Supermarkets accused of price trickery

Almost three-quarters of consumers believe supermarkets are trying to mislead them with confusing pricing practices, a watchdog has found.

The survey of 2,100 shoppers for Which? revealed that 74 per cent think supermarkets are trying to dupe them, while 78 per cent say their weekly grocery bill has increased in the past 12 months to an average of £76.83. It also found that 91 per cent shop around for the best deal and 82 per cent are using cheaper supermarkets.

The consumer group has launched a campaign to make supermarkets adopt clearer unit pricing, to allow shoppers to easily compare the value of similar products following complaints that the tags are often hard to read and inconsistent.

Current legislation requires retailers to provide both a selling price and a unit price for products, but a spot-check of branches of each of the 10 leading supermarkets found none met the watchdog's best practice criteria developed with Trading Standards and the Royal National Institute of Blind People for size and legibility of unit pricing.

* Which? is calling for consumers to support the campaign by signing a pledge calling for supermarkets to use clear, simple price labelling at which.co.uk/unitpricing.