Tesco Clubcard prices

Tesco Clubcard holders would have received an instant discount of £5.85

Asda has once again found itself undercut by loyalty pricing – Tesco’s in this case.

Based on shelf-edge prices, Asda was the cheapest retailer this week at £71.12. It offered the lowest price for 19 items and was exclusively cheapest for 10. These included the Cawston Press juice, Heinz Vegan Salad Cream and the pork chops.

It was £2.16 cheaper than Morrisons, which has also recently begun price-matching both Aldi and Lidl. However, it is similarly falling foul of rivals’ loyalty schemes. Morrisons was cheapest for 19 items and exclusively so for nine. These included the Mutti pizza sauce, oranges and Soba noodles.

At £75.17, Tesco was £4.05 more expensive than Asda at the shelf edge. However, its Clubcard holders would have received an instant discount of £5.85, making it cheaper than Asda by £1.80.

Sainsbury’s had more ground to make up on Asda as it came in at £77.98. Even with Nectar Prices factored in, it was unable to fully close the gap. It offered its loyalty scheme members a £5.30 discount, but this still left it £1.56 pricier than Asda.

Waitrose was the cheapest retailer for the Bonne Maman Crème Caramel this week, but that is where the good news finished. The upmarket retailer came in £11.06 more expensive than Asda at £82.18.

In terms of inflation, both Asda and Morrisons were cheaper than they were this time last year, while Tesco and Waitrose were 2.8% and 1.1% more expensive respectively. Sainsbury’s was an outlier on this front as our shopping list cost 13.8% more this week than last February.

Overall, this meant year-on-year inflation was 3.1%, while prices inched up just 0.4% compared with a month ago. Eight products were cheaper year on year and a dozen more increased by less than 10%.