Asda has claimed the title of cheapest retailer for the 11th time this year and the eighth week in a row in The Grocer 33 pricing survey this week - despite a complete overhaul of the list of 33 items shopped. It produced a £44.16 basket by undercutting the prices offered by its rivals on a number of key items. The price of a 6-pack of Mini Babybel was 23p less than at its closest competitor at £1, for instance, and the price of a whole cucumber was 20p cheaper than at any of its rivals. It also offered a half-price promotion on 200g packs of Doritos. Morrisons took the title of second-cheapest retailer for the second week in a row, with a £45.58 basket. It edged ahead of Tesco thanks to a cheaper Ginsters Cornish pasty and price per kg on its own-label unsmoked pre-packed gammon joint. The weeks Tesco could boast to be cheapest seem like a distant memory, as it only managed to achieve the position of third-cheapest retailer for the second week in a row with a £46.30 basket. However, it offered the cheapest Old El Paso fajita dinner kit of the six retailers at £1.86 and the price of Mr Kipling Deep Filled Bramley Apple Pies was also the lowest. Sainsbury's was fourth-cheapest with a £47.35 basket this week. It provided the lowest price for individual oranges at 12p and the cheapest own-label French baguette at 45p, but the more expensive price of items such as Old El Paso fajita dinner kits held it back from third-cheapest position. Waitrose and Somerfield swapped their usual positions this week, with Waitrose ranking as fifth-cheapest retailer. Its basket cost £53.84 while Somerfield was the most expensive retailer with a £54.75 basket. The price of a kg of red seedless grapes was 50p more expensive than at Waitrose and a 700g pack of McCain Hash Browns was 24p more expensive at £1.49, the most expensive of all the retailers. Milk prices were up across the board for the third week running.

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