Asda has been consigned to the second-cheapest retailer position for a third week courtesy of Morrisons. Morrisons climbed from fourth place to the top spot with a £37.28 basket, but Asda's total was only 7p more and Tesco was close behind with a £37.47 basket. Morrisons offered the cheapest free-range eggs and minced beef on the list but its key saving was on the Listerine mouthwash, which was 34p less than at Asda. Both retailers reduced the price of the Hovis loaf, and although Morrisons made the bigger cut at 12p, Asda's 4p reduction meant its 96p loaf was the cheapest on the list. Asda provided five of the cheapest items including the Anchor Spreadable, Batchelors Super Noodles and Marmite, although these items were no more than 5p more expensive at the other retailers. Asda also reduced the Marmite by 5p and increased the price of cherry tomatoes by 10p to match Morrisons' price. Tesco's only price change was a 6p increase to its soft scoop vanilla ice cream. The retailer matched 18 of Morrisons' prices but was undercut by Asda on nine items and dropped from first to third position. Sainsbury's dropped one place to fourth position with a £38 basket. It ramped up the price of unsmoked bacon from £1.25 to £1.88 to match the rest of the big four and added 20p to its minced beef. These hikes outweighed its two price cuts: 7p off the Listerine and 3p off the plum tomatoes. Somerfield's £42.44 basket contained the cheapest ice cream on the list, which remained at 79p for another week. But a promotional offer on the Weetabix finished this week and it returned to the £1.78 price offered by the big four. This 22p hike cancelled out the 10p cuts to the apples and corned beef. Waitrose replaced Somerfield as the most expensive retailer with a £44.13 basket. Its Australian red wine was at least £1.20 more than at the big four and it had 13 of the list's priciest items. It increased the price of Weetabix by 21p, making it the most expensive on the list.

Topics