Rivals rubbish Asda's '10% cheaper' claim

By TARA EVANS
Updated: 04:26 EST, 7 January 2011

Asda's price guarantee to be 10% cheaper has sparked a war of words with rival supermarkets who claim the 'gimmick' is 'misleading'.

Tesco brandished the claim as 'utter rubbish', while Richard Hodgson, Morrisons commercial director, said: 'Unlike Asda, we're not in the business of gimmicks and stunts.'

Rollback: Asda's price guarantee was slammed by Tesco and Morrisons

The new initiative from Asda promises that customers' shopping bills will be 10% cheaper or it will refund the difference.

To do so, customers must log on to Asda's price guarantee website and enter a code from their receipt.

A service, powered independently by comparison website Mysupermarket.com, then compares the price of their shopping against other supermarkets.

The data, collected twice a week, is based on 15,000 like-for-like products, including both branded and own label groceries. The list for comparing items is set by Trading Standards.

Asda claim that this list includes approximately 70% of all grocery sales. Tesco have hit back by saying the comparison does not include popular items, such as Braeburn apples and steak mince, and is, therefore, misleading.

A Tesco spokesman said: 'Asda's claim to be 10% cheaper is utter rubbish. In fact, a direct comparison taken on Tuesday of the best prices on the 100 top-selling matched lines shows that Tesco is 5% cheaper.'

'Asda's price comparison also excludes such essentials as bananas, Braeburn apples and steak mince, so to claim it is representative is just misleading.'

However, a spokesperson for Asda told This is Money that the comparison does include steak mince, loose Braeburn apples and bananas.

The Asda price guarantee website refunds customers if their shopping is not 10% cheaper than other supermarkets.

This means that even if your total Asda shop is cheaper in any other supermarket, if it is not 10% cheaper you will still be able to claim back a refund.

The refund comes in the form of vouchers – valid for 28 days - to be used on the next Asda shop. There is no minimum amount that can be claimed but there is a maximum limit of £50 per month which can be redeemed each month. And shoppers must wait until 9am the next day before they can log on to compare the price of their grocery shop.

Richard Hodgson, Morrisons commercial director said: 'Unlike Asda, we're not in the business of gimmicks and stunts. Morrisons does not ask customers to decipher lots of terms & conditions, fill in a form to get a few pence back every couple of weeks.'

When the original price guarantee was launched in April last year it was criticised for comparing only a fraction of the products stocked by its main rivals.

A spokesperson for Asda told This is Money that, in the past, on average only one in 10 weekly shops compared using the Asda price guarantee were cheaper in another supermarket.

Andy Clarke, CEO of Asda, said: 'From today our price promise is backed by a copper-bottomed guarantee - if the basket of food you buy in our stores is not at least 10% than each of our major rivals, we'll put our hand in our pocket and give you back the difference.'