As price wars continue to heat up across the UK, Sainsbury’s posted a drop in like-for-like sales for a fifth consecutive quarter and warns that the market situation will likely “remain challenging for the foreseeable future.” The supermarket retailer reported a 0.3 percent drop in total sales. Still, analysts say that the UK’s third largest supermarket chain performed better than expected and shares increased 1.5 percent following the announcement. Sainsbury’s said at the beginning of the year that it was planning to cut prices on 1,000 of its most popular products as part of its effort to “improve our competitiveness.” As a result, the retailer posted an average sales increase of 3 percent on these products, but says the battle for market share continues with Tesco, Asda and Morrisons.
