Asda sold the cheapest weekly shop for the fifth week on the trot. The supermarket’s basket (£66.18) offered the lowest price for two-thirds of the items on our shopping list – and was exclusively cheapest for 17 items, or more than half the trolley.
Asda’s annual inflation was the highest at 4.5%, or 6.3% excluding promotions, as it brought some prices closer to rivals while remaining competitive. Take its edamame bean and broccoli stir-fry veg: a bag costs £1.75 at Asda, making it joint cheapest with Tesco, but last month it cost £1.08, when it was 67p cheaper than rivals.
There was no big-ticket discount that made the difference here. Its sharpest price advantage was 75p for Activia yoghurts on a Rollback deal.
Sainsbury’s (£67.84) came closest to Asda and was 2.5% dearer. Stir-fry pork strips, Oatly Matcha Latte and Birds Eye Chicken Dippers were its exclusively cheapest items, all thanks to Nectar promotions. Indeed, its eight price cuts for Nectar members were the most generous this week and reduced its total by 10.9%. Those promotions meant Sainsbury’s basket cost 3.6% less month on month.
Tesco (£69.82) sold just one exclusively cheapest item, the Betty Crocker cake mix. That was one of four Clubcard deals which saved shoppers 5.4%.
Morrisons (£71.94) offered just one price cut, on Walkers Squares, and was 8.7% pricier than Asda.
Waitrose (£81.16) was muscled out. It had the highest or joint-highest price on 25 products and was 22.6% dearer than Asda. Cadbury Dairy Milk Biscoff, on a third-off promotion, was its sole cheapest item.
Across the five retailers, inflation stood at 2%. The largest outlier was a single lemon, which rose by 23% to 37p year on year. The chicken dippers and yoghurt also rose by double digits.
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