Supermarket groceries bought on delivery apps could cost shoppers twice as much

Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats offer a quick way to get supermarket groceries to your doorstep, offering delivery within minutes and charging a fee of just a few pounds. We may expect to pay a little more for the privilege, but just how much is this convenience really costing us? 

Our snapshot analysis of popular supermarket groceries bought via rapid grocery delivery sites and apps found shoppers could be paying at least 20% more on average, with some items more than double the price. 

Read on to find out how much more you could be paying when you fast-track your Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose shopping.

How much more will you pay using rapid delivery services?

We collected the prices of up to 50 popular groceries at Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats and compared them with prices for the same items at Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose on three days within a two-week period. 

The number of products varied on each day, depending on availability, but remained the same across delivery apps each day.

We also analysed the prices for Tesco’s Whoosh rapid delivery service against the usual Tesco prices on two days in the same period.  

Our list of groceries included branded items such as Cathedral City Mature Cheddar Cheese, Coca Cola, Heinz baked beans, Weetabix and Cadbury dairy milk, alongside a handful of own-label items such as milk, cucumber and apples.

Here's what we found, along with some of the most shocking examples of price differences in our analysis. 

Note that we didn’t include delivery charges in our totals for the delivery services or the supermarkets, as these vary depending on several factors, including location and time of delivery.

Sainsbury's

The largest price differences in our analysis were for Sainsbury’s Nectar loyalty card holders. 

Nectar prices are available on more than 9,000 products, but only when you shop in-store or online directly with Sainsbury’s. These aren't currently available through third-party apps.

This means that loyalty card holders could be missing out on substantial discounts by shopping with Sainsbury’s via Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber Eats, and paying at least 40% more on average. 

There were several products that Nectar cardholders would pay double for by buying them through any of the three delivery apps vs Sainsbury’s. 

On all three of the days we analysed prices, we found:

• Birds Eye Cod Fish Fingers (280g) were £3 with a Nectar card at Sainsbury's, but £6.25 through all delivery sites.
• Quorn Vegetarian Chicken Nuggets (300g) were £1.75 for Nectar card holders direct from Sainsbury's, but £3.50 through the delivery sites. 

The average price difference for non-Nectar cardholders was less stark, at 21-24%. However, there were some examples where products had much bigger differences.

For all shoppers, Sainsbury's White Seedless Grapes (500g), for example, were £3 on all the delivery apps but £2 when bought directly from the supermarket.

• Find out more: loyalty schemes compared 

Asda 

For Asda groceries bought via delivery apps, we found shoppers would pay an average of 19% more when using Just Eat, 28% with Uber Eats and 31% on Deliveroo.

On one day in our analysis, a significant number of prices on Just Eat matched those directly from Asda, so the average price difference was lower than for the other sites overall. 

 Some of the biggest price differences we found for buying Asda groceries via rapid delivery sites were:

• Yellow Tail Chardonnay - £6.97 at Asda vs £10.44 on Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats on all dates in our investigation. 
• Richmond meat-free sausages - £2.28 at Asda compared with £3.67 via Deliveroo and Just Eat (16 September).
• Bonne Maman Strawberry Conserve (370g) - £2.48 at Asda compared with £4.03 via Deliveroo and Uber Eats (10 and 12 September).

Morrisons

Shoppers choosing to buy Morrisons groceries via the rapid delivery sites in our analysis could expect to pay at least a quarter more.

Morrisons partners with Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, as well as offering a range of groceries through Amazon. We didn’t include Morrisons on Amazon in this investigation as the range is narrower, and it’s not as widely available in the UK. 

None of the products in our list were included in a Morrisons More loyalty promotion during the investigation.

We found the following product price differences:

• Quorn Vegetarian Chicken Nuggets (300g) - £1.32 direct from Morrisons, £2.65 on Deliveroo, £3.10 on Just Eat and £2.81 on Uber Eats. 
• Mr Kipling French Fancies (8 pack) - £2 direct from Morrisons, £3.70 via Deliveroo, £3.90 via Just Eat and £3.45 on Uber Eats.
• Little Moons Mochi Ice Cream Honey Roasted Pistachio (6x32g 192g) - £3.50 direct from Morrisons, £6.25 on Deliveroo, £5.90 on Just Eat and £5.75 on Uber Eats.

Waitrose

We found that shoppers could pay up to 33% more on average by shopping with Waitrose through a delivery app or site vs directly with the supermarket.

Two products were consistently double the price during our investigation:

• Pampers New Baby Nappies Size 3 (40 pack) - £6 at Waitrose, £12 via Just Eat and Uber Eats.  
• Tilda Microwave Basmati Rice - £1 from Waitrose or £2 from Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats.

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Is Tesco Whoosh more expensive than Tesco?

Tesco doesn’t partner with delivery sites or apps, as it has its own same-day service called Whoosh. 

It claims to offer delivery in as little as 20 minutes. There’s no minimum spend, but if your basket is under £15, then you’ll be charged an additional £2 on top of the regular pick, pack and delivery charge (during our investigation, this was £2.99).  

We compared both Clubcard and non-Clubcard prices between Tesco and Tesco Whoosh.

We found that loyalty-card holders would have paid a quarter more, on average, for our list of groceries by using Whoosh compared with shopping directly with Tesco.

This was because we found some Clubcard offers with Tesco that weren’t available via Whoosh, including:

• New York Bakery original bagels - on offer for £1 using a Clubcard at Tesco, or £2.15 via Whoosh, with no offers available.

Non Clubcard holders could still expect to pay 18% more for shopping via Whoosh, but weren’t missing out on the substantial savings that loyalty card holders were.

• Find out more: the cheapest supermarket of the month

How are prices set on delivery apps?

The delivery apps told us that prices of products are set by the supermarkets themselves and that they encourage price matching and prioritise value for customers. 

Deliveroo told Which?: 'We encourage all of our partners to set fair pricing and we are always looking at new ways to ensure great value for our customers, including the integration of supermarket loyalty schemes and a newly launched offer of 50% off a range of groceries every Monday.'

Just Eat said: 'While prices are set by our grocery partners, we ensure customers can access great value, as well as unbeatable convenience, with ongoing deals such as "Half Price Wednesdays" and encouraging our partners to price match on the most popular products.'

Uber Eats said: 'These findings fail to reflect the breadth of inventory and deals available for our customers on Uber Eats. Every Uber Eats partner sets their own prices, and we have clearly flagged in-store price match ranges available on hundreds of products.'

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: 'Customers can choose to shop with us in store, online or via third-party apps for rapid delivery. Each of our services have clear, competitive pricing and regular promotions, helping customers to make the choice that’s best for them.'

A spokesperson for Tesco said: 'Whoosh is our superfast delivery service, getting groceries to customers’ doors in as little as 20 minutes. The prices for groceries delivered by Whoosh reflect the extra costs of rapid delivery and provide market-leading value when compared with other major services providing rapid grocery delivery.'

A Morrisons spokesperson said: 'Several of the products you have highlighted were on promotion with Morrisons.com during September, and so your data is not a true reflection of the price difference between us and our immediacy partners.'

'These premium services do come with some additional costs in order to offer fast, convenient deliveries, which many of our customers appreciate. That said, our partners regularly run promotions offering free delivery offers or directly matching their prices to those found in our stores. Customers also have the option to shop with Morrisons directly in-store or at Morrisons.com for access to our Home Delivery or Click & Collect services.'

Asda and Waitrose did not provide a comment.

• Find out more: check what's happening to prices by supermarket, category of food and ranges using the unique Which? food and drink inflation tracker