Sainsbury's isn't doing too badly, all things considered

Outlook When he’s not fighting jail sentences in Egypt – it related to Sainsbury’s attempt to open stores there in 1999 – the grocer’s chief executive Mike Coupe has been running a surprisingly successful business.

No, really. It’s true that Sainsbury’s has just reported its first loss since … well, forever. But when you strip out the write downs on the value of its property and various other non cash items, it made a decent enough profit at the operating level, given the current climate.

Moreover, the latest batch of figures from industry analyst Kantar appears to show that it is holding up better than most of its rivals when it comes to sales (more or less flat) and market share (steady). Those figures have also suggested that the growth of discounters Aldi and Lidl, the cause of the ructions reverberating through the food retailing industry, is slowing.

It is far too early to say that the established supermarkets have reached a point of equilibrium with them. But it might be that the efforts they have made to cut prices and up their games have at least stemmed some of the bleeding.

Which raises an interesting question: was the sector truly competitive before the discounters’ reached critical mass? Or had it been operating for years as a cosy oligopoly to which competition regulators paid too little attention? Adam Smith’s disciples would argue that the market has corrected itself.

Meanwhile, the consumer is partying on cheap food so everyone’s happy, apart from the supermarket bosses and their shareholders. So nobody really wants to debate the issue. Pity.