Waitrose has dramatically scaled down its Tesco price-match pledge as sales at the upmarket grocer remain stagnant.
According to The Sunday Times the scheme set up in 2010, which promised to match the prices of Tesco on thousands of products, was pitched as Waitrose own version of its stablemate John Lewis’ “never knowingly undersold” scheme.
Despite having spent tens of millions to extend range of items covered in the pledge, Waitrose has now dropped the number from 8000 to just 1200 items.
The move comes amid a cost cutting drive across the partnership, which reported an operating loss of £33.5 million in its interim results.
Though the partnership has been looking to its grocery arm to sure up finances as department stores across the country continue to struggle, Waitrose has also been hammered by the growing shift towards discounters Aldi and Lidl.
In the four weeks to November 4, Waitrose saw sales drop one per cent marking the first decline since February 2009, according to Kantar Worldpanel.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
