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It is the LADS who have eaten MRW's lunch in their Northern Heartland, sometimes 2 of them just yards from the door of an MRW, With the prospect of a 140 yellow & green themed My Local, formerly M convieniance stores joining the competition & I doubt if the MRW cuts (only guaranteed for 3 months) will have the LADs quaking in their boots either. Lidl have half price Fruit & Vege loss- leaders every WeekEnd. Is an increased online service from SBRY, more of a threat to MRW whose fledgeling Online makes a loss, with no control over its costs, or a much larger larger rival who's been running for over a decade making over a millian a year in PROFIT?

Tesco have responded with a Half Price 'spoiler' promotion, reducing large, 610/700 g Fruit & Vege packs until the 14th.

More closures of Tesco Extra stores are unlikey after the announcement, closing more 24 hr stores between the hrs of 12 midnight & 6 am. Given the costly & million pound loss venture into convienience stores, plus reduction in dividend, MRW will concentrate on fence-mending at it's much reduced estate, 140 stores smaller, now after flogging off M stores.

Bertie - I raise the serious topic of Brands vs LADS , which affects all the Big 4 - you respond with a plot from 'Five go to Chalet School' :)

Sid - as usual you don't get it. The Tesco 'Money off your Bill, at the Till', Price Guarantee, is limited to ASDA, SBRY & MRW, NOT the LADS. MRW used to offer the same guarantee in a much more convoluted way, but will no longer try to match Tesco, ASDA & SBRY prices. I think this is a big mistake. Is Tesco's campaign working? Well, judging by the way it's gone into overdrive SINCE xmas, I believe it Is. The number of items in a Tesco basket has gone UP & the number of items in an MRW basket has gone DOWN.

Yup, Tesco Price Match Guarantee ads, seen before xmas are STILL being run - no Tinsel or Holly in sight means they could run for ever. I do question MRW's decision NOT to do the same - do they think peeps won't notice dearer prices?

Welcome Bertie - happy to chat with anyone who can distinguish between Past( or Historic, as DL says) Present & Future. Some boys must have been sleeping when teacher explained Tenses in an English class - Wake up BJ!! BTW, Lidl Malt Wheaties have gone up from 69p to 89p in a week.

- and that is why for a year or more, Hedge Funds persist in shorting MRW at 3x /6 times more than Tesco. :)

Shortage of common sense - a percentage remains a percentage. And Tesco is 6% Short while MRW is 20%.. In both cases Hedge Funs are betting SP will FALL, but 3 times the money is going on MRW, as the better target. I like shopping at MRW, but one must be objective - bets have increased dramatically since 1) , MRW sold M stores to a competiter at a huge loss, who claims they 'will be profitable from day1, due to MRW basic mistakes'. 2) - Less items in the basket, when rivals are announcing an INCREASE in same. I tried to raise this very serious topic, but got the usual la.,la.la, 'fingers in the ears' routine. Over to you, Bertie for more Good News - best not to talk about the divi, in the firing line, according to the Mail.

Shorts in Tsco 6.2%, (highest ever), MRW 20%( 2nd most shorted), SBRY 17.5%(most shorted ftse100 stock), OCDO 4th most shorted. These are bets the SP will fall - as opposed to Happy Talk & 'quiet confidence'.

The idea that Amazon would buy an ailing MRW to ( perhaps) get hold of their Golden Handcuffs deal with Ocado is bonkers. Much more likely they would Ocado, which is why its SP is on the move. I waited about 5 years for the long awaited/ much mooted bid for BG from Shell - yup 'out of the blue',LOL.

Does anyone think this is due to abandoning the Price Match Guarantee? Tesco TV ads are still hammering home their guarantee & items per basket are UP. BTW, Tesco spent 3million less on their Xmas TV ads this year. Every Little Helps!

Nobody gets worked up about his regular outbursts on Tesco BB, or questions his right to post where he likes - lol.

In a better position - the deal looks more sensible, SBRY will only be buying the core Argos biz they want. Whether a Rights Issue can be avoided & both the Saudis & the SBRY family can be persuaded as to the merits of the deal, is another matter.

Tesco beats market forecasts An impressive like-for-like improvement over the Christmas period helped Tesco limit the third-quarter sales decline to 1.5%, beating market forecasts. Group LFL sales rose 2.1% and UK LFLs 1.3% in the six weeks to 9 January, helped by the abandoning of its three '£5 off £40' national coupon campaigns from the prior year. - Lidl had lots of these vouchers - which I took an unfair advantage of, 'til they changed the rules. Items per basket were UP for Tesco, by contrast with MRW.

Says tonite's Standard. ' LFL Sales rise of 0.2% & Investors push the SP up 8.5%. Good: first time a rise reported a rise in Sales for more than a year - Bad customers buying fewer items, surely a cause for concern.' - 'too soon for Potts to crack open the bubbly.'

Exactly what the Saudi's will be asking, when asked to stump up for a rights issue, to fund this nonsensical deal.

MRW sales were also DOWN inc. fuel, 0.6%. In the nine weeks to 3 January, like-for-like* (LFL) sales excluding fuel were up 0.2% (down 0.6% including fuel) and total sales* excluding fuel were down 1.2% (down 1.7% including fuel). Sales contribution from net new space was negative as expected (1.4%), following the recent disposal of 140 M local stores and previously announced supermarket closures.

Back to the Future: you would be buying back Homebase, having Sold it a few months back - to er... Sell it again.

Have been getting 3/4% on other High St. Current a/c for years - Wake up at the back! Tesco Bank has 7/8 million customers & billions in assets - we are now targeting disgruntled High St. Bank customers:- 'Tesco Bank has announced it is ditching its £5 monthly current account fee, hot on the heels of Santander's decision to raise fees on its high profile 123 account. Challenger bank Tesco launched the current account just over a year ago with a pledge to shake-up the sector. Currently, its customers pay a £5 monthly fee if they deposit less than £750 a month - but from Thursday, this will be removed.' The change means anyone with a Tesco Bank current account will earn three per cent interest on credit balances up to £3,000, without having to pay a monthly fee. Customers who currently pay the fee will be £60 a year better off. Tesco has not disclosed how many customers pay the monthly charge.