I'm going to Tesco this afternoon so will pick one up if they have any and take it to bits. At that price it's worth having a look. If it has a relatively sane frequency synthesizer in it, some fun could be had
Here's the link for reference:
https://www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-r...o/498-0233.prd
As for cost, these sorts of things are rather popular across the world so there's a huge volume shipped. I think I remember reading a couple of years ago that rural community radio is a big thing in most non-highly developed countries so everyone has them for listening to FM and world SW broadcasts from VOA, Radio Free whatever etc. That and cheap Baofeng VHF handsets makes up the local net where there is no GSM coverage or people can't afford the network subscriptions.
I kind of wish it was like that here to be honest sometimes