Few think Sainsbury's deal will cut costs

Just one in ten shoppers believe the Sainsbury’s merger with Asda willachieve a 10 per cent price decrease, according to a survey.

Research agency Future Thinking surveyed over a thousand Sainsbury’s customers, finding that just 12 per cent thought prices would go down.

Their research comes in the wake of Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe, who will head the new group, claiming the merger will reduce prices in their stores by 10 per cent.

Research director, Noreen Kinsey said: “Existing Sainsbury’s customers were sceptical, of the 1,309 Sainsbury’s shoppers polled, only one in ten, 12 per cent, anticipate that prices will decrease. That said, Sainsbury’s shoppers have a more positive outlook than their Asda-shopping peers, of whom only three per cent expect to see prices to decrease and 16 per cent actually expect to see them increase.

The merger between Britain’s second and third largest retailers will create a supermarket group that ousts Tesco’s pole position, with market share of 31 per cent.

Kinsey continued: “A merger is intended to help Sainsbury’s-Asda compete better against discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, when coupled with Coupe’s comments this raises the prospect of another price war.

“However, shoppers that use neither Asda or Sainsbury’s remain unconvinced – a fifth, 21 per cent don’t believe a merger would impact supermarket prices more broadly, and less than one-in-ten, nine per cent, think prices across the board will drop.”