Tesco was cheapest again in the final week of our annual Grocer 33 shopping competition – if you were using its Clubcard, that is.
It’s the seventh time in the 50 weeks of the competition where Tesco would have been cheaper. And by a decent £3.67 margin too, with the cost of the basket falling from £72.94 to £66.54, thanks to savings of £6.40 from eight price-only Clubcard promotions (with a further two multibuys on offer).
As an illustration of the savings on offer, the Young’s scampi cost just £2 with Clubcard Prices – way cheaper than rivals. On the other hand, those without a Clubcard would be forking out an extra £1.50, and facing into inflation of 25% on this item (with rivals also hiking prices).
These deals helped Tesco keep a tight lid on inflation. Factoring in Clubcard Prices, the basket actually fell 2.6% in price – the only retailer to do so (see the ‘all-inclusive’ tab on the online version of our table for more details). Not including promotions, the Tesco basket rose 3.7%, the same as Morrisons against an average of 6.8%.
As it is Tesco was third. Cheapest, on paper at least, was Asda’s £70.21 basket, with Tesco £2.73 behind, and Morrisons between them, £1.32 adrift of its Yorkshire rival with a £71.53 basket notable for its continued use of multibuys (six in total).
In contrast with recent weeks, Sainsbury’s £74.18 total was off the pace, hindered by an absence of meaningful promotions of any kind (just three) and above-average inflation (12.5%) in a basket that featured 11 price rises vs three at Tesco and six at Asda and Morrisons.
But the most price hikes (12) were on the Waitrose basket. And though inflation (at 6.8%) wasn’t out of control, the £83.50 total was £13.29 more expensive than Asda’s, or £16.96 dearer than at Tesco – if you were using your Clubcard of course.
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