Sainsbury’s notched up another win in a tightly fought contest this week, beating Asda by 0.6%.
Sainsbury’s was the only supermarket to record deflation both month and month and year on year for this week’s basket. Its £77.21 total was 1.7% lower than a year ago, though that was fuelled by promotions. Sainsbury’s ran 12 price-cut promos, which reduced its total by 10% for Nectar members. They included its five cheapest items: the Warburtons bagels, red leicester, Maltesers Mini Eggs, Dorset Cereals muesli and Belvita biscuits. Without Nectar Prices, Sainsbury’s would have been fourth.
Just 47p behind came Asda’s £77.68 basket. If multibuys were factored in – Asda ran six this week – Asda’s basket would be cheapest. However, that would only be by 1.2%, short of the 5%-10% winning margin it has targeted. Asda had the most exclusively cheapest items this week – six with lower base prices and three on promotion.
Tesco (£78.71) was 1.9% dearer than Sainsbury’s. Its price rises were the largest: its basket cost 5.3% more than a year ago and 1.2% more than last month. Nevertheless, it distinguished its proposition with four exclusively cheapest SKUs, including baby shampoo and Warburtons white rolls.
Morrisons (£81.18) was 5.1% pricier than Sainsbury’s. It was joint-cheapest for eight items and exclusively so for the ham.
Waitrose (£90.51) was 17.2% dearer than Sainsbury’s but had the cheapest Fage yoghurt, frozen strawberries and Sharwood’s curry sauce.
This week’s basket included houmous and alcohol-free beer, two new additions to the official basket used by the ONS to track inflation. A four-pack of Birra Moretti Zero this week cost 9.9% less than a year ago, as it was on promotion in four retailers. Houmous was up by 10.1% compared with last year.
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