Supermarkets: Pricing

Lord Kinnock Excerpts

Monday 14th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My noble friend makes a good point, and it is one of the issues that we are discussing earnestly with the supermarkets. However I should point out that “buy one, get one free” deals represent a small proportion of supermarket promotions, the majority of which are temporary price reductions. We are also in discussions over the Waste and Resources Action Programme, which works with retailers to encourage alternative promotions for perishable goods.

[Lord Kinnock (Lab)]

My Lords, is not the sense of crisis heightened by the fact that the Prime Minister appears not to know the price of a loaf of bread? Could the Minister show rather more urgency in trying to insist that retailers, including supermarkets, have a uniformity of descriptions of the pound and kilogram cost of items on their shelves so that people can make a cogent choice in deciding what the best value for money is?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

The noble Lord raises an important point. He may be aware that there is legislation in place, in the form of the Price Marking Order 2004, which requires the selling price and, where appropriate, the unit price—65p per 100 grams, for example—to be clearly displayed on products being offered by traders to consumers. We take this seriously and we are working hard to improve communication about and the display of these items.