Tesco Sees Cash-Strapped Shoppers Switching To Frozen Food

 Namnews, 5th December 2022

Tesco’s Chief Executive has highlighted that many of its customers are switching from fresh food to frozen goods in an attempt to reduce their grocery bills.

In an interview with the BBC, Ken Murphy said some shoppers were also swapping pricier red meat for cheaper white protein to save money.

He added that people were using its handheld barcode scanners more when shopping to avoid being “embarrassed” at the tills.

Murphy told the BBC that shoppers were “managing their budgets much more tightly” and had changed their behaviour by “trading down” to cheaper food and own label products.

Other examples he listed included seeking out cheaper frozen meat and vegetables instead of fresh produce, batch-cooking meals and cutting back on eating out.

The Tesco boss said its hand-held barcode scanners allowed people to “keep to a specific budget” by being able to keep an eye on the running total, instead of being “worried about being embarrassed at the till” if it turned out they could not afford their shopping or were over budget.

Tesco has sold double the number of frozen turkeys this year compared to the amount in 2019, due to shoppers cutting back. It has also seen a spike in demand for frozen desserts, and searches for frozen food on Tesco’s website are up 40% from last year.

Murphy stated that the UK was living in “times of turbulence and times of change” and people were worried about the “affordability of life today”.

However, he said its customers were “really determined to enjoy Christmas this year”, with 2022 being the first festive period for three years without Covid restrictions.

Murphy noted that shoppers had been spreading out the cost of Christmas by purchasing goods earlier and had also bought “more modest gifts”.

“People will spend less. That is inevitable,” he said.