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Asda’s basket was cheapest for 17 products, and exclusively so for 14

Asda delivered another convincing win in our pricing survey and was the only full range retailer to defy inflation in this week’s basket.

Asda’s basket cost 1% less than last year, while the cost of our weekly shop rose by 7.1% at Tesco, 7.7% at Morrisons and by 10.8% at Sainsbury’s including loyalty pricing.

That meant that Asda’s £76.02 basket was at least 7% cheaper than its nearest rival. When multibuys are included on a pro-rata basis that difference rises to 9.6%.

Speaking at LIVE 2026 this week, executive chairman Allan Leighton reaffirmed his ambition for Asda to be 5-10% cheaper than its nearest rivals.

“The most important thing for me is that we have to have a price advantage as our base case,” he said. “You have to have that, otherwise you don’t have a value proposition at all, particularly in Asda.”

 

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Asda had the lowest price for 17 items and was exclusively cheapest for 14 of those. It achieved this largely due to lower base prices. Discounts totalled £2.89, or 3.8% of its total spend. 

Leighton also affirmed his commitment to an EDLP pricing strategy. “You stick at it and eventually the customers see that difference,” he added.

Take Vitalite in this week’s basket. It’s £1.40 at Asda, and £1.55 at Tesco. At Morrisons and Sainsbury’s it bounces around high-low promotional pricing with £1.70 the lowest price at both in the last 12 months.

In second place this week Tesco’s basket cost £81.75 and was exclusively cheapest on Maoam Stripes, on a price promotion, and Evian water.

Sainsbury’s (£83.05) was the biggest discounter this week with eight price cuts lowering its total by £4.05 or 4.9%. It was exclusively cheapest on six SKUs.

Morrisons (£83.81) had no exclusively cheapest items and its week-on-week price increase of 2% was the highest.

Waitrose (£90.76) was 19.4% dearer than Asda. However it did provide a differentiated basket with six exclusively cheapest SKUs including the own labelcoffee pods, Innocent juice, strawberries and St Pierre crepes. Relative to its own higher pricing it also curbed inflation more than most, with prices up 3.5% year on year and down by 4.2% month on month

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