Asda’s chief executive Andy Bond has criticised retail rivals Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams for their massive pre-Christmas discounting.

The supermarket chain’s boss, without naming any retailer, commented that lots of struggling retailers were creating confusion with offers of 20% discount one day or 50% the next day. He stressed that these short term tactics could stimulate sales temporarily but would not allow businesses to grow in the midst of economic downturn.

Andy Bond’s comments were the fallout of Tesco’s announcement of price cuts on 1,000 items, including drinks, food and toys by 50%. This week Debenhams launched a 3-day festive sale, with a 20% price cut on many items. M&S also started offering discounts after launching 2 one-day sales in past few weeks.

Andy Bond called such promotions as ‘gimmicky’ and remarked that this could lead to mistrust among customers. He described big sales as horrendous way of running retail business.

Asda itself had held discount promotions during summer for a few weekends. Andy Bond claimed that Asda, owned by WalMart, US, had no plans to launch discounted brands which offered confusion and no clarity.

Asda has noted radical changes in peoples’ shopping patterns. Customers were buying smaller quantities of food and pack sizes and purchasing frozen food to reduce wastage.