The return of guest retailer Aldi was always likely to end Asda’s seven-week Grocer 33 pricing winning streak, but the twist in the tail was Asda only managed fourth spot.
At £46.97 Aldi was £6.50 cheaper than our surprise runner-up Sainsbury’s. Aldi’s margin of victory was 12.2%, slightly more than the 12.1% margin it enjoyed over Asda in its most recent guest slot in late September.
Aldi offered the lowest price for 28 items and was exclusively cheapest for 14, including the apple strudel, eggnoodles and cod fish fingers. Annual inflation was 1.8%.
In contrast Sainsbury’s £53.47 basket was 3.6% cheaper year on year, with the cheapest price for 11 products including three – the asparagus, bacon & chicken pasta salad, and beansprouts – exclusively cheapest.
At £54.29 Tesco’s basket was £7.32 more expensive than Aldi and 82p more than Sainsbury’s. Members received little benefit this week from Tesco Clubcard prices in terms of direct discounts. Clubcard holders would have received a further 50p off, taking the total cost of its bill down to £53.79. Including all multibuys in our ‘all-inclusive’ cost comparison, however, Tesco’s basket would have been second only to Aldi’s at £53.05.
Tesco matched the lowest price for 10 lines but none were exclusively cheapest.
Asda did not have any exclusively cheapest items either and only matched the lowest price for five. At £56.37 it was £9.40 more expensive than Aldi, a 16.7% difference, in a basket 5.6% dearer year on year, with 11 lines up in price.
The Morrisons basket rose a similar amount (5%) year on year to £57.23, with 17 products rising in price. This was despite coming in exclusively cheapest for the beef mince and the bake-at-home petit pains.
Waitrose was a long way off the pace – £24.74 dearer than Aldi at £71.22, despite four price promos.
Waitrose had no exclusively cheapest items and only managed to match the lowest price for one item – the multipack of Diet Coke cans.
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