Food prices slashed in store wars
Supermarkets are gearing up for a price-cutting war that could save consumers millions of pounds.
Tesco announced £60m reductions on 700 items from Monday after a surge in sales.
The cuts sparked similar moves in rival stores, with Sainsbury and Asda promising discounts from next week.
Somerfields and Morrison, based in Northern England and the Midlands, will also be offering special offers, according to the Daily Express.
The cost of groceries, clothes, toiletries and over-the-counter medicines are to be slashed in the shake-up at Tesco.
The cuts include boxer shorts down from £10 to £6.99, Hellman's mayonnaise down from £1.19 to 98p, tomato ketchup down from £1.43 to £1.15 and Maltesers down from £1.35 to £1.19.
The retailers says the average family will save £10 a week from the discounts.
"They are permanent reductions and this isn't the end of the price cuts by any means," said a spokesman.
They come after the group, which announced full-year profits of £1bn in April, said like-for-like sales in the last three months were 6.7% ahead on last year.
Terry Leahy, chief executive, said strong growth was achieved across the group. International sales were ahead by 50% during its first quarter. There was an overall increase in group sales of 14% and total UK sales were ahead by 9.8%.
