Asda’s 12-week Grocer 33 winning streak finally came to an end this week as guest retailer Aldi claimed a decisive victory.
Aldi’s £32.96 total was £4.52 cheaper than Asda as it offered the lowest price for 28 of the 33 items on our list. Of these, 25 were exclusively cheapest. However the defeat won’t be too disheartening for Asda as it offered further evidence that it is closing the price gap to the discounters.
Aldi was 12.1% cheaper than Asda this week, compared with a 15.2% margin when Aldi last featured back in August. This echoes the pre-Christmas findings by analysts Bernstein, who found Asda had closed the price gap to Aldi and Lidl to as little as 6%.
The renewed focus on pricing at Asda also looks to be playing well with shoppers as the Walmart-owned retailer’s recovery continues. According to the latest grocery market share figures released by Kantar Worldpanel this week, Asda’s sales were up 2.2% for the 12 weeks to 31 December.
Asda was almost £4 cheaper than its nearest big four rival Tesco this week - though this wasn’t enough of a gap to prevent its Price Guarantee kicking in, entitling our shopper to a voucher worth 66p.
With a basket costing £41.22, Tesco was £8.26 more expensive than Aldi, representing a difference of 20%. Tesco’s Brand Guarantee failed to significantly bridge the gap to Asda either, with our shopper receiving an instant discount of just 11p in this own-label dominated selection.
In fourth spot, Morrisons’ shop was 21.5% more expensive than Aldi at £42, while Sainsbury’s £42.24 total left it 22% behind. Waitrose was 25% more expensive than Aldi at £43.92. However it was generally more competitive, coming in just £2.70 more expensive than Tesco.
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