Supermarket deals worse than 2008`s (From Malvern Gazette)

Supermarket deals worse than 2008`s

6:08am Saturday 21st November 2009 in National News © Press Association 2011

Supermarkets are giving customers more money-off deals in the run-up to Christmas but they offer smaller savings than last year, research has suggested.

A study carried out for The Grocer magazine by Assosia found there were more that 8,300 price cutting offers this month, up 23% on last year.

But the deals represented on average a 5% smaller saving, with a 19% drop on bakery goods and 21% on produce.

When it came to fresh meat and poultry, discounts were down 35% on last year and deals on alcohol dropped by 5.8%.

However there was some hope as price cuts on cleaning products were up 51% and on frozen food rose 12%.

Kay Staniland from Assosia said: "So far, consumers have more featured-space deals to choose from than ever before - but it's not true that the savings on offer are the biggest ever.

"The price of having lots of offers is often a reduction in money off, and this Christmas looks like no exception. In some categories savings are more than a third less generous than last year.

"This reduction is particularly tough in meat and poultry - bad news for people buying roasts in the run-up to Christmas."

The magazine said Morrisons was the only one of the biggest four supermarkets to increase savings in the four weeks up to November 20.