WAITROSE has become the latest supermarket in the Island to confirm that UK price cuts on basic food items will be reflected in Jersey – following similar announcements from M&S and Morrisons.
Yesterday, Waitrose said that ‘the Channel Islands would benefit from the price reductions, with a few examples of everyday favourites including peanut butter, pork chops [and] tomato ketchup’.
The news comes as SandpiperCI confirmed to the JEP this week that Jersey’s M&S and Morrisons stores would see price reductions in line with those announced in the UK.
A spokesperson from SandpiperCI said that local M&S prices had been reduced in line with recent UK moves, and that various local Morrisons Daily lines would come down ‘in due course’.
In the UK, M&S said it was cutting the price of more than 70 family staples, including beef mince and chickpeas, and locking in previously made reductions on other goods.
SandpiperCI confirmed that the same products would be reduced in M&S in Jersey, although they will not match the prices seen in the UK.
The spokesperson added that it was too early to suggest which specific food items would see a reduction in the Island’s Morrisons franchise stores.
Following SandpiperCI’s announcement on Wednesday, Jersey Consumer Council chair Carl Walker said that data showed that M&S ‘has suddenly become one of the most affordable and competitive supermarkets for basic items’.
‘Any further reductions in prices are only going to benefit the customer,’ he added.
The British Retail Consortium recently said it was hoped that food inflation in Jersey would drop ‘in the coming months’, after the UK rate fell slightly from around 15.7% in March to 15.4% in May.
Statistics Jersey’s latest Retail Prices Index report showed that the annual rate of food inflation in the Island stood at 15.8% in March, although the next dataset is not due to be released until 21 July.
The Coop has declined to comment.
