Asda picked up a hat-trick of victories to take its total of Grocer 33 pricing wins to 20 at the business end of the annual competition.
At £70.67, Asda’s total was £3.30 cheaper than runner-up Sainsbury’s. This was 4.5% cheaper than Sainsbury’s. It meant it almost hit executive chairman Allan Leighton’s target of undercutting its main supermarket rivals by 5% to 10% – but not quite.
Asda was offering the lowest price for 19 items, with 15 of these exclusively cheapest, including the Absolut & Sprite RTD, Doritos, Flash kitchen spray and McCain jackets.
Sainsbury’s was cheapest for nine items and exclusively so for the chicken breast fillets, Kerrygold butter, Persil detergent and Tunnock’s wafers. A key factor in its competitiveness this week was a £6.80 discount for Nectar customers.
Asda, which was 3.3% more expensive than a year ago, also came in £3.48 cheaper than Tesco. The difference of 4.7% was again just shy of the Leighton ambition. Tesco was offering its Clubcard members an instant discount of £4.43 and, significantly in a week when it was announced that UK inflation reached 3.5%, it was also the only retailer to come in cheaper year on year (1.6%).
Morrisons’ prices were 6% higher than May 2024. Its total was £5.79 more expensive than Asda at £76.46, a difference of 7.6%. It was cheapest for eight products and exclusively so for the Chorizo slices, Mr Kipling Almond Slices and sliced carrots.
Waitrose, which was 2.7% more expensive year on year, was a real outlier on price this week. It was almost 20% more expensive than Asda with a total of £87.41. The retailer was only exclusively cheapest for the Innocent Kids smoothies and matched the lowest price on just one other item – the wholemeal loaf.
No comments yet