The price hikes keep coming. Half the items in this week’s Grocer 33 have risen in price since last month, and 28 were up year on year, with inflation averaging 14.4% in our weighted basket.
The highest inflation was on the breaded haddock fillets – up 40% year on year and 7% in the past month – a hike linked to a complex host of factors related directly or indirectly to the Ukraine war.
At 41% the Elmlea cream alternative has risen even higher, but there’s been no move since late July.
A further four items (the yeast, flour, cheese slices and lamb’s liver) were up more than 30% and eight (caddy liners, diced onions, BBQ sauce, Knorr stock pots, parsnips, iced coffee, steak pie and Walkers crisps) rose over 20%, amid predictions from the IGD that food price inflation will hit 19% in the new year.
The retailer keeping the lid on inflation best was once again Asda, notching up its 13th win with a £58.17 basket, up 11.9%. Inflation at Waitrose was also muted at 12.1%, with Morrisons (15%), Sainsbury’s (16.4%) and Tesco (16.6%) all exceeding the current rate of inflation on this basket.
Tesco was, however, the closest to Asda on price, its £59.91 total coming in £1.74 more – a gap narrowed by a further 50p for a Clubcard-only deal on the New York bakery Co bagels.
Sainsbury’s was £2.70 behind with its £60.87 basket, which included 11 price hikes – a total matched only by Waitrose.
Morrisons was £4.10 off the pace set by Asda, and was exclusively cheapest on only two items: the pomegranate and pumpkin seeds, both 99p.
As ever Waitrose came in last: £13.63 more expensive than Asda, a 23.4% variance and a 14.6% variance to the average, though it was at least exclusively cheapest on the caddy liners at £2.50.
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