Shoppers telling cashiers to stop billing at £40, reveal supermarkets’ bosses

Shoppers are following a £40 limit in their grocery shopping, supermarkets’ bosses recently revealed.

Iceland boss, Richard Walker, claimed customers feeling the pinch of inflation are telling Iceland checkout staff to stop when they hit £40 before putting the rest of their basket items back on the shelves.

“Everyone’s feeling the pinch but certainly the harder-pressed communities are feeling it more,” Iceland’s managing director Richard Walker told Sky News.

“Generally, I think it is safe to say everyone is feeling the pinch now, it doesn’t matter who you are.

“We do serve some of the poorer demographics around the country. We are hearing  stories of some of our customs disappearing to food banks.

“The reality is there is no typical Iceland shopper, averages don’t work very well because we have people who come in and spend five quid and people who come in and spend £50.”

Making the comments, Walker added that Chancellor Rishi Sunak had “stepped up” and “pulled all the right levers” despite one North East foodbank saying that the Chancellor’s support package was “not enough”.

Walker’s revelation about customers’ buying habits comes weeks after a Tesco boss’ similar statement.

Saying that his customers were struggling to heat their homes and feed their families John Allan, chairman of the supermarket chain, stated that shoppers are asking supermarket cashiers to stop scanning items once the total reaches £40 as they can’t afford to pay any more.

People in Britain are experiencing “real food poverty for the first time in a generation”, he said.

The cost of living crisis has seen the prices of everyday essentials soar. According to Office for National Statistics data released on Monday (30), Britain’s cheapest brands of pasta and bread have surged in price over the past year.

The cost of the cheapest 500 gram (17.6 oz) pack of pasta at a British supermarket last month was 53 pence, a 50 percent increase from 36 pence a year earlier, while the price of an 800 gram loaf of bread rose by 16 percent to 54 pence.