Morrisons basket

For the third week in a row, Tesco would have been cheapest after factoring in its Clubcard Prices. However, based on shelf-edge prices, Morrisons emerged cheapest for the fifth time in the current Grocer 33 year.

At £73.36, Morrisons edged out runner-up Asda by just 7p. It offered the lowest price for 11 products and was exclusively cheapest for five lines. These included the Innocent smoothie, meatballs and large vine tomatoes.

Morrisons’ basket was actually 2.5% cheaper than in May 2021, making it the only retailer to experience deflation. By contrast, Sainsbury’s total was up 9.2% year on year, Asda’s up 8.6%, Waitrose’s 8%, guest retailer M&S/Ocado’s 6.9%, while Tesco’s prices climbed 5.5%. Total year-on-year inflation was 5.9%, with prices up 0.3% month on month.

Asda offered the lowest price for 14 products and was exclusively cheapest for nine including the cava, chicken breast fillets and Kelly’s ice cream.

Sainsbury’s came in third at £76.30. This was £2.94 more expensive than Morrisons. It was cheapest for eight lines and exclusively so for the Lurpak and the ricotta.

Tesco was £5.29 more expensive than Morrisons at £78.65. But thanks to Clubcard Prices discounts on seven products, cardholders would have saved a further £6. This would have reduced their spend to £72.65, making it 71p cheaper than Morrisons. Tesco also offered the exclusively cheapest price for the Mr Muscle oven cleaner, Oral-B toothpaste and Patak’s curry paste pots.

Both Waitrose and M&S/ Ocado were a long way off the pace, but it was Waitrose that came out cheapest. At £85.96, it was £12.60 more expensive than Morrisons but £3.99 cheaper than the multibuy-tastic M&S/Ocado.