MSE News: All supermarkets should supply prices online, MP says

Former_MSE_Helen

"An MP has called for supermarket prices to be made readily available online so consumers can make price comparisons..."

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All supermarkets should supply prices online, MP says

ic

I can't shop online at my local corner shop either, should they be required to publish their price lists also? What nonsense.

rogerblack

Tesco already approach this - well - 'standard' is a bit dubious.
https://secure.techfortesco.com/tescoapiweb/ - contains documentation of an API to talk to tescos website programatically.

Stephen_Leak

I "ROBOshop". The lack of web prices to compare is why I don't use Aldi, Co-op, Lidl and Morrissons, unless I see a special offer mentioned on here. And, with ASDA, Sainsbury's & Tesco, if an item isn't on their website, I have to assume that they don't sell it.

Edwardia

Waitrose told me that if I log into their website it only shows what is stocked by my nearest store. I presumed others are the same.

However, when I looked up offers on Morrisons' website and looked for them in-store, couldn't find that many.

Lidl puts leaflet through my door almost every week, showing the offers. ASDA, Tesco and Sainsbury's do so at Easter and Christmas and Costcutter occasionally.

You can also see Lidl offers on their website. Co-op shows offers online as do Costcutter, Spar, One Stop, Sainsbury's, ASDA, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose, Poundland, 99p Stores and Aldi.

thriftymanc

In this case, are they going to make Tesco show their "Express" prices along side their normal prices too? Everything in my nearest store is loads more expensive than the website prices!

oldvicar

It is less important to have pricing information across all stores, and more important to know what the 'proper' price of an item is.

Pricing information from just one of the supermarkets, with a chart to show how the item's price varied over time, very much like a share price chart, would show at a glance what the 'proper' price is and what the best offer price has been recently. This knowledge would allow the consumer to decide if an item is reasonably priced or not in ANY shop, without having to have knowledge of all the supermarkets current pricing online.

Given that Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda do publish prices online because they offer online shopping, this is sufficient without forcing supermarkets to do anything more. What is needed is the app to generate the price charts over time.

Arg

An app to stick on peoples phones linked to a database so the public can gather and check the cost themselves by scaning the barcodes or shelf prices would be better.

MacMickster

Another bit of nonsense bureaucracy.

I suppose that the intention would be to get people to enter a shopping list online then shop at whichever supermarket is cheapest, after taking into account travel costs, convenience, multibuy offers (so should I buy 3 for the price of 2 this week instead of the 1 that I actually wanted?), associated petrol promotions etc.

Maybe half a dozen people in the country would actually do this.

BAGGY

I would love a price comparrison site for all s/ms. Taht way if bulk buying meat, fish, cheese etc for the freezer you'd know where to head. My mobile doesn't work in Morrisos so an app would be useless :-(

pawsies

I think managers have enough to do without publishing every offer they have instore, personally.

Incidentally there should be better education amongst the public to inform people of acceptable and great prices.

I believe Tesco in particular started off reasonable but then increased their prices once they had a large consumer base. I know a lot of people think that what Tesco charge is the going rate for products and therefore are happy to pay extortionate rates for products.