A supermarket price war is still going on in the UK. Discount chain Aldi has reacted to Morrisons’ Price Crunch initiative by cutting prices further on four percent of its 1,500 products, such as whole chickens, steaks, butter and orange juice. According to recent Kantar data, Aldi’s items were on average 29 percent cheaper than the average of its eight competitors.
In the meantime, Asda has announced it will invest £500 million in slashing prices, but admitted that it would not be able to match Aldi and Lidl due to a different business model; despite an improvement, shopping at Asda still costs 10 percent more than at low-cost supermarkets.
A research conducted by the Money Advice Service (MAS), however, has shown that British stores are impairing the ability of shoppers to pick the cheapest groceries; only 40 of all 2,000 shoppers were able to identify the best value deal of four offers, due to an overload of seemingly attractive deals. The same test is now available online.
In addition, MAS has found that customers spend around £1,200 more than they meant to each year due to deals, which might prompt the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to intervene. As a result, Tesco said it has been getting rid of short-term promotions, Asda has actively removed 133 multi-buy deals and Sainsbury's has announced its decision to scrap multi-buy and buy-one-get-one-free deals within weeks.
"We have listened to our customers who have told us that multi-buy promotions don't meet their shopping needs today, are often confusing and create logistical challenges at home in terms of storage and waste," said Sarah Warby, marketing director, Sainsbury's.
