The Grocer Gold Awards 2026: Grocer 33 — price award

Winner: Asda

Asda claimed an even more resounding victory in this year’s annual Grocer 33 price comparison competition, offering the cheapest weekly shop 29 weeks out of 50 – an increase on last year’s winning total of 22.

Asda’s margin of victory was also a big improvement on last year’s razor-thin 1%, but as the price wars rage on, it has some way to go to meet its goal of being 5%-10% cheaper than its traditional supermarket rivals.

Across the year, Asda’s price was 2.4% cheaper than Tesco, 3.7% cheaper than Sainsbury’s and 5.4% cheaper than Morrisons.

Tesco was cheapest for the weekly shop six times, followed by Sainsbury’s five. Both retailers also recorded sub-1% inflation during the year. Tesco’s average basket cost 0.9% more than the same items a year ago for Clubcard members, while Sainsbury’s went up by just 0.8% for those using Nectar.

Register your interest for The Grocer Gold Awards 2027

Morrisons was missing from the race for most of the year, but a late surge resulted in a run of four victories in the final weeks of the competition. Of our other Grocer 33 competitors, it’s fair to say that price is not Waitrose’s battleground. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t provide any cheapest baskets, and Asda was on average 17.9% cheaper. Waitrose also recorded the highest inflation – on average its baskets cost 3.5% more than last year.

The discounters are another story. They are not featured each week as their restricted own-label-heavy range makes a varied comparable basket impossible. But when they were included they won every time, with Lidl selling the cheapest basket twice and Aldi three times.