Popular US products are sold in many UK supermarkets.
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- Some UK grocers sell US products ranging from Pop-Tarts and Twinkies to hot dogs and A&W Root Beer.
- But in the UK they cost much more. A 10 pack of Twinkies cost $7.38 in the UK and $3.12 in the US.
- Insider visited multiple Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores to see what they sell and how much for.
Supermarket aisles around the world are lined with big-name American brands, from Coca-Cola and Monster to Oreo and Heinz.
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But though these products are easily available at almost every British grocery store, other American brands are a bit harder to find.
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Not many UK grocery stores have aisles dedicated solely to American food – but some do. They sell harder-to-find products at dramatically hiked-up prices.
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Insider scouted out some locations of the British grocery chains Sainsbury’s and Tesco that had American sections, to check out which products they stocked.
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The aisles focused largely on candy, with each aisle Insider visited stocking Twinkies and Nerd sweets.
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Hershey’s and Reese’s were popular, too.
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Pop-Tarts were available at a lot of the stores, though each only had a few flavors on offer. This Sainsbury’s had S’mores and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pop-Tarts …
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… while another Sainsbury’s store was also selling Strawberry Sensation ones.
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The stores sold US cereal, too, though the products changed between stores. This Sainsbury’s had large boxes of Hershey’s Kisses cereal and Froot Loops Marshmallows cereal, as well as individual portions of Lucky Charms …
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… while a Tesco I went to sold Reese’s Puffs and Unicorn Froot Loops. The Reese’s Puffs cost £5 ($6.70) for an 11.5oz pack at Tesco, while Walmart is selling packs of the same size for $3.98.
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This Sainsbury’s store I visited priced 10-packs of Twinkies at £5.50 ($7.38) and eight-packs of Pop-Tarts at £3.30 ($4.43). At Walmart, they would cost around $3.12 and $2 respectively.
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Source: Walmart
A Tesco store I visited had discounted its Twinkies but it didn’t seem like a very good offer.
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The choice of savory items was much more limited. Both the Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores offered some products made by Dino’s, a brand which I had never heard of before. These included gherkins, hot dogs, and fried onions.
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The stores didn’t have much choice of drinks in the US aisles, though I did spot Virgil’s and A&W root beer, Gatorade, and sugar-free Cherry 7Up.
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The limited choice may have been because large swathes of the beverage aisle were already dedicated to American brands made by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
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One Asda store I went to didn’t have a dedicated American food section but did have a whole stand of Reese’s products.
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I was also slightly surprised to see a stand in a Co-op store dedicated to instant mashed potatoes made by Idahoan, with signage that focused on “100% Idaho potatoes.”
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Overall, the US grocery aisles sold a lot of big-name brands that are generally widely recognizable in the UK. Many items cost twice as much as in the US, however. I can’t imagine many people buying these products regularly, considering you can order multipacks online at much lower prices. This is especially true for American ex-pats who would notice the huge price difference.
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Instead, it’s likely that most people buy Pop-Tarts and Froot Loops from UK grocery stores as a one-off as a novelty – particularly given that they can buy other cereals made by parent company Kellogg’s for a fraction of the price.
Kellogg’s Pop tarts
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