Cost of Living Crisis: Asda and Morrisons drop price of hundreds of products

Asda and Morrisons have dropped the price of hundreds of products in a bid to help their customers with the rising cost of living.

Asda has said it will be investing over £73 million in tackling the cost of living crisis for its customers while hundreds of thousands of staff will get a pay rise.

The supermarket has ‘dropped and locked’ the price of over 100 ‘family favourites’ and will lock the price down until the end of the year.

It has also confirmed to 120,000 hourly paid shop floor staff that their pay will increase to £10.10 per hour from July.

The move comes as Asda’s Pulse of the Nation survey found that 9 in 10 consumers are concerned about inflationary pressures to their budgets and 87% are worried that grocery prices will increase this year.

Asda’s latest Income Tracker has recorded its biggest ever drop in disposable income in March shows that the nation’s lowest income families had 74% less disposable income in March compared to the same time last year.

Products covered by the ‘dropped and locked’ promise include a range of household favourites, including fresh fruit and vegetables, fresh meat, store cupboard favourites like rice and noodles as well as soft drinks, desserts and frozen products.

On average, prices will reduce by 12% and include staples such as John West tuna, dropping by 14% from £3.50 to £3, or 500g of Asda easy cook rice which has dropped by 25% down to 75p from £1.

For Asda’s staff, the increase in hourly rate to £10.10 per hour from July will give them an additional 60p on top of the National Living Wage and is further supported by a 10% colleague discount in stores and online and additional supplement for colleagues in London stores.

They also have the opportunity to achieve a bonus of up to £400 at the end of the year. This combined package will make Asda the highest paying UK supermarket.

Mohsin Issa, Co-owner of Asda said: “We know that household budgets are being squeezed by an increasing cost of living and we are committed to doing everything we can to support our customers, colleagues and communities in these exceptionally tough times.”

“We’re standing side by side with the families and communities who are juggling so many demands at the moment.”

“We’re taking unprecedented action to give families some additional stability and certainty in their weekly shopping by lowering and locking over 100 prices until the end of the year.”

“We’re also proud to be investing in increasing the pay for our hardworking store colleagues and continuing to support the communities we are part of.”

Morrisons has also announced today that it is cutting the prices of hundreds of products including eggs, beef and nappies amid the rising cost of living.

Morrisons chief executive, David Potts, said : “We know that our customers are under real financial pressure at the moment and we want to play our part in helping them when it comes to the cost of grocery shopping.”

“These price cuts will have a noticeable and long-term impact on our customers’ budgets and demonstrate our commitment to offering them the best possible value”

A 30-pack of own-brand eggs will sell for £2.99 instead of the previous £3.40, while a pack of paracetamol will cost 29p, down from 65p.

Shoppers can also buy a 430g pack of Morrisons British diced beef for £3.59 rather than £3.99, and a 33-pack of Nutmeg-brand nappies for £1.29, down from £1.40.

More than 180 additional products have also been included in new promotions such as ‘buy two for £1.80’ on cereals, ‘buy two for £3’ on breaded chicken and ‘buy two for £5’ on ready meals.