After a minor blip in last week's commodity based list, Asda is once again sitting pretty as the cheapest retailer in The Grocer 33 pricing survey. However, Somerfield is closer than ever to breaking into the top four. Usually the second most expensive, this week Somerfield produced a £51.40 basket, just 34p more than Sainsbury's, which was this week in fourth position. Indeed, it contained four of the cheapest products in the survey - bananas, beef mince, the unsmoked gammon joint and white seedless grapes. And if Somerfield hadn't ramped up the price of the Walkers crisps variety pack by £1.75, it would have beaten Tesco to third place and only been 93p behind Morrisons. Asda's £48.99 basket contained the cheapest Cheestrings and Ginsters Cornish pasty, helping it to a total 73p cheaper than Morrisons. But it added 20p to the price of broccoli, which was the most expensive on the list, increased the price of own label lemonade by 7p and, like Sainsbury's, raised the price of the Jacobs Creek Chardonnay by £2 to £5.97. The only price cut was to its Philadelphia soft cheese, down 32p from last week. Since last week's list, Morrisons has followed Asda in raising the price of its in-store loaf by 10p to 94p. It also added 4p to its value loaf but provided the cheapest bagged lettuce. Eight of Tesco's products were more expensive than Asda's. It knocked 23p off the Wall's Viennetta to match Asda's low price and had the cheapest own label lemonade at 28p, but added 38p to its Ginsters Cornish pasty. Sainsbury's made no cuts that affected this week's list but added 7p to its custard and vanilla slices. Waitrose may have had the most expensive basket at £55.72, but it provided the cheapest in-store bakery wholemeal loaf at 89p and the cheapest Jacobs Creek Chardonnay - on promotion for £4.49. For this week at least, the price gap between Waitrose and Somerfield and the big four retailers has noticeably narrowed.

Topics