The study is just plain wrong, well it's scope and conclusions are at least. First a 14% decrease is pretty significant, considering other costs wouldn't have dropped at the same rate or at all in that period. Second, do we really need a huge ASDA? Well thanks to the NCA, where they completely ignored independent grocers, we'll just close more of them down making it even more comfortable for the big chains and even less competition.
An example close to home for me is JCs supermarket, it does very well, always busy and will have branded goods much cheaper than the major stores (it has a Dunnes, Superquinn and Tescos in the same catchment area). So it's fair to not count them in the survey, but introduce a new player which is likely to put them under more strain. Nice one NCA.
Limiting the scope to branded goods ignores the most significant shift (largely thanks to Lidl and Aldi again not included in the report) in that people have moved away from branded goods to own products. That's where the real cuts and drop in prices are and that's what people are buying.
They're creating an issue when there isn't one. I can only speak from my own experience, but our average shopping bill of €150 per week is now below €100 without any major sacrifices. That's a saving of €2,500 a year just from the supermarkets competing.
But it's handy that the conclusions justifies the NCA's existence. It's handy that a very limited, unreal shopping scenario makes it look like the NCA are doing sterling work.