Sainsbury's To Enter Price War

Mon, 08 Jan 2007
 
Get the latest prices, codes, vouchers & deals fortnightly.
The UK’s supermarket giants are set for a price war as Sainsbury’s has followed Tesco and Asda in reducing the prices of 1,000 items in a desperate bid to stop their customers fleeing to their rivals.

Sainsbury’s has also launched 200 half price offers, including reductions on quarter pounder burgers, reduced from £1.99 to £1.05, and 90 per cent fat free apple pies in packs of six, reduced from 97p to 74p.

Wal Mart - owned Asda recently celebrated the New Year by slashing prices on 2000 items across its 325, UK stores.

In a similar move, Tesco, Britain’s most powerful supermarket and retailer cut their price costs by up to 30 per cent on 600 of its 'key' items, resulting in an £80 million cost to the company .

The result has meant an aggressive price war, which Sainsbury's has had to follow.

The retailer announced it would cut prices across a wide range of products, including health and beauty items as well as household products.

It is believed price cuts will cost Sainsbury’s around £70 million, but it should save a small fortune for shoppers at its 769 stores, and help bring back deserting customers .

However critics have warned shoppers to be wary of price wars, accusing supermarkets of raising prices some items in order to offset the cost of cutting other prices .

The ‘price war’ comes at a time were the Competition Commission has launched an inquiry into the grocery sector, investigating whether supermarkets are forcing smaller shops out of business with unfair practices.

The Commission’s findings are expected to be published soon.

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.