Our special Veganuary shopping basket comparison proved particularly competitive as the five mainstream supermarkets vied to lure shoppers on a plant-based mission.
This was evidenced by a high number of promotions, with a combined 61 deals. The activity helped limit annual inflation to 8.5% while prices were on average 5% cheaper than a month earlier.
There were some sharp price increases, with six lines up by more than 30% year on year. These included the Cauldron tofu and falafels, which were up 37% and 36% respectively. However there were also seven products that were cheaper than last January, including the Flora Plant B+tter which was down 27%, as well as the spinach, Coconut Collaborative yoghurt and Violife slices, which were all 7% cheaper than a year ago.
At £71.64 Asda was the cheapest retailer, but this was only based on shelf-edge prices. Tesco came in £10.07 more expensive at £81.71. However a dozen Clubcard discounts would have shaved £10.20 off the bill for loyalty card holders, and undercut Asda by 13p.
Morrisons came in just £1.71 more expensive than Asda at £73.35. It offered the lowest price on 13 products and was exclusively cheapest for five, including the two Cauldron lines and the Quorn chicken Free Slices.
Sainsbury’s was exclusively cheapest for four products including the Applewood vegan block and Quorn burgers. It was £4.51 more expensive than Asda at £76.15.
Possibly the biggest surprise was just how competitive Waitrose was. At £77.30 it was cheaper than Tesco’s shelf-edge prices and just £5.66 more expensive than Asda. This was in no doubt down to a whopping 17 promotions, 14 of which were straight discounts.
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