British Grocery Shoppers Benefit As Supermarket Price War Drags On

A Kantar Worldpanel study finds that, thanks to a grocery price war in the U.K., British shoppers are now paying less for a representative basket of groceries than they did in 2014. The lower overall grocery outlays – the lowest in nine years – are a result of several market forces, including the impact of discount retailers Aldi and Lidl on other retail grocery chains that have responded by cutting prices. There has also been deflation in major food categories such as vegetables, milk and bread. Deflation has reached a record low of -1.6 percent. Of all the big U.K. chains, Tesco has managed to turn in the best sales performance, posting a 1.1 percent increase over the past 18 months.