Sainsburys store-web

It has been a long time coming but Sainsbury’s has finally claimed its first victory of the Grocer 33 year - in week 43.

Sainsbury’s announced a £150m investment into lower prices last month, but this week’s win owed more to a deal on the Glade Sense & Spray air freshener. Both Sainsbury’s and second-placed Morrisons were charging £5 for this item - while it was a tenner at both Asda and Tesco.

Overall, Sainsbury’s only offered the lowest price for eight items, with just three of these exclusively cheapest. Its £70.10 total was just 25p cheaper than Morrisons, which had the lowest price for nine products, two of them exclusively.

Despite charging so much more for the air freshener, at £71.15, Asda was only £1.05 more expensive than Sainsbury’s. It offered the lowest price for 20 of the 33 items on our list, 12 exclusively.

However, the impact of the Glade price meant Asda was forced to offer our shopper a voucher worth £6.83 off her next shop.

Tesco was £5.35 off the pace, but with our shopper having £6.19 instantly deducted from her final bill of £75.45, it was actually 84p cheaper.

Tesco was exclusively cheapest for four lines this week - the Rude Health almond drink, organic broccoli, parsnips and baby plum tomatoes. It also offered the cheapest price across the year on the toothpaste.

Waitrose, along with Asda, was joint top for the number of deals this week. Eight of the 33 lines were on promotion and yet it was still a long way off the pace this week. Its £82.68 total was £12.58 and 17.9% more expensive than Sainsbury’s, partly thanks to charging £10 for the Glade. It was also significantly more expensive than its rivals on the baby plum tomatoes and summer fruits.