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Asda claimed its ninth straight Grocer 33 pricing win and, as in recent weeks, the victory was based on consistently low prices.

The Walmart retailer’s £55.95 total was £1.30 cheaper than second-placed Morrisons this week, despite charging more than any other retailer for the Marmite (see panel). It was offering the lowest price for 18 of the 33 products, with nine exclusively cheapest. Most were just a few pence cheaper each time, but its own label quiche lorraine at £1.50 was 60p cheaper than any rival.

Yet again, however, Asda had to cough up a sizeable £4.22 voucher under its Price Guarantee scheme. Based on the 25 products it could find direct comparisons for against Sainsbury’s, the latter was actually cheaper than Asda. It also failed to come in 10% cheaper than its other big four rivals.

Sainsbury’s came in third. Its £57.92 total was £1.97 more expensive than Asda in the end and 67p more expensive than Morrisons. A marked improvement on last week’s fifth place.

Again, Tesco was reliant on its Brand Guarantee price-matching scheme to remain competitive. Its total this week came to £60.93, which was £4.98 more expensive than Asda. However, our shopper received an instant discount of £3.11, which would have risen to £3.81 had she been able to pick up the Shreddies granola and the Kelly’s ice cream. This would have cut Tesco’s bill to £57.12, making it slightly cheaper than Morrisons but still £1.17 dearer than Asda.

Guest retailer Ocado pipped Waitrose for fifth place. At £62.27 it was just 7p cheaper than Waitrose but £6.32 more expensive than Asda.

For all the hullabaloo about Marmitegate, the price of a 250g jar has risen just 1.3% in the past year versus the previous one, and has actually fallen at Tesco, albeit by less than 1%.

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