Tesco Brand Guarantee: the loopholes that will cost you dear

Tesco has launched a brand new price matching deal, which it claims is fair easier and simpler. Now, it says, it will compare your branded grocery shop with Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury's, and if you could have bought your shopping cheaper anywhere else, you'll automatically get the difference refunded. However, bargain-hunters are likely to see very little benefit from the scheme.

The good news is that the Brand Guarantee does a decent job of comparing brands - and will even compare products that are on a special offer elsewhere. The fact that the refund comes through at the till automatically is also a huge step forward for anyone who regularly forgets to use vouchers before they expire.

It also shows that Tesco is committed to some form of price matching, which will come as a relief to anyone who saw Morrisons axe its promise to match Aldi and Lidl and was worried that the other supermarkets might step away from price matching too.
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The bad news

The bad news is that by restricting itself to brands, it means an enormous amount of your shopping goes unchecked. All fresh fruit and vegetables fall outside of the scheme, as does anything from the bakery, most fresh meat and any of Tesco's own brand products.

It means that anyone who has worked hard to bring down the price of their shopping and therefore cooks from scratch as much as possible will find most of their fresh food excluded.

Likewise, anyone who has cut costs by buying most products from the own-brand range, will find a huge proportion of their shopping falls outside of the scheme. If you take such pains to cut costs that fewer than ten items in your trolley are branded, then none of them will be compared, and you won't benefit at all.

Tesco has also restricted the supermarkets it compares itself against - so you'll notice that Aldi and Lidl are not part of the scheme. It wouldn't make much difference even if they were, because the vast majority of their products are own-brands, which means they wouldn't be compared anyway.

The deal also works on the whole shop, so if your jam was 30p more expensive than Sainsbury's, but your washing powder was 35p cheaper, the overall shop might work out as 5p cheaper, and you won't get a refund. It will leave you worse off than if you bought the washing powder at Tesco and the jam at Sainsbury's - which makes a mockery of claims that the new scheme will ensure your branded shop is always cheaper.

The fact remains that if you really want to get the very best deals on everything in your trolley, the only way to make sure is by researching online and making multiple trips to ensure you buy items where they are cheaper.

But what do you think? Does this new brand guarantee appeal? And do you have the time and energy to beat it? Let us know in the comments.

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