The commitment came as the UK’s second-biggest supermarket, which also owns the Argos and Habitat chains, revealed that sales at established stores fell by 4% in the 16 weeks to June 25 compared with the same period a year earlier and excluding fuel. The slide was due to an 11% drop in general merchandise sales and a 10% drop in apparel sales. Food sales fell 2.4% year-on-year but rose nearly 9% from pre-pandemic levels. The figures emerged as shoppers turned to cheaper items such as frozen and canned foods and supermarket label items and set themselves tight budgets amid strong grocery inflation and cost-of-living pressure from higher energy, gas and housing costs. Simon Roberts, chief executive of Sainsbury’s, said: “The pressure on household budgets will only intensify in the rest of the year and I am very clear that doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues will remain at the top of our agenda. “ He said shoppers were “watching every penny and every pound” but were also looking to Sainsbury’s for special occasion treats. Subscribe to the Business Today daily email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter @BusinessDesk “We really understand how difficult it is for millions of households at the moment and that’s why we’re investing £500m and doing everything we can to keep our prices low, especially on the products that customers buy most often. We are working hard to reduce costs across the business so we can continue to invest in those areas that customers care about the most,” said Roberts. He said improvements Sainsbury’s had made to value, quality, innovation and service had helped the retailer take a bigger share of the grocery market in volume terms. Sainsbury’s said the fall in sales was in line with expectations and continued to expect to hit its target of profits of between £630m and £690m in the year to March 2023.
