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The Meal Deal Inflation Index: Tesco, Greggs, Boots and more

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Ranked: Meal deals from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Greggs, Co-Op and Boots
Ranked: Meal deals from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Greggs, Co-Op and Boots

Times are hard – with a cost of living crisis, inflation, and seemingly constant grey skies. Add strikes to the mix and it’s almost too much to get out of bed.

But there is worse than even that – the hardy meal deal, the friend of the cost-conscious Londoners, is no longer quite the value proposition it used to be.

Friends, the days of the £3 Tesco lunch are over. No longer will you be able to get an Innocent smoothie alongside your Boots’ triple-pack Coronation Chicken.

With Pret a Manger joining the long list of meal deal offerings – a fiver for a baguette and a packet of crisps – it’s time to look long and hard at the budget-conscious commuter’s lunchtime offering.

Here CityAM does God’s work for you, the humble Square Mile lunch-hunter, and tracks the ever-rising price of the lunchtime meal deal.

Tesco

The O.G, the entry-grade meal deal. Priced at £3 for more than a decade, the grocery giant hiked the price to £3.50 in February and up to £3.90 for those without a loyalty card in October.

It’s hung on at that level – with a discount for clubcard members keeping it at £3.40.

Entirely subjective CityAM rating:

Price: 9/10
Food: 5/10
Drinks: 6/10

Greggs

The baker – whose shiny new store on Eastcheap abuts Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London started in one of its forebears back in 1666 – has been hit by rising costs too.

Prices went up three times last year – with the sausage roll now as much as £1.20 in London, up from less than £1 just two short years ago.

The hot sandwich, wedges, and a drink meal deal now comes in at a cool £4.80 – but of course it does have the advantage of being, err, warm. Even worse, the almost unbeatable morning deal – a bacon sarnie and a coffee – has crept up to £3.10 – a far cry from the good old days of £2.25, where it sat in 2017.

Greggs of course offers a far cheaper meal deal for the cool-food option – but the CityAM office prefers the hot hot hot affair. We’re not alone – the baker is opening another 150 stores this year.

Price: 6/10
Food: 8/10
Drinks: 4/10

Source: CityAM research (and some old receipts)

Boots

For so long the connoisseur’s meal deal, coming in at £3.99, not far above Tesco but with significantly more drink options and the rarely-beaten pasta options. No longer – a small London-based price rise to £4.19 last year gave way to a bumper £4.99 price tag in October of last year. Advantage card holders can take advantage of a 49p discount.

Price: 4/10
Food: 6/10
Drinks: 9/10

Here comes Pret, entering the meal deal stakes

Sainsbury’s

The ever-changing and occasionally difficult to understand Sainsbo’s meal deal has moved the least over recent years – a hike in 2021 to a cool £3.50 has been maintained but not been furthered. Is it value? Many have argued it’s the weakest of the options, with limited high-quality sandwiches and many of what would be considered your classic meal deal highlights not included in the offer. Points for price, yes – but questions remain over value.

Price: 10/10
Food: 5/10
Drinks: 5/10

Co-op

All drama, all the time at Co-op – a reliable ol’ steady meal deal, hiked twice in 2022. February saw an increase from £3.50 to £3.75, and May saw that head up to £4. The tradeoff? Co-op members saw theirs reduced from £3.75 to £3.50. Chaos.

Price: 8/10
Food: 6/10
Drinks: 6/10

So, there you have it. Send your frustrations to our email accounts – and store PRs are welcome to try and persuade us otherwise. We’re at CityAM, St Magnus House, 3 Lower Th….