I have no idea who the man in the picture is.

After accidentally walking into frame, then deliberately proceeding to pose, he asked why I was taking a photograph of Tesco late on a bitterly cold night. I began to explain that I was writing a story about the percieved high costs of goods in Jesmond’s Tesco Metro store.

Before I could finish my sentence he interrupted: “Most expensive Tesco in the UK mate,” he said, then wandered off.

He isn’t the first to say the Tesco Metro on Acorn Road is the most expensive in the UK. There is also a slight variation on the claim – that it’s the most expensive outside of London.

Type “jesmond tesco expensive” into Twitter and you’ll find people bemoaning the apparently astronomical prices going back years.

I asked Tesco directly if there was any truth to the rumour. After explaining the question to not one but two highly amused press officers JesmondLocal was provided with this statement:

“We operate a national pricing policy for our larger stores, so Jesmond Metro customers can be reassured that the prices they pay are the same as the prices in other Metros, Superstores and Extras across the country.”

To ensure this was correct, JesmondLocal formulated a shopping basket of randomly selected items which would be costed against other Tesco Metros. I compared the items in the Eldon Square Metro in central Newcastle and asked Carlisle and Wimbledon residents Liam Collins and Patrick MacDonald to do the same in their local shop.

To no-one’s surprise save the Twittersphere there was no variation across the stores: each price the same, each offer the same.

The range of goods available in Tesco Metro stores may be limited. We tried to compare the price for a 35cl bottle of Gordon’s gin but Jemond’s store only stocked the larger, more expensive quantities, an unavoidable reality of shopping at mid-sized convenience stores and why many people choose to travel to larger, out-of-town supermarkets.

So, perhaps you think Tesco Metro prices are too high. Perhaps Jesmond needs a budget supermarket to rival the existing mid-ranged and luxury goods stores.

But the fundamental grouse – the urban myth that the Tesco Metro on Acorn Road is the most expensive in the UK or the most expensive outside of London – is untrue. Perhaps we can stop saying it.