It has taken eight months but Tesco has regained its title as cheapest retailer in our The Grocer 33 price survey. Tesco has swapped places with Morrisons, which plummeted from first to fourth place this week. Tesco slashed the prices of four items compared with only one price cut by Morrisons. Tesco's £40.35 basket contained the cheapest Wall's Viennetta, which has been reduced from £1.39, the price at the rest of the big four, to £1.00. Tesco also lowered the price of loose tomatoes by 40p, shower gel by 31p and long-grain rice by 23p. These reductions kept Asda from the top spot for a second week and its hikes on the French baguette and rice didn't help its cause either. However, Asda's basket was only 49p more expensive than Tesco's. It had the cheapest Wall's sausages, 38p less than Tesco. It also cut the Hovis loaf by 15p, making it the cheapest on the list. Asda's Nescafé, Bounty kitchen towels and Cheestrings were also the cheapest, but only by 1p. Sainsbury's only made one price change - taking 23p off the price of long-grain rice. This proved to be significant as its £41.39 basket was just 8p less than Morrisons in fourth place. Although Morrisons knocked 50p off its red seedless grapes to £3.48, this only brought the price in line with the rest of the big four. Unlike Sainsbury's and Tesco, it did not reduce rice by 23p though it did offer bagged potatoes for 23p less than its rivals. However, it was also undercut by its rivals on the Cathedral City Cheddar and white rolls, which helped Sainsbury's edge ahead in the rankings. Waitrose swapped places with Somerfield and climbed to fifth position this week with a £45.97 basket, despite making no price changes whatsoever. Somerfield was only 27p pricier, but made some hefty price hikes. It doubled the Tetley tea bags from £1.55 to £3.09, upped the Nescafé by 60p and Schweppes tonic water by 12p. It also had 16 of the most expensive items on the list compared with 10 at Waitrose.
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