Morrisons sees exodus of shoppers after 'rapidly' spiking prices

Supermarket Morrisons hiked prices more than any other major grocer in the last year, resulting in a large number of customers switching to other supermarkets, stated a recent report.

According to credit rating agency Moody’s, the grocer claimed to have “rapidly” increased its prices in June, which meant it lost more shoppers than rivals last year. It is also the only major supermarket to raise prices quicker than the German discounters Lidl and Aldi, This is Money reported.

Morrisons now has 9.1 per cent of the market, down from 10 per cent before the deal but up from 9 per cent a month ago. Moreover, Moody’s warned that Lidl could also overtake Morrisons “in the next couple of years”.

Aldi has already replaced Morrisons in the supermarkets’ Big Four in September.

The recently-released figures from Kantar show that despite sales falling by 2.9 per cent, Morrisons had its best performance since June 2021, standing the retailer in good stead for a return to growth in the new year.

Discounter Aldi remained the fastest growing grocer with 27.0 per cent growth taking its market share up from 7.7 per cent this time last year to 9.1 per cent. Lidl’s sales increased by 23.9 per cent, moving its market share up by 0.9 percentage points to 7.2 per cent.

The claim came a week after Lidl said that it gained 1.3 million British shoppers in the Christmas period compared with a year earlier as shoppers looked for cheaper options amid high inflation. Shoppers switched 62.8 million pounds of spending to the group from other supermarkets over the festive period, the group said with Christmas reportedly being the busiest ever day as sales rose by a quarter compared with the previous year. It expects more shoppers to switch in 2023.