Morrisons' reign as Britain's cheapest retailer didn't last long. Asda reclaimed its crown this week with a £44.13 basket, while Sainsbury's leapfrogged Tesco and Morrisons to snatch second place. Despite doubling the price of minced beef, Asda produced a basket £2.04 cheaper than its nearest rivals thanks to the cheapest Cadbury's milk chocolate fingers, Kettle Chips, onions and garlic. Indeed, of the 33 items on the list, only five were cheaper elsewhere. Unusually, Somerfield, which is traditionally the most expensive retailer, provided two of these items - frozen garlic baguettes and in-store bakery wholemeal loaf. Tightly matched Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Tesco had basket totals within only 25p of each other, but Sainsbury's clinched second place by matching Asda's low price of £1 for the McCain chips compared with £1.72 at Tesco and Morrisons. It also provided the cheapest apples. Morrisons slipped to third place as a result of higher prices than elsewhere as well as price hikes. Its broccoli, garlic and Weetabix, which was 29p more this week, were the most expensive. It also increased the price of minced beef and frozen garlic baguettes by 20p and 19p respectively, pushing its total up to £46.37. Tesco was only 5p behind Morrisons but reductions on the chopped tomatoes and croissants were negated by hikes on the Cadbury milk chocolate fingers and minced beef, though this was still the cheapest on the list at £4.38. Its tomatoes were 29p dearer than the next-highest price at Somerfield. Waitrose had made enough cuts to push Somerfield to the priciest retailer position in the past few weeks, but the pair have swapped places again with Waitrose on £51.99 and Somerfield's basket costing £50.39. Waitrose raised the price of its grapes by 50p and the free-range eggs and tomatoes by 34p and 20p respectively, whereas Somerfield dropped the price of Australian wine by 84p and frozen garlic baguettes by 56p.

Topics