It’s the start of the new Grocer 33 year and Asda carried on winning with a £50 basket sealing its first victory in the annual competition.
In the week the Issa brothers agreed undertakings to the Competition & Markets Authority that effectively seal their acquisition of the supermarket, Asda’s nearest rival, Morrisons was £5.20 (or 10%) more expensive, with Tesco £11.13 off the pace (22.3%), not including Clubcard deals.
Asda’s winning basket was 5.7% cheaper than the same products last month, and a whopping 16.3% cheaper year on year, as it offered 21 products at the cheapest price – 15 of them exclusively, including big savings on the yoghurt (see right), veggie sausages, Coca-Cola and grapes, which were among 10 promotions. Factor in multibuys and the all-inclusive price of the basket (see online for details) falls another £1.01.
No one had more offers than the 18 at Morrisons, including a great price on the Flora spread, but the basket was actually 3.9% more expensive than the same month last year, resulting in the highest inflation of any retailer this week. With nine of them multibuys, its all-inclusive basket looks a lot more competitive, with the gap on its £55.20 basket falling to £51.71, but versus this time last year it was 7.1% more expensive.
Sainsbury’s £58.19 trolley featured the best deal on the blueberries but it was otherwise an also-ran, offering the cheapest price on only five items.
Tesco’s trolley offered even fewer promotions (five), all Clubcard based. As such they were not reflected in the £61.13 basket, but the difference was marginal: on the Sensations crisps it would have matched Morrisons and Sainsbury’s; while on the Jamaica cake (67p) it would have come in marginally behind Asda (64p) and Sainsbury’s (65p). Indeed the ‘all inclusive’ price was still higher than Sainsbury’s which doesn’t do multibuys. To be fair to Tesco seven items in its basket had come off promotion,
The £63.89 Waitrose basket was notable for including two exclusively cheapest products: the crumpets and gammon joint, though the per kg cost benefited from being a very large (1.9kg) joint. With five multibuys the all-inclusive basket would mean a £2.45 saving.
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