.
Murphy said in April: “The key point I’d make is that our profits fell by 7% this year and that is despite the fact that we achieved a record level of cost savings.
“Shareholders have been very supportive, despite a meaningful increase in our top-line sales number, they have seen a significant fall in the profitability of the business.”
Grocers face MP grilling
The results come as representatives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons are today set to appear in front of the Commons business select committee to face questions over areas such as gross profits, how they break UK businesses out from their groups and how they report fuel margins versus groceries.
Morrisons chief executive David Potts is the only chief executive set to attend the event.
Food commercial director Rhian Bartlett will represent Sainsbury’s, chief commercial officer Kris Comerford will represent Asda and commercial director Gordon Gafa will be there for Tesco.
Representatives of the traditional big four supermarkets have pointed to falling year-on-year profits, investment in pricing, razor-thin margins and falling overall inflation as evidence they are doing all they can to support customers through the cost-of-living crisis.
Today, shop price inflation decelerated to 8.4% in June, down from 9% in May, according to the latest BRC-NielsenIQ Shop Price Index.
Food inflation decelerated to 14.6% in June, down from 15.4% in May. Fresh food inflation slowed further in June to 15.7%, down from 17.2% in May, while ambient food inflation decelerated slightly to 13% in June.
1 Reader's comment