Cutthroat Competition Among British Supermarkets Helps Consumer Cope With Rising Food Cost

London, England (AHN) - British supermarkets are engaged in a price war in a bid to capture a larger segment of the consumers who are cash-challenged.

Asda and Tesco reduced the price of many staples as shoppers turned to discount stores like the two to cope with rising food prices and energy bills. On Thursday, Asda announced it was reducing the prices of 10 basic goods including store-branded bread, eggs, butter, potatoes, grapes and bread.

Shoppers who would buy their daily needs at any of Asda's 329 outlets are expected to enjoy 30 percent discounts on their purchases.

Tesco countered by coming out with double-paged newspaper ads announcing inflation busting tags on about 40 branded items including Anchor butter and Pampers nappies. So far Tesco had marked down prices on 5,000 items this week and would reduce the prices of 3,000 more by Monday. Other upcoming promos include buy-one, take-one and up to 50 percent discounts.

Despite the lesser cost of grocery items, Britons are finding it harder to save as whatever supermarket discount they could accumulate goes to mortgages and fuel and power bills.

According to data from the Office for National Statistics, the saving ratio of British households had gone down to 1.1 percent from 3 percent, its lowest level in almost 5 decades. In the 1980s, the savings rate of Britons reached 7.8 percent.