Ronan Hegarty

Does Morrisons’ plan to cull the Match element of Match & More spell the end of price-matching? As far as I am concerned, it should. 

Match & More was born a year ago with the genuine novelty that Morrisons was not only comparing prices against its traditional rivals, but also Aldi and Lidl. However, as it set out the reason for pulling it this week, Morrisons admitted the scheme was confusing. I couldn’t agree more, and I would level that charge against all the schemes out there.

When Asda launched the APG in 2010, then-CEO Andy Bond said it would “put an end to phoney price wars”. In reality it did nothing of the sort.

Currently, supermarkets are spending tonnes trying to convince shoppers they are competitive on price, and if they aren’t, they will pay them the difference for staying loyal. Surely it’s better to become more price competitive and then give shoppers better products, appropriate ranging and more personalisation.

Supermarket bosses know better than most about product life. They should be able to see that price-matching is well and truly past its sell-by date.

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