In perhaps the most stark illustration yet that retailers are panicking in the “credit-crunch” headlights, Marks & Spencer has lashed out at claims by fellow premium-end chain Waitrose that its food is cheaper.
Last week, Charlie Mayfield, chairman of John Lewis Partnership, said Waitrose is 10 per cent cheaper than M&S. But John Dixon, M&S's director of food, voiced his surprise and hit back, claiming that M&S products are the same price or cheaper than Waitrose's.
M&S measures and compares its prices on a specific basket of 546 M&S food lines each month. It said that, in August, the total cost of this basket was the same as an equivalent basket at Waitrose. Some 260 of those products can be matched with Waitrose's own-label products, said M&S, adding that M&S emerges six per cent cheaper.
As the stand-off takes shape, JLP has now stood by its figures, but Dixon said: "We've been surprised to read Waitrose's claims about our prices when the reality is that on many products they're six per cent more expensive than us."
