Just hours after the announcement of budget tax hikes, Poundland will tomorrow (Friday 1 November) increase the number of items at £1 or below from around 1,000 to 1,500 in all its UK stores.
The move will see key everyday essentials such as milk, bread, sugar and eggs all reduced to a locked price of £1 and the introduction of new £1 fresh produce stands in over 520 stores across the UK which will offer key items such as apples and oranges.
Essential items at £1 include two litre milk creamed down from £1.45, 800g Kingsmill or Brace’s bread squeezed from £1.25, a cracking reduction in the price of six free range eggs from £1.50 and the cost of 1kg Whitworth sugar sweetened from its usual £1.10.
But the move doesn’t just cover those key essentials.
Across Poundland’s typical core range of around 5,000 items, from today around a third, will be £1 or less, reinforcing Poundland’s position, to be the home of the pound.
Poundland has also this week launched ’12 deals of Christmas’, covering different must-have Christmas essentials such as LED lights, gift bags, wrap, biscuits and more.
The offers, which will cover both grocery and general merchandise will change each Wednesday between now and Christmas, providing even greater value to customers.
This week’s deals see the price of McVities 730g Tasties biscuits crumble from £3.50 to £2.00, 40 LED lights switched from £1.50 to just 75p and an eight LED mini light chain sparkle at 75p instead of its usual price of £1.25.
The move to refocus on the pound and value is well timed – not just because of the belt-tightening that will be prompted by this week’s budget.
New consumer research released this month from specialists Two Ears One Mouth shows that consumers are still concerned about spending this Christmas.
Compared to the previous month, seven per cent more shoppers said they were looking to reduce what they bought in weekly shopping, six per cent said they were going to switch to cheaper retailers and four per cent said they would make more of offers and price reductions in store.
The growing importance of offers also explains to rapid adoption of Poundland’s new rewards app, Poundland Perks, which became the number one free download in both the Apple and Google app stores just 24 hours after its launch.
Poundland Perks offers customers at least 100 Perks offers in the app at any one time and customers can earn ‘perks points’ when they spend in different parts of the store – with Poundland ‘powering-up’ perks points across everything in the shop, giving customers 100 points for every pound they spend until Christmas.
Thanks to a partnership with Unilever, included in Perks’ first 100-plus offers are six exclusive Top Perk deals over the first six weeks on Domestos (750ml), Lynx Body Spray (200ml), Pot Noodle (90g), Dove anti-perspirant (200ml), TRESemmé (900 ml) and Lynx shower gel (225ml).
These rewards come on top of Poundland’s existing prices that, unlike other retailers, aren’t dependent on a loyalty card – for example, Pot Noodle already amazing value at 75p, is available on the Perks app this week for a market leading 50p with an additional 25p Perks reward.
Poundland commercial director CJ Antal-Smith who recently took up her role at Poundland said: “Most retailers look to re-focus customers on high price, big profit items at Christmas as customers splash the cash.
While we have everything you need at Poundland for an amazing Christmas we’re not going to forget the importance of every day essentials that are the bedrock of every home’s cupboard and fridge.
“Amazing value milk, bread eggs and sugar will be every bit as important to customers this Christmas as they look to keep within their budgets.”
