What is going on at Tesco? A number of readers have got in touch with us expressing concern at price hikes in the store in the run-up to Christmas. First up was Darragh from Rathfarnham. “Is it just me or has Tesco increased the price of a huge range of items in its stores over the past month or so?,” he asks.

“Practically everything I buy there has gone up in price recently.” He cites examples including Listerine mouthwash, Dove shower gel, Gilette Fusion razors, Sanex shower gel, Actimel yogurt drinks, McCain Micro chips, and Tesco orange juice. “The list could literally go on and on! What’s more is that a lot of the price increases are in the region of 15 per cent plus. I wouldn’t mind but at a time when consumers are supposed to be tightening their belts, a hard recession is looming, Sterling is at an all-time low against the Euro, and energy prices are plummeting, surely the last thing Tesco should be doing is increasing its prices by such high margins? Or is just that the Irish supermarket sector is just that uncompetitive?”

What bugs our reader more than anything else. however, is that “some of the products whose prices have increased only had them ‘decreased’ a few months ago. When this happened Tesco, of course, ran its usual Sunday newspaper ads shouting about the great, new ‘long-term’ price reductions and how it’s constantly cutting prices.”

Another “gimmick” which infuriates him is that the store “is the placing of signs and stickers shouting ‘everyday low price’ beside an item just after they’ve increased the price of it.” He gives as an example Tesco orange juice and says a 1.75 litre carton which was increased from €3.89 to €3.99 had and everyday low price sticker stuck on it. “Another example was a pack of two Tesco value-range sausage rolls which increased in price by 40 per cent (from 42 cent to 59 cent) and then had one of these stickers placed beside it as well.

He also cites an example of Dove shower gel range. “It was €3.29 at the start of the year, was then reduced to €2.99 for a few weeks, and is now back to its original price. I’m sure there are plenty more examples. Or is Tesco artificially increasing prices now just so that it can ‘reduce’ them again in a few weeks’ time and con consumers into thinking they’re geting a bargain?

Coincidentally we got another mail from a reader who asks if the store has increased prices in recent days so they can announce “huge rollbacks” and “thousands of price cuts” in the new year.

She gives an example of a side of smoked salmon which has gone up three euro since Christmas last year from €12.99 to €15.99. “A terrible thing to do when people are finding life difficult coming up to Christmas. This has been done so that after Christmas it can be slashed to half price and Tesco can still make a profit,”

“Putting grocery prices up in the lead up to Christmas is deplorable. Especially given the announcement today that VAT in the UK is going down. The price difference between Tesco groceries north and south of the border looks set to widen. Why is Tesco allowed get away with this!”

It is not only our readers who are giving out. Last week, Retail Intelligence, the weekly electronic news letter from trade magazine Checkout carried an item on the same topic. It said it had been alerted to “significant numbers of branded products” which had increased in price in Tesco stores in recent months. It said that while some of these products also increased in price in other stores, “the data shows that substantial numbers of high-profile brands have increased in price in Tesco alone”.

It quoted supply chain sources as saying that some price increases were supplier-led, and had been implemented across all retailers but “the majority of the branded goods in question had not been increased in price by the supplier or manufacturer.”

Paul Cullen contacted the supermarket to see what it had to say and was told that the company had reduced over 9,000 prices this year and was committed to “continuing with the lowest prices and to running the best promotions in Ireland”.

He instanced price drops over the past few weeks for leading products such as Andrex toilet paper, potatoes, HB ice cream and Imperial Leather soap.

Of the products mentioned by our reader, he said the price of Sanex had fallen while there was no change in the price of Dove and Tesco orange juice.