Bearly Newsworthy: Tesco's Billion Pound Burden – How The Sunday Times' Headline Hides the Real Story

Author and commentator 'The Bear' explains why taxing a corporate giant is spun as a financial crisis, while media manipulation forces the rest of us to pay the price

Over the last week I’ve been keeping a close eye on headlines, but more importantly, watching for what headlines say, what they don’t say, and how they’re meant to make people feel.

Today’s fine example comes courtesy of The Sunday Times.

The headline in question? “Tesco’s £1bn budget bill fuels price rise fears.”

Read that and tell me your first reaction isn’t one of sympathy for poor old Tesco, shaking under the oppressive weight of budget and tax burdens so monstrous it just might have to charge us all a few pennies more for those leeks we can already barely afford.

Except that’s not quite right, and here’s where it gets fun – because Tesco’s pre-tax profit for 2023/24 was a casual £2.3 billion.

Yes, billion, with a big fat “B”.

And the previous year? A mere £800 million – which  represents an increase of 159% year on year – so not exactly peanuts. But don’t let that get in the way of the Sunday Times making you feel as though Tesco – a company raking in billions more year on year – is somehow being crushed by a £250 million burden.

The “£1bn budget bill” the headline shouts so fearfully about? That is the total figure that Tesco will pay over the next four years of this current parliament. Which really means, and what the headline doesn’t say, that Tesco will pay around £250 million per year – about 11% of its profits for the 23/24 financial year, give or take. Still significant, sure. But ruinous? Hardly.

So why doesn’t the headline say that?

Well, because “Tesco facing modest costs in comparison to its record profits” doesn’t quite pack the same visceral punch.

Headlines like these don’t just frame the story – they shape how we think, what we feel, and how we respond. They’re crafted to evoke that familiar middle-class groan, the one that has us bracing for price hikes without questioning too deeply.

It’s a clever sleight of hand: take something routine, wrap it in a bit of exaggeration, throw in a scary-sounding number, et voilà – you’ve got corporate propaganda, dressed up as journalism.

And it's not just Tesco's “woes” that the article is very careful about; look at the distribution of these supposed costs across other firms. Sainsbury’s, M&S, Morrisons, even Wetherspoons are also on that list. The cumulative burden is shared, it’s an economy-wide shift – and yet, somehow, it’s Tesco’s pain that becomes the headline drama.

Let’s be clear, every large company is taking on these costs, and funnily enough, they aren’t all rushing to turn them into an excuse to justify price rises. It’s the Sunday Times that has chosen to weaponise it.

Then we get to the crucial point – Tesco isn’t merely considering price increases because they might struggle. No, no, it's because they need to maintain or even expand those sweet, sweet profit margins. But instead of just saying, “We’re Tesco, and we really like money,” they’d rather have you believe their hand is being forced by this supposedly massive “budget bill.” It’s a choice, not a necessity – a choice made in a boardroom, with shareholders in mind, not customers.

And this is all sneakily hidden behind a paywall. The paper chooses to construct this manipulative, sympathy-laden narrative in eight short, punchy words, and then locks it away, only for those who can pay to come and absorb this misleading tripe. So, not only is the manipulation real, but also you are going to be charged for the privilege of being manipulated. The irony practically writes itself.

What this article utterly neglects to say is that Tesco is not teetering on the brink of collapse. Its profits are not being obliterated by some Government scheme. It has made billions – in fact, it’s made billions more than the year before.

It is choosing to use this situation as cover to hike prices, despite swimming in profits that could easily absorb these so-called additional costs. The absence of that context is intentional – because context makes the difference between feeling sorry for Tesco and realising that it’s squeezing you because it wants to, not because it has to.

In the end, the Sunday Times has played a brilliant game of emotional chess here. But once you see past the bullshit, it’s pretty clear who’s actually winning – and it sure as hell isn’t you or me at the checkout.

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The Bear, also known as Iratus Ursus Major (Big Angry Bear) is a commentator known for dissecting ideology, news and politics with a blend of wit, sarcasm, and just a dash of frustration. He is the author of Bear Necessities of Politics and Power: Decoding the Chaos of Modern Politics, One Ideology at a Time.