Waitrose boss Mark Price has warned the UK grocery sector that it could face disaster if they continue in a "race to the bottom" on price.
Price, who is also deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, told the Mail on Sunday that slashing prices to keep pace with German discounters Aldi and Lidl is damaging consumer choice.
Price said that that heavy price-cutting could even result in a company failure unless the biggest chains change their strategies.
“Supermarkets are saying, ‘If we drop our prices it’s all going to be OK again.’ But the reality is people don’t eat more food because you drop your prices. If everybody keeps dropping their prices, it’s a zero sum game," said Price.
He added that his instinct is that there will be a moment when retailers will have to say "We need to find a better way of attracting customers".
"Otherwise the moves down will create real difficulty for one or two players," said Price.
Price believes the responses of Tesco, Asda, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s to each other’s price-cutting are creating only “fractional differences” in the performance of the best and worst, as reported by the Mail on Sunday.
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