Customers go bananas as Tesco hikes up the price of the popular fruit by more than double
Customers go bananas as Tesco hikes up the price of the popular fruit by more than double ‘to help cover cost of expensive stores’
- Shoppers in Tesco’s inner-city stores have been faced with higher prices
- Tesco said higher costs have lead to a ‘small premium on a number of products’
- Twitter users slam the grocer for upping the price of the popular yellow fruit
One of Britain’s biggest supermarkets has angered shoppers in its inner-city stores by hiking the cost of individual bananas.
Tesco has changed the pricing of its bananas, and now instead of charging by weight, the bananas are priced individually, meaning the cost of the fruit has more than doubled at some of its Tesco Metro and Express branches.
The new pricing method means that bananas that may have previously cost 10-15p will now cost 25p.
The price of a single banana has been hiked by the grocer from around 10-15p to 25p
Tesco, which is headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, blamed the price hike on ‘more expensive’ leases.
A Tesco spokesperson said, ‘Due to the higher costs involved in operating our Express and Metro stores there is a small premium on a number of products.
‘Our convenience stores are in prime, central locations where leases are more expensive in comparison to out of town Extras and Superstores.’
Twitter users came out in force to slam Tesco for upping the price of individual bananas
Tesco responded to some Twitter users by reasoning with them that these particular stores have ‘very expensive leases’
The change in pricing took effect last week, with some Twitter users picking up right away that the new 25p price was a considerable premium on the 14p the store charges online.
One Twitter user Chris Groves (@NOT_wappy), picked up on the price hike on August 28 and said: ‘@Tesco a) Why are bananas now charged by quantity and not weight?
‘b) Why was I charged 25p PER BANANA in store (Canary Wharf), but yet on the Tesco website these are only 14p.’
The prices have been hiked in Tesco Metro and Tesco Express stores which are usually in locations where leases are expensive
A representative from Tesco responded to Mr Groves to let him know why the price had gone up, explaining that: ‘Our London Metro stores are in prime, central locations where leases are very expensive in comparison to out of town Extras and Superstores.’
However, Mr Groves made the point that the price had gone up relatively sharply and said that he was ‘sure they were only 15p in the same store last week’.
Other users slammed the grocer for upping the price of the healthy snack, when ‘sweets are massively discounted’.
@josh_the_olive slammed the store for hiking the price of the healthy snack
@avrildeane tweeted the company to complain about the prices in her local store
Twitter user Josh (@josh_the_olive), questioned the supermarket chain and asked them: ‘why have you stopped charging bananas by weight?
‘The only healthy thing that is practical to eat on the go being sold at a premium yet choc and sweets all massively discounted.’
This was while user avril deane (@avrildeane), used the supermarkets own catchphrase against it as she accused the retailer of thinking customers were ‘stupid’.
In recent years the retailer has been squeezed as German retailers entered the UK market
‘Every little helps, Tesco? Not when you’re now charging 25p per single banana in our local store instead of by the kilo? You must think we are stupid!’
The supermarket has almost 3,500 stores in the UK of which around 2,700 are convenience stores, including 1,749 Express shops, 776 One-Stop, and 172 Metro stores.
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