Iceland has highlighted that its shoppers’ biggest concern is the cost-of-living crisis, as part of its findings from Frozen Out, its first-ever supermarket manifesto.
Pictured Richard Walker and the Salford Iceland team
Designed to give customers a voice as the General Election nears, a panel of seven customers from across the UK have been selected to lead the manifesto and provide monthly insights as part of Iceland’s initiative to bring real-world concerns to parliament.
The manifesto, which uses data from a survey of 6,500 customers, is part of Iceland executive chair Richard Walker’s pledge to use its platform to give customers a voice during election year.
The supermarket added that the document is set to be shared with all political parties ahead of polling day on 4 July.
The findings include that the biggest issue facing Britain was the cost-of-living crisis, with three quarters (74%) of respondents saying they were worse off than in 2021.
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The manifesto also revealed that 16% of respondents said they can never get a GP appointment, to the point that 22% have stopped trying.
Meanwhile, just 27% of respondents were happy with local council services and many are worried about the quality of their children’s education.
Other statistics shed light on that more than two thirds (67%) of respondents said they didn’t feel represented by any major political party, with one customer sharing that, “the current government has no true concept of what struggle or poverty these days is”.
Despite this, the document shows that more than 94% of Iceland customers will be voting in the General Election, even if almost a third (32%) didn’t know who their current MP was.
Walker explained: “The gap between high office and British high streets has never been bigger, and our colleagues and customers have made it clear that they believe their voices aren’t being heard.
“This is what we’re looking to change by using Iceland’s platform as a business to campaign for them and hold politicians to account.”
“The general election campaign is the perfect starting place – even if it came a little sooner than expected – but this manifesto is only the start for us.
“These issues aren’t going away anytime soon, and we are going to build on this and if we succeed, we hope it will help form the basis on which to rebuild British high streets by placing people at the heart of the strategy instead of politics.”
