The Price War

Tesco

Tesco started a war by putting the above ad in The Star on the 22 May 2009. According to a leading international research company, Tesco has overtaken Giant as the “New Low Price Leader” in Malaysia. Tesco has also crossed Giant’s billboard ads which you would commonly notice along highways.

Giant reacted immediately by putting the above ad the very next day, chose to focus on the historical results rather than the latest data as published by Tesco the day before.

The attack continued the very next day where Giant claimed that its hypermarkets, supermarkets, Cold Storage and even Guardian are cheaper than the “mis-leading” Tesco. Giant has upped the ante by calling Tesco “mis-leading”.

The war continued into the third week when Tesco put the following ad below.

Tesco now claimed that shopping in Giant is point-less. As expected, Tesco was promoting its ClubCard.

Of course, Giant reacted again. Giant is claiming that its co-branded credit card with Citibank offers more points than Tesco’s ClubCard. Once again, the word “mis-leading” was used.

What does all this mean to the shoppers? Cheaper goods of course. Giant and Tesco can fight all the want. As long the shoppers benefit at the end of the day. Hopefully, this “stimulus” package created by Giant and Tesco will help boost the FMCG industry.