Waitrose cuts 370 own-brand prices by 11 percent on average

What has been cut

Source: John Lewis Partnership, 16 September 2026.

Waitrose is investing 20 million pounds to cut prices on more than 370 everyday own-brand products by an average of 11 percent, with savings of up to 37 percent, available in shops and online from Wednesday 16 September 2026. The reductions cover fresh food, store cupboard staples and household products, so the round is not confined to a single aisle or a single type of shopping trip. Everyday staples including bread, porridge oats, potatoes and apples are cut by 20 percent or more, which places the deepest reductions on the kind of items that appear on most weekly lists rather than on occasional purchases.

The composition of the list matters as much as its size. 56 percent of the reduced products are from the Essential Waitrose range, the tier that sits at the entry point of the own-brand offer, and 70 percent of the new reduced food lines meet official healthier definitions. Waitrose says every price drop maintains its standards for responsible sourcing and higher animal welfare, and that it is the only retailer with 100 percent free-range eggs, milk, cream and fresh pork, 100 percent British beef and lamb and responsibly sourced fish across its own ranges, and the only UK retailer whose own-brand chicken meets Better Chicken Commitment standards or higher. For a shopper weighing a switch, that claim sets the terms of the comparison: the price change is presented as coming out of margin or investment rather than out of the sourcing specification.

The programme behind it

The round is the latest stage of New Lower Prices, which Waitrose says now totals more than 180 million pounds of investment, with prices reduced across more than 1,000 products since the programme began in 2023. The previous round, in May 2026, covered 160 lines at an average 12 percent cut and delivered a 4 percent year-on-year increase in sales across those lines. Waitrose also reported its highest-ever Net Promoter Score for value for money alongside that round. Those two data points are the retailer's own account of what the mechanism does: a defined set of lines, a headline average, and a measurable sales response on the lines in question.

The September round is larger in line count than May, at more than 370 products against 160, while the average cut is slightly smaller, at 11 percent against 12 percent. The stated maximum saving is also wider, at up to 37 percent. Waitrose.com search data offers a further signal of what customers are looking for: searches for high protein foods rose 112 percent year on year and searches for high fibre foods rose 51 percent. That demand pattern sits alongside the claim that 70 percent of the new reduced food lines meet official healthier definitions, which suggests the reduced list has been assembled with those searches in mind as well as with staple grocery in mind.

KT analysis: what 11 percent actually means

An average is not a basket saving. The 11 percent figure describes the mean reduction across the selected own-brand lines, not the change in what a given household pays at the till. A household saves 11 percent only on the items it already buys from that list, and it saves more than 11 percent on the lines cut by 20 percent or more and less on the lines cut by a smaller margin. A shopper who buys branded equivalents, or who buys own-brand lines outside the 370, sees nothing from this round at all. The number to hold on to is therefore not 11 percent but the number of reduced lines that appear on a regular list.

The timing sets the cut against this morning's ONS figures. CPI rose 3.1 percent in the 12 months to August 2026, up from 2.9 percent, while food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation was 1.3 percent, unchanged from July, and food alone was 1.1 percent. Grocery prices are therefore rising more slowly than the general price level. A supermarket price round in that environment is competing for share in a slower-inflation market rather than offsetting a spike, and the value of any individual cut is measured against a grocery baseline that is already moving gently. The 20 million pounds is real money, but it is being spent to shift relative position rather than to answer an accelerating grocery bill.

What to compare before switching

Compare the unit price, per kilo or per litre, rather than the pack price. Pack sizes differ between retailers and between own-brand tiers, so a lower pack price can still mean a higher unit price, and the 11 percent average is expressed on products rather than on the quantities a household actually consumes. Check next whether the cut applies to the Essential tier or to the standard own-brand line, because 56 percent of the reduced products sit in Essential and the rest do not. A shopper who normally buys the standard line may find the reduction is on a different product from the one in the trolley.

Loyalty pricing at other retailers means shelf prices are not comparable without a card, so a like-for-like comparison needs the price a shopper would actually pay rather than the price on the label. Finally, a price cut on more than 370 lines is worth checking against a regular list rather than against the headline percentage. The useful question is how many of those lines are bought in a normal month, what the unit price was before, and what the unit price is now. The programme's own history offers one benchmark: the May 2026 round produced a 4 percent year-on-year sales increase across the lines it covered, which is a measure of response on those lines and not a measure of household savings.

Source: John Lewis Partnership media centre, 16 September 2026.

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Frequently asked questions

How much are Waitrose prices being cut?

Waitrose is cutting prices on more than 370 everyday own-brand products by an average of 11 percent, with savings of up to 37 percent, from Wednesday 16 September 2026. Everyday staples including bread, porridge oats, potatoes and apples are cut by 20 percent or more.

When do the new Waitrose prices start?

The reductions are available in shops and online from Wednesday 16 September 2026. The John Lewis Partnership announced the round on the same date.

How much is Waitrose investing in the price cuts?

Waitrose is investing 20 million pounds in this round. The investment takes the New Lower Prices programme to more than 180 million pounds, with prices reduced across more than 1,000 products since the programme began in 2023.

Which products are included in the Waitrose price cuts?

The reductions cover fresh food, store cupboard staples and household products. 56 percent of the reduced products are from the Essential Waitrose range, and 70 percent of the new reduced food lines meet official healthier definitions.

Does an 11 percent average cut mean an 11 percent saving on a weekly shop?

No. The 11 percent is an average across selected own-brand lines. A household saves 11 percent only on the items it already buys from that list, and saves more on lines cut by 20 percent or more and less on lines cut by a smaller margin. A shopper buying branded equivalents sees nothing from this round.