Asda sold the cheapest weekly shop for the second week running, undercutting rivals on 16 of the 33 items in our basket – 11 exclusively so. Its £69.02 basket delivered the smallest savings from price cuts of any retailer, but that wasn’t enough to shift it from the top spot.
Take the Cathedral City cheddar. At other retailers the price bounces up and down on price-cut promos, but Asda has charged £3 since February, matched this week only by a Morrisons promo. The SKU is currently on a multibuy two for £5 promo, which would give a £1 saving for anyone stocking up.
Overall, Asda’s basket was 0.9% cheaper than a year ago – the biggest year-on-year reduction of all the retailers.
Tesco (£71.54) was 3.7% dearer than Asda and exclusively cheapest for five items. Its biggest leads over rivals came from Clubcard price cuts on SKUs from Merchant Gourmet, Green Giant and Bounty.
Sainsbury’s (£72.14) cost 4.5% more than Asda but offered eye-catching Nectar promotions for anyone splitting their basket, including on the sirloin steak, Capri-Sun Zero juice drinks and John West tuna.
Morrisons (£75.58) drifted into a more distant fourth position. It was the only supermarket to cost more month on month (3.4%) and year on year (2.4%). Its sirloin steak, for example, costs 5% more than a year ago when it is cheaper everywhere else. Morrisons’ total was 9.5% higher than Asda’s.
Waitrose (£85.70) sold the cheapest Bottlegreen cordial and Marigold kitchen gloves, both on promo, but was largely uncompetitive on price and cost 24.2% more than Asda.
Keen competition kept average price rises at 0.2% but there were some far bigger swings within the basket. Part-baked baguettes cost 15% more than a year ago and steak 14% less.
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