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What to make of all these price-match guarantees in the supermarkets? A profit guarantee for the shops offering them, suggests the Economist . In a column last month it says price guarantees were a way of stopping a price war rather than participating in one. This is because when a newcomer offers lower prices it is trying to win your customers. If you promise your customers that you will match these prices then they will stay with you. The newcomer then has to give the price cuts to its existing customers without winning new ones and loses money. In real life it is not as simple as that. However, the Economist says that most consumers believe that price-matching signals genuinely lower prices. The consumer is wrong as it is more expensive supermarkets that are offering to match each other’s prices. The lower prices are at Aldi and Lidl. The response of wholesalers and consumer packaged goods suppliers is to price mark product for independent shops to signal value. There are