Guest retailer Amazon provided the cheapest basket in this week’s Grocer 33 – though it would have been undercut by Tesco after factoring in the latter’s Clubcard Prices initiative.
Amazon’s £73.60 basket was 78p cheaper than Tesco, and included the lowest price for 17 items – seven exclusively, including the streaky bacon, Punk IPA and Weetabix. But Tesco Clubcard holders would have received an instant discount of £2.71, making it £1.93 cheaper than Amazon. Factor in free delivery at Amazon, however, versus the £5 charge at Tesco in our Online 33, and it swings back in Amazon’s favour by £3.07 (but you need to be an Amazon Prime member and to live in the limited number of postcodes from which the service is available).
Amazon’s basket was also notable for its limited inflation compared with the leading supermarkets, costing just 3.7% more than this time last year. Tesco’s prices were up 4.9% (or 4.7% including Clubcard Prices). In contrast Asda’s prices were up a whopping 15.2% compared with July 2021, while Morrisons and Sainsbury’s prices were up 10.6% and 9.4% respectively, with Waitrose’s basket up 7% on last year. When combined it means overall annual inflation of 8.5%, and 3.2% versus last month.
Asda’s price rises meant it was third this week, its £74.99 basket costing £1.39 more than Amazon and 61p more than Tesco (or £3.32 more than Tesco if Clubcard is included). Asda offered the lowest price for 14 products exclusively for six, including the blueberries, Chinese leaf lettuce and tortilla wraps.
Sainsbury’s was £4.22 dearer than Amazon – cheapest for eight lines and exclusively so for the Ben’s Original sauce, Birds Eye burgers, cream and the shepherd’s pie four. Morrisons, like Tesco, did not have any exclusively cheapest products and was £7.17 pricier than Amazon at £80.77.
Waitrose was a long way off the pace at £88.49 – £14.89 more than Amazon. But its basket was notable for being cheapest on the Lurpak, a product in the news this week over soaring prices. Despite a 36% hike, the 500g pack was ‘just’ £3.75 versus a fiver at Asda.
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