There’s a lot riding on Christmas for Asda this year as it tries to reverse sliding market share after a tough autumn owing to availability issues.
Asda’s investment in pricing for the biggest grocery event of the year has been emphatic. At £137.76, our luxury Christmas shop was 5.4% cheaper than nearest rival Sainsbury’s and it was cheaper on 18 items – more than half the basket.
That included the big ticket items. Its own label champagne was cheapest, and its free-range bronze turkey and smoked salmon exclusively so.
Its prices were also lower on posh own-label mince pies, Yorkshire puddings and stollen.
Asda had three price-cut and eight multibuy Promotions. When multibuys are pro-rated across all retailers Asda’s basket total falls to £128.25 and its lead increases to 9.9%.
Second place Sainsbury’s was competitive on the turkey (just 8p more than Asda’s) thanks to a Nectar deal and it matched Asda on the champagne. Roast potatoes and panettone also cost the least at Sainsbury’s.
Asda was 8.6% cheaper than Morrisons (£150.75) and 8.9% cheaper than Tesco (£151.26).
Morrisons had 14 promotions, but the shallowest price cuts: its six price-only promos saved just £2.45. Its sherry and cranberry sauce were cheapest.
Tesco’s £20.27 discounts were the deepest, and entirely dependent on Clubcard. A 2.5kg free-range turkey crown cost £45 with Clubcard and £57.50 without. With 16 price-cut or multibuy deals, nearly half of Tesco’s basket was on promotion. However, its exclusively cheapest products were all low value: the easy peelers, parsnips, pigs in blankets and Christmas pudding.
In the produce aisle, there are no early challengers to Aldi and Lidl’s forthcoming 8p vegetable promotions. Spouts are cheapest at Asda (£1), parsnips at Tesco (55p) and chantenay carrots at Sainsbury’s (80p).
Our shop pitted Waitrose against M&S for the first time. And M&S was 4.2% cheaper than Waitrose, including on the turkey. M&S was cheaper than Waitrose on 20 SKUs, Waitrose was cheaper on seven and price matched for six.
M&S’ full shop caps a heavy year of food expansion as it targets 4.5% grocery market share from stores by 2028.
Waitrose was the only supermarket to check out at over £200. With a £203.54 total, Asda was 32.3% cheaper.
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