Sainsbury's Opened Argos Kiosks In Hundreds Of Stores Following Its £1.4 Billion Takeover

Shoppers are used to hunting around for the best deal – but seldom inside the same shop.

Sainsbury’s is charging customers up to £40 more for identical items that can be found just ten yards away at an Argos counter in the same store.

It comes after the supermarket giant opened Argo's kiosks in hundreds of its stores following its £1.4billion takeover.

But though the brands are now part of one company, they sell many of the same products, such as vacuum cleaners, razors and children’s toys at wildly varying prices.

Now campaigners have called on Sainsbury’s to align the prices, warning that customers could feel ‘tricked’.



Among the items is a Bluetooth speaker costing £99 at a south London Sainsbury’s and £69 at the Argos in the same shop, the Sunday Times found.

Meanwhile, a children’s Chad Valley sand and water table sold at £25 in a Sainsbury’s in Ely, Cambridgeshire, was just £16.50 at the Argos kiosk.

And a red Henry vacuum cleaner with a £149.99 price tag in a Sainsbury’s in Northampton was found on sale for just £109 at the same store’s Argos counter.


Catherine Davis, 69, told how she bought the cleaner for the higher price and returned the next day to buy a second for her daughter Charlotte, 33. 

But the retired translator – who said she spends around £12,000 a year in Sainsbury’s – was shocked to learn the discounted price of the product at the store’s Argos counter. 

She said: ‘I was incensed. It’s all very well telling me they are two different shops but I am not an economist and as far as I am concerned I only see one shop.’

Around 280 branches now have an Argos kiosk after Sainsbury’s bought the company in 2016.

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A red Henry vacuum cleaner with a £149.99 price tag in a Sainsbury’s in Northampton was found on sale for just £109 at the same store’s Argos counter. A stock photo is pictured above for illustrative purposes only [File photo]

James Daley, founder of consumer group Fairer Finance, said: ‘Customers are going to feel like they were tricked.

‘It would be ridiculous if there was a tin of Sainsbury’s baked beans going for £1 in one aisle and for £2 in the next aisle down.’

Sainsbury’s said it is ‘investigating a tiny number of examples where pricing has not been consistent, including two which were isolated to two specific stores’.

It added: ‘We sell hundreds of products which are available at both Sainsbury’s and Argos and aim to offer the best possible value regardless of where our customers choose to shop with us.’

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