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Supermarket loyalty prices explained: Clubcard, Nectar and more

How member-only prices work at UK supermarkets, what the CMA found, and how to make sure you are really saving.

Updated 13 October 2026 · 3 min read · General information, not legal or financial advice.

Walk around most large UK supermarkets and you will see two prices on many shelf labels: one for everyone, and a lower one for loyalty scheme members. Tesco Clubcard Prices and Sainsbury’s Nectar Prices are the best known, and other supermarkets now run similar schemes. This guide explains how loyalty pricing works, what the regulator found when it investigated, and how to make sure you are getting a genuine saving.

How loyalty pricing works

With loyalty pricing, members pay a lower price on selected products when they scan their card or app. Non-members pay the standard shelf price. This is different from older-style points schemes, where you collected points to turn into vouchers. Many schemes now do both. To get the member price you usually need to sign up, which is free, and share data about your shopping with the retailer, which it uses for marketing and personalised offers.

What the CMA found

Many shoppers worried that supermarkets were raising “normal” prices to make loyalty prices look better. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) investigated and published its findings in November 2024. It analysed around 50,000 products on loyalty price promotions at Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Co-op and Morrisons. It found that:

  • 92% of those products offered a genuine saving against the usual price at that retailer.
  • It found very limited evidence of supermarkets inflating usual prices to make loyalty prices look more attractive.
  • The average saving for members on loyalty-priced products ranged from 17% to 25% across the five supermarkets.
  • Loyalty prices were generally competitive with other supermarkets, but not always: 61 of the 429 products it compared (about 14%) were cheaper at another supermarket.

Its survey also found that 55% of shoppers thought non-member prices were inflated during loyalty promotions, which the price analysis did not support in most cases. The CMA’s conclusion was reassuring, with a sensible caveat: it is still worth shopping around.

How to make sure you are saving

Compare unit prices

Supermarket shelf labels usually show a unit price, such as per kg or per 100ml. This is the best way to compare a loyalty-priced branded product with a supermarket’s own-brand alternative, or a different pack size. A “member deal” on a large pack can still cost more per kg than a smaller everyday item.

Compare across supermarkets for big shops

The CMA found that 61 of the 429 loyalty-priced products it compared (about 14%) were cheaper elsewhere at the time. For regular items, a comparison site such as Trolley.co.uk can show you prices across supermarkets and how they have changed. See our price history guide.

Watch multi-buys

Loyalty prices are sometimes combined with multi-buy offers. Check whether you actually need more than one, and whether the single price is good on its own.

Your data and loyalty schemes

Loyalty schemes collect detailed information about what you buy. Under UK GDPR, the retailer must tell you how it uses your data, and you have rights to access it and to object to direct marketing. You can usually manage marketing preferences in the scheme’s app or account settings. If you are not comfortable with the data sharing, it is a fair trade-off to consider alongside the savings.

The bottom line

On the CMA’s evidence, loyalty prices usually are genuine savings against the same supermarket’s normal price. The question to ask is not “is this a real discount?” but “is this the cheapest way to buy this item?”. Unit prices and a quick comparison across shops answer that.

Sources

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