Asda triumphed again in this week’s pricing survey. It easily beat guest retailers Ocado and Amazon, but was closer than last week to Tesco and Sainsbury’s, both within 2% of its total.
The traditionally discount-heavy month of September heralded a wave of price cuts and promotions. These provided a welcome respite from inflation, pushing prices down by an average of 2.4% month on month. Sainsbury’s went the furthest, down 9.6%.
Asda’s £77.87 basket had 10 exclusively cheapest products, including promotions on the kimchi and Fruit Shoots, and a low single unit price of multibuy favourite Müller Corner.
Tesco was just 77p behind on £78.64. With a total of 13 promotions, it offered more price cuts than any of its rivals this week. Indeed, if multibuy discounts were included on a pro-rata basis, it would have pipped Asda by 17p. Tesco’s prices were 9.3% lower than last month and down 4% year on year.
Sainsbury’s was 83p behind Tesco on £79.47. Its price cuts were the deepest, with £9.51 of savings. That included a Nectar promotion that made its sea bass fillets £1.01 cheaper than anywhere else.
Morrisons this week kicked off a pre-Christmas price war, cutting the cost of more than 650 products. Those efforts were not yet apparent in this week’s basket. Its £82.89 total included only one exclusively cheapest item: Persil laundry liquid.
Amazon came in third in our last online special, but slumped to fifth place this week (£84.31). Its burger buns, sweet potatoes and Cif multi-purpose cleaner were exclusively cheapest.
Ocado (£85.03) and Waitrose (£91.59) were the only retailers to have a higher basket total than last month. Neither offered any exclusively cheapest items this week. However in the premium supermarket battle, Ocado was 7.2% cheaper.
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