M&S has long been associated with dine in treats, picky bits and limited edition yumminess (strawberry sando and Big Daddy choc, we’re looking at you). It’s not somewhere most of us do our weekly shop.
But now, the supermarket has launched more than 100 new items in a bid to become ‘a true shopping list retailer’ that can compete with the likes of Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
From this week, M&S has expanded its Bigger Pack, Better Value range by a third, aiming to deliver family-sized staples at affordable prices.
New lines added to the range include 12 Free Range British Eggs for £3.20, a four pack of Hass avocados for £3.50, and larger size Double Cream (600ml) for £2.65.
Historically it’s been hard to get everything you need at M&S, but alongside new family packs, shoppers will now find other cupboard essentials in store, from medicines and bulk-buy washing tablets, to baby food and own-brand formula.
The changes couldn’t come sooner for M&S, which is still managing the fallout from a huge cyber attack earlier this year.
The high street shop was targeted by hackers in April, which disrupted contactless payments and Click and Collect – just one of many major retailers that have been hacked in recent months.
Shoppers were faced with empty shelves and a pause in online orders, with M&S stating that its profits would be reduced by around £300 million due to the impact.
The cheapest UK supermarkets
Each month, consumer watchdog Which? compare the average price of 79 items at the UK’s biggest supermarkets to determine the cost of doing your food shop. Sadly, M&S aren’t included, but the latest results show Aldi was the cheapest supermarket in June.
The budget supermarket charged £131.52 on average for the shopping list of branded and own-label groceries. Lidl was close behind – Lidl Plus loyalty app users would pay just 35p more in comparison (£131.87), or 37p for non-loyalty members (£131.89).
Meanwhile Asda, which doesn’t offer loyalty discounts in the same way, was crowned the cheapest of the traditional supermarkets, with the same list of groceries costing £144.82.
At the other end of the scale, Waitrose was the most expensive supermarket at £178.64 – that’s 36% more than Aldi.
Alex Freudmann, managing director at M&S Food, said the chain has been ‘working hard’ on the expanded line to ‘close our range gaps and make sure the price and quality of our key family lines delivers against customers expectations.’
‘All this has been increasing our credibility with families and we’re seeing strong growth with these shoppers,’ he said.
‘As we always say at M&S, there’s still lots of opportunity to go further and really cement M&S as the destination for families to get everything they need, at the quality you can only get from M&S.’
