The UK’s major supermarkets have revealed big promotions across key vegetables for this festive season.
Tesco, Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have all cut their prices on Brussell sprouts, carrots, parsnips, swede, cabbage and potatoes in the lead-up to Christmas.
Sainsbury’s, Tesco’s and Morrison’s all kicked off their reductions on Wednesday, with Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s pricing the vegetables at 15p and Morrison’s going even lower at 10p.
Lidl, Aldi and Asda will join the others December 19, with Lidl slashing their prices to as low as 9p and Asda and Aldi cutting it to 8p.
But if you’re looking for an even better bargain and you’re not afraid to take risks, supermarkets tend to cut their prices as low as 1p when the store is closing, so waiting until Christmas Eve could save you even more money.
Tesco is also running a scheme across 2,880 of its stores, including express ones, where shoppers can bag free carrots between now and Christmas Eve.
The scheme is part of its “Carrots for Rudolph” campaign, a bit of fun to ensure that Santa’s famous reindeer gets a special Christmas Eve snack after all the hard work, rather than adding it to the Christmas dinner.
In response to the price reductions, British Growers CEO Jack Ward told The Guardian: “Is that really a cause for celebration? We are giving people a false impression of what’s involved in improving food.
“People ask: ‘If I can buy it for 15p, why is it 65p the rest of the year?’ It completely devalues what superfoods compared to a lot of other things consumed in Christmas week.
“There’s no denying that consumers like this kind of deep discounting but they have got to understand it comes at a cost.”
He also mentioned that while retailers lose money by discounting vegetables at Christmas, it’s growers who actually pay by having to accept the lower prices throughout the year.
Mr Ward added: “Let’s not delude ourselves; the [cost of the] promotions are factored in somewhere along the way over the 12 months.