There’s a power dynamic in any relationship, even those where both parties secretly suspect they could do a bit better.

If eyebrows were raised when The Grocer identified the consumer as the most important person in grocery earlier this year, as embodied by Martin Lewis, the increasing desperation with which the mults are battling for shoppers’ attention – never mind their loyalty – surely shows we had it right all along.

The latest not-quite-knockout blow in the price war came this morning from Asda. It was starting to sound distinctly needy in today’s missive, boasting it was “the ONLY supermarket to offer a £5 thankyou” (their use of capitals).

Certainly an additional £5 off your next shop, on top of the ongoing 10% guarantee, is more than an empty gesture. But it didn’t really sit with the more bravado rhetoric within.

“Other stores don’t want a price war, they only want a skirmish over price perception,” Asda boomed, with quotes (perhaps wisely) not attributed to any member of senior management. “There is no price war because no other stores showed up to win.”

You can tell us which of the mults’ big pricing initiatives vote has impressed you the most in our latest poll. And we explore in detail in the most recent edition of the magazine whether Sainsbury’s Brand Match is an inspired gamble set to pay off big-time – or another Double the Difference waiting to happen.

In the meantime, it’s presumably only a day or two until the next soppy pitch by one of the big players to be the shopper’s best friend.

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