Express pricing is a form of

price discrimination Price discrimination is a microeconomic pricing strategy where identical or largely similar goods or services are sold at different prices by the same provider in different markets. Price discrimination is distinguished from product differe ...

where, in a reverse of

economies of scale In microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...

, retailers raise their prices slightly in smaller stores. The name of it originates from

Tesco Express Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

, but it can be used to apply to any retailer operating a similar policy. A 2018 Inside Out investigation found that some Express prices were 178% more than their non-Express counterparts. According to

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

, this can be attributed to discrepancies in "operational requirements and running costs. Rents, for example", it being "more of a challenge to deliver products to our local stores" and "other factors such as staffing, local rates and a focus on convenience products".

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

themselves have acknowledged this, saying "Our prices don’t differ greatly but they will differ slightly because of the difference in costs of running the smaller stores. Express stores are typically on the high street, which means Tesco don’t very often own the land. So the overheads involved in running a smaller store are higher." In 2011, Marks and Spencer's policy of charging express pricing in their Simply Food branches was reported on. A spokesperson has admitted "prices are a little higher than at our high street stores".

Aldi Aldi (stylised as ALDI) is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 10,000 stores in 20 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when ...

Local charged express pricing as soon as they opened. Express pricing attracted particular opprobrium in 2021 after

rebranded 89 of its

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...

stores into Express stores; with their Express branches not taking part in Tesco's Aldi Price Match scheme, many shoppers reported overnight price increases of up to 50% on some lines. In 2022,

News Shopper The ''News Shopper'' titles are local newspapers published in South East London and North West Kent by Newsquest. The newsroom is in Orpington. There are five local editions: Bexley Borough, Bexley & North Kent, Bromley, Dartford & Gravesend ...

reported that there were differences in prices between

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...

's Bexleyheath Graham Road superstore and their Crook Log supermarket.

References

{{business-stub Pricing