The enshittification of UK supermarkets

UK supermarkets have transformed simple shopping into a data-harvesting nightmare. What was once as easy as picking up an item and paying has become a multi-tiered pricing system requiring apps, weekly unlocks, and surrendering personal data just to access “normal” prices.

A rant about the enshittification of UK supermarkets.

I remember the first time I visited the US when I was around 10 years old. I was in a shop, had my chosen product in hand, and approached the counter with the exact change ready. But, of course, I didn't actually have the exact change ready, because the price shown wasn't the actual price as it didn't include sales tax, and I remember thinking that this made absolutely no sense—mostly because it makes absolutely no sense!.

Skip forward 40 years, and now in the UK, across all major supermarkets we have the “standard” (or as I like to call it “artificially inflated” price), and the “member” price. i.e. what would more realistically be considered the “normal” price, but now you have to hand over your personal details and fuss about with a card/phone every time you want to buy something.

At Sainsbury's it's got worse. The member price is called the “Nectar Price”, and now they have introduced a 3rd tier, called “Your Nectar Prices”. Did you notice what they did there? It's different because it starts with “Your…”, which is part of the marketing name for this “feature”. I'm sure this won't confuse anyone, although according to this thread on Reddit, it is clearly confusing everyone.

“Your Nectar Prices” are personalised prices. And to get these personalised prices, you have to open the Nectar app each week and hit an “unlock” button. This is very important, because without this no one would ever open the Nectar app and see the ads (sorry, “partner offers”), and the people who thought that this UX Hellscape was a good idea would never hit their Success Metrics. I can just see them celebrating now, probably a 10,000% increase in engagement with the Nectar app 🥳🥳🥳… 🤮. Although, unlike publicity, there is such a thing as bad engagement.

It's all a bit confusing, so I've lifted the following extract from the Sainsbury's website.

So, in summary, to pay “normal” prices now in Sainsbury's, you have to register, install an app, open the app each week, and hit a button. In the past all you had to do was pick up an item and go to the counter!

I recently noticed that my local Co-op was also inflating their “normal” prices, sorry… I mean “offering discounts to members”, so I signed up to the app. A week later they were hacked and lost the names and addresses of all 6.5 million of its members.

Also, GDPR states that you should only hold PII if you need it to run your business (not sure why, maybe to reduce the exposure when you get hacked?)—maybe I'm being stupid, but you don't need to know my name or where I live to sell me a sandwich!

And as annoying as these pain points are, there's a far more serious side to this particular enshittification. Who is least likely to jump through all these hoops? The elderly, the poor, and the vulnerable. Those who don't have Smartphones, or who don't have the technical knowledge. These are the people who will be paying well above what's fair for food.

My message to UK supermarkets is simple, focus on making money from the margins on selling goods. Invest your profits back into more efficient supply chains, etc., not on making apps your customers shouldn't need and don't want.

As an aside, I have an extra message for Sainsbury's. Beef Mince is NOT beef that has previously been minced and is now compacted so tightly that it has a measurable gravitational field. It's beef that has been minced and is STILL minced.