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For evidence of this just take a look at the latest monitoring what brands are receiving the most POS coverage in the 'big four' supermarkets. All four, especially Asda and Morrisons, are highlighting £1 and £2 deals.

However this type of no-nonsense price deal is not exactly a new thing. If you're looking for the time when it was you have to go back to 2005 when Iceland revamped its marketing.

The store had just been reacquired by its founder Malcolm Walker, who lost no time revamping its positioning and bringing it back in line with it's ‘Mums gone to Iceland' roots.

Kerry Katona and clear-cut pricing

One of the most notable results of this initiative was a TV campaign featuring a certain Ms Katona. However alongside it was a significant change in the stores pricing strategy.

, Iceland head of marketing Nick Canning said the store would be cutting its range and introducing what he described at the time as a ‘clear cut' pricing strategy.

As part of this own-brand products would be retailing at "simple" prices such as £2, £2.50 or £3. "It's about getting our core basket products to customers at a price which is competitive and in a store that makes it easy to shop. We call it ‘everyday great value'."

Athough stores like Poundland were already around, no major food retailer had made this move. In a stroke the store moved itself away from the losing price fight it was engaged in with the major supermarkets.

It's easy to copy if you're a retailer

Now the strategy is being used by those same competitors Iceland was struggling against, this seems straightforward. Yet at the time, considering just about every product had a 99p tagged onto the price, it was rather bold.

Helen Davies managing director of shopper research agency Retail Why said retailers have been drastically simplifying their messages.

"It's a case of less is more. Nowadays you won't even find the ‘only' next to the price point. Consumers have also got wiser to £4.99 deals and they realise it's not £4 it's £5."

Of course there is one other advantage. Consumers might have worked out 99p is only 1p away from a pound but it's a little more difficult to tell whether a ‘simple' price has been rounded down or up...