lidl

Guest Lidl ended Asda’s three-week winning streak, but the Walmart-owned retailer seems to be closing the gap to the discounter.

Lidl’s £44.60 total undercut Asda by £4.27, making it 8.8% cheaper than its Leeds-based rival. However, in its last guest appearance it June, Lidl was 9.8% cheaper, while in February it was 15.1% cheaper.

For this week’s shopping list, Lidl offered the lowest price for 23 of the items, with 19 of these exclusively cheapest.

Asda was in turn £3.31 cheaper than any of its traditional supermarket rivals, as it offered the lowest price for eight items, four of these exclusively so. However, it still had to offer our shopper a £1.19 voucher to spend on her next shop via the soon-to-be-defunct Asda Price Guarantee price-matching scheme.

Third-placed Morrisons came in at £52.18. This was £7.58 more expensive than Lidl, making the discounter 14.5% cheaper. Morrisons’ only exclusively cheapest product was the own label baking potatoes.

Sainsbury’s was exclusively cheapest on only one item, the small bananas. However, it was £8.33 more expensive than Lidl.

All eyes next week will be on the launch of the new Jack’s discounter format from Tesco. Its pricing will be keenly scrutinised, given it appears to be struggling to close the gap through its core stores, despite the launch of several tertiary brands. Lidl was 18.1% cheaper, a difference of almost a tenner on Tesco’s £54.47 basket.

Waitrose was mocked this week for its recommended basics for freshers week: here it came in £13.66 more expensive than Lidl at £58.26. However, this was only £3.79 more expensive than Tesco.

Morrisons carried the most deals this week, with nine versus Asda’s eight. Tesco and Waitrose had seven each, Lidl four and Sainsbury’s just two.