Supermarket price war hits Galway

Date Published: 12-Jun-2009

THE major supermarket chains in Galway have launched a price war, vowing to woo customers away
from the North with dramatically lower grocery prices.

However the Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) has warned shoppers to be wary of the strategy which could cost Irish jobs in the long term.

Tesco reopened its store in the Galway Shopping Centre on Wednesday after closing for two days, announcing that it had reduced the prices of 12,500 goods by an average of 22%, with many prices down as much as 30%.

The move follows the launch of the price programme in nine border towns last month under which the company is aligning a large proportion of its commercial buying with the UK in order to access cheaper goods. This will save money by cutting out middle-man distributors in Ireland and taking advantage of the strength of the euro to buy goods priced in sterling.

The…