sainsburys fruit aisle

Source: Mystery shopper

Sainsbury’s was exclusively cheapest on six items, including the apricots

Sainsbury’s appears to have the firmest grip on inflation currently. Its £57.31 basket was just 2.5% more than in July 2021.

And it’s the second week running Sainsbury’s had the lowest inflation – helping it to record its first cheapest basket since early May.

Sainsbury’s offered the lowest price for 13 products, including six exclusively cheapest such as the Aero mousse, apricots, brie and Head & Shoulders conditioner.

Sainsbury’s also carried the most deals (eight), all of which were straight money-off discounts.

Average inflation was running at 6.3% year on year – a lot lower than the 9.8% figure reported for food and drink in the latest ONS survey out this week – but the more dramatic change was month on month, up 4.9%.

Asda, trailing Sainsbury’s by 49p, saw inflation rise 8.3% – a figure topped only by the 8.4% inflation at Waitrose. Morrisons was charging 7.2% more; Tescoprices were up 4.9%.

The Aero mousse, apricots, iced finger buns, kitchen foil and New York Bakery Co bagels were all up by at least 20% year on year.

Sainsbury’s and Asda were both considerably cheaper than Tesco – £5.47 more expensive than Sainsbury’s. Even factoring in Clubcard Prices, Tesco shoppers would only have saved a further 71p, leaving it £4.76 more expensive. Tesco was exclusively cheapest for the bananas, egg noodles and Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

Morrisons was exclusively cheapest for five products but was still £7.72 more expensive than Sainsbury’s at £65.03.

Waitrose was well off the pace this time out. At £76.25 it was £18.94 more expensive than Sainsbury’s. It wasn’t cheapest for anything and only matched the lowest price for the Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramels.